Can Kitchener-Waterloo support an NHL team?

This is merely hypothetical and there have been no proposals, discussion, or financial backers. For those of you unfamiliar with the Kitchener-Waterloo (KW) region, they are two separate cities that immediately border each other. Then add Cambridge, a city not even 5 minutes outside of Kitchener, and these three cities become the Tri-city area. According to the 2016 Canadian Census, the combined population of these three cities is 523,894.

The following cities are where current NHL teams play and their population data is also collected from the 2016 Canadian Census and the United States Census Bureau;

Winnipeg, Manitoba – 705,244

St. Paul, Minnesota – 302,398

Raleigh, North Carolina – 458,880

Buffalo, New York – 256,902

Newark, New Jersey – 281,764

These are some comparable cities to the ‘Tri-City’ area. As you can see, many cities with NHL teams come in much lower than the population of Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge. Now, obviously, these are just the population of the cities themselves and not the surrounding areas. To people who don’t know where the Tri-city area is located, here’s a link to Google Maps. It is located approximately half-way between London and Toronto, Ontario.

I’d like to think most hockey fans would be willing to travel 1 hour to see an NHL game, so, let’s look into the population that’s within an hour from the Tri-city area.

London, Ontario – 383,822

Woodstock, Ontario – 40,902

Stratford, Ontario – 31,465

Guelph, Ontario – 151,984

Brantford, Ontario – 134,203

Milton, Ontario – 110,128

Burlington, Ontario – 175,779

Hamilton, Ontario – 747,545

Mississauga, Ontario – 721,599

Brampton, Ontario – 593,698

There are many other smaller cities in the one-hour radius from Kitchener-Waterloo as well. This also doesn’t include Toronto who’s population is North of 2 million. The sum of the population of these 10 cities and that of the Tri-city area is 3,615,019 people! In addition to this, census’ do not incorporate the population of universities and colleges. The Tri-city area is home to two universities and one college.

The population of these schools are;

Waterloo University – 36,670

Wilfred Laurier University – 17,594

Conestoga College – 45,300

I have no doubt this area can support an NHL team.

Although this area is primarily made up of Maple Leafs fans, I encourage you to look at the availability and pricing of tickets at the Air Canada Centre if you’re not familiar with them. I still believe a team in this area would host a sell-out arena almost every home game. A team in KW would fit right into the Atlantic Division and would immediately become a rival of both the Red Wings and Maple Leafs. Fans from both Detroit and Toronto could easily make the trip to Kitchener-Waterloo to see their favourite team go head-to-head with KW. What’s more, a team in this area would now become the closest geographic team to both Toronto and Detroit and would directly rival both Original 6 teams.

The area is very efficient to travel around with inter-city highways and a well organized busing system. Highway 401, which connects almost all of Ontario’s major cities, cuts right between Kitchener and Cambridge. The Ion is a brand new rail system that will transport people throughout Kitchener and Waterloo. As well, there has been a high-speed rail approved that will connect London, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Toronto.

Now all we need is someone to put up the $500 million buy-in fee, someone to financially back an arena, and money to run a fully functioning team. Fortunately, Waterloo is known as a technology giant in Canada and is home to people and companies with this kind of money. But is anyone willing to provide the money?