Legendary Boston Bruins coach/ GM Harry Sinden put his finger on the dilemma of NHL competitive balance when we interviewed him for our book Money Players. The problem with teams in the league, said Sinden, Is that there were (then) 20 teams who all think they are going to win the Stanley Cup and they all going to share it. But only one team is going to win it. The rest are chasing a rainbow.”

And that trenchant observation was before the expansion Vegas Golden Knights won a Cup within five years while the third-year Seattle Kraken made a run in those same 2023 playoffs. There are currently 32 teams in the league, each chasing Sinden’s rainbow of a Stanley Cup. That means 31 cranky fan bases every year. And 31 management teams trying to avoid getting fired.

Maybe we’ve reached peak franchise level? Uh, no. If you believe the innuendo coming from commissioner Gary Bettman there is a steady appetite for getting a piece of the NHL operation. “The best answer I can give you is that we have continuous expressions of interest from places like Houston, Atlanta, Quebec City, Salt Lake City, but expansion isn’t on the agenda.” In the next breath Bettman was predicting that any new teams will cost “A lot, a lot.”

So you say there’s a chance. The mention of twice-failed Atlanta (see; Flames, Thrashers) getting a third try drew guffaws from those who’d seen the failures of the past in Dixie. But deputy NHL commissioner Bill Daly says, "I think some of the challenges that we've seen in the past in Atlanta can be overcome” Other scoffed at the idea of small-market Quebec City cutting into Montreal’s provincial monopoly.

Daly echoed Bettman’s caution about a sudden expansion but added, ”Having said that, particularly with the success of the Vegas and Seattle expansions, there are more people who want to own professional hockey teams.” Translation: If the NHL can get a billion for a new team, the clock might start ticking sooner. After all, small-market Ottawa just went for $950 M.

Houston is planning a renovation of the Toyota Center in the hopes of adding a second Texas franchise. If anyone can pat a billion it’s America’s energy capital. Why are people ponying up for the NHL and its mediocre media footprint? One very good reason— one for which Bettman fought long and hard— is payroll control. The league’s punitive salary cap forces players to guarantee a profit to owners before they get their full salary. As a result a mega star in the MLB, NBA and NFL can fetch over $40 M a year. In the NHL Connor McDavid tops salaries at just $13.25 M.

It’s not just the expansion-obsessed NHL talking more teams. MLB is looking to add franchises. This even as it decides about moving the neglected Oakland A’s to Las Vegas. As a result Tom Brady’s recent appearance wearing an Expos jersey—he was drafted by Montreal in 1995 before choosing football— at an MLB store drew cautious interest in Montreal So did his passing comment about perhaps taking an ownership position in any future Montreal franchise.

Now, abandoned Montreal is once more getting palpitations over rumours that the league wants to return to the city that lost its Expos in 2005. Recent reports indicate that while MLB might prefer Salt Lake City and Nashville it also feels it must right the wrong left when the Expos moved to Washington DC 19 years ago.

The city needs a new ballpark to replace disastrous Olympic Stadium. They’ll also need more than Brady to fund the franchise fee and operating costs. And Quebec corporate support— always transitory in the Expos years— will need to be strong. But two more MLB franchises within five years is a lock.

While the NBA is mum on going past 30 teams it has not shut the door on expansion after seeing the NHL cashing in. Neither has the cash-generating monster known as the NFL where teams currently sell for over six billion US. The NFL is eyeing Europe for its next moves.

The question that has to be asked in this reported rush to expand is the one Harry Sinden put to us years ago, WTF, quality of competition? The more teams in a league the lower the chances of even getting to a semifinal series let alone a championship. Fans in cities starved for a championship— the NFL’s Detroit Lions or Cleveland Browns are entering their seventh decade without a title or the Toronto Maple Leafs title-less since 1967— know how corrosive it can be.

Getting to 34, 36, maybe 40 teams makes a short-term score for owners but it could leave leagues with an entire strata of loser teams that no one—least of all networks, carriers and advertisters—wants to see. Generations of fans will be like Canuck supporters, going their entire lives without a championship.

In addition, as we’ve argued in our book Cap In Hand: How Salary Caps Are Killing Pro Sports and How The Free Market Can Save Them, watering down the product with a lot of teams no one wants to watch nationally or globally seems counter productive. The move away from quality toward quantity serves only the gambling industry.

But since when has Gary Bettman cared about quality of the product? So long as he gets to say, “We have a trade to announce” at the Draft, he’s a happy guy.

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Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx

So You Say There's A Chance? Watering Down The Product