Williams inbox: Lol to NHL in Cincinnati? Or is there more to Gary Bettman's comments?

Email and ask me anything − sports or non-sports − or let me know if you agree or disagree with a column. I'll pick some of your messages and respond on Cincinnati.com. Check out The Inbox typically every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Send emails to jwilliams@enquirer.com

Subject: How serious is NHL about Cincinnati?

Message: “Does Cincinnati have a legitimate shot to land an NHL franchise or is this just a bunch of talk?”

Reply: It’s just talk, but so what? Nothing wrong with an influencer – or influencers – calling the NHL and asking for Cincinnati to be considered if the league ever considers expansion.

The idea of an NHL or NBA team coming to Cincinnati is fun to talk about, and it’s certainly something that’s been brought up before. But it’s likely never going to happen. Market size, lack of a modern arena and close proximity to Columbus’ NHL team (and Indianapolis’ NBA franchise) are three strikes against Cincinnati.

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So what was up with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on Friday mentioning Cincinnati among a handful of cities he’s received calls from inquiring about an expansion franchise?

Local influencers are keeping quiet, but it appears to be an unintended public-relations stunt to generate interest in building a new Cincinnati arena.

It’s unintended because the person or people who called the NHL probably didn’t know Bettman was going to publicly mention Cincinnati.

Serious talks about a new Downtown arena likely can’t start until there’s a prospective anchor tenant. Hence, the call to the NHL. It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s been a call to the NBA, too.

Meantime, there’s no public outcry for a new arena and City Hall isn't interested. Yeah, it’d be nice to have a new arena at some point, but at what cost to the taxpayers? There’s no public money for an arena, not even for one-off payments to cover infrastructure-related costs like the city and state did on FC Cincinnati’s stadium.

Well, there shouldn’t be any money if you consider the list of major projects ahead of an arena on the city’s priority list. That list includes basic street and bridge improvements, convention center overhaul, low-income housing developments, convention center hotel and Fort Washington Way capping. Some would argue streetcar expansion should be a priority over an arena.

Let’s calm down and inject some common sense.

If any city, county or state money is to go toward a sports venue, it should first go to upgrading Paycor Stadium. Yes, even city money. Why not? The Bengals and Hamilton County, which owns the stadium, will need to look at all sources of public and private funding to help cover the nearly $1 billion in stadium upgrades coming due.

We certainly found out the past few years just how big a deal it is to have an NFL franchise. And keeping the Bengals in Cincinnati − even as frustrating as the franchise can be in how it conducts business − must be No. 1 on the long-term sports/entertainment/tourism priority list.

Unlike soccer, I don't think there's a major untapped market for hockey in Greater Cincinnati. Good luck filling enough seats regularly at an average cost of around $80 per ticket (and it'd be way more by the time an NHL team settled in).

Fan and corporate sponsorship money only goes so far in one of the smallest markets in the U.S., and Greater Cincinnati has its hands full with supporting the Bengals, Reds, Bearcats football and basketball, FC Cincinnati, Xavier basketball and the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament.

Further, the NHL wouldn't gain much by adding the Cincinnati television market, especially since it's just 100 miles from Columbus.

Salt Lake City, Houston, Atlanta and Kansas City are among the other cities that have shown interest in an NHL expansion team, Bettman said.

What do those cities have on Cincinnati? They are all bigger television markets. None of them are within 200 miles of the closest NHL market. And all of them already have modern, downtown arenas.

Contact Enquirer columnist Jason Williams by email at  jwilliams@enquirer.com.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Market size, lack of modern arena make NHL long shot in Cincinnati