Wasn’t the London team raised again at the fan forum at the play offs. It’s a work in progress and I think they said Wembley would be the venue. Neil Black owns the franchise so when he gets the conditions he wants then he’ll kick start it. Guess he still has reservations about financial viability . Myself personally and in contradiction to a lot of opinions I think hockey in London will forever be a bust and isn’t required. People in London are travel averse on the weekends given the stress the daily commute is. London is a tribal city with its own distinct districts and groups and has a huge population of non indigenous Londoners who lack an affinity to anything under a unified London banner. I wager no one south of the river would travel to Wembley for starters. The running costs would be hugely expensive from a salary and accommodation side also. Neil Black is probably a smarter businessman than me but I wouldn’t touch putting a team in London with a barge pole at least not if you expect it to be competitive and non loss making.
Given the BBC relocation to Salford having a high end team in Manchester would be of bigger use but that arena is just to damn big to make it a goer.
The city i’m surprised has never been pushed higher up the agenda is Birmingham with the NEC and is there any mileage in trying to resurrect Newcastle out of the arena. The further away from historical politics that area gets the more chance it has of becoming a huge success again.
I don't think Londoner's are travel averse at weekends, I think it's more to do with the sheer amount of options you have on the weekends there. Theatre, drinks with friends, Travelling home for the weekend to see family, football, a nice restaurant, the list of things to do is pretty much endless, and you don't want to be tied down to an evening activity every week, especially on a Saturday.
Sunday games at say a 17:00PM face off would probably give you the best bet, but that does rule out a lot of families. and would clash with a lot of Football for travelling etc.
it's a complex proposition, and I agree with you that other areas of the country would hold a lot less problems and a lot more opportunity. At the risk of plagiarising John Donovan, Durham would be the market I'd go to first to try and build a facility.