NHL expansion and fan allegiance: a mathematical modelling study

摘要

Abstract Expansion of the NHL hockey league is of current interest. Success of an expansion team will rely on approved geographic locations, and most importantly fan support. Fan allegiance can be likened to infectious disease transmission, whereby individuals are susceptible, infected and recovered from a current team’s hockey season. We employ an infectious disease model to assess the viability of certain Canadian and American cities that have been discussed as potential locations for NHL expansion in the past decade. We find that Quebec City presents an ideal location for expansion, where as, Las Vegas is suboptimal.