This wee, little Maple Leafs road trip to Florida and Carolina offer a window into two of the league’s weaker franchises in terms of attendance.

Both need to make the playoffs to get attention in their markets. Both play to lots of empty seats. Both have arenas that are in the middle of nowhere and hard to get to.

It’s hard to support a bad team that is hard to get to.

Florida is in a stronger position than Carolina in terms of ownership and its local future. No one is trying to poach the Panthers.

The Hurricanes, however, are looking for new owners. And there’s a belief out there that the team could be on the move to . . . well, pick your favourite possibility: Quebec? Houston? Seattle? Who knows.

They’re much like Arizona, with suburban rinks.

The league’s strongest markets have downtown arenas.

The Ottawa Senators — a Canadian problem-child in terms of attendance issues — also have a suburban rink, and are looking to move to a downtown location.

Downtowns are typically easy to get to. Many of the fans will just go from work to dinner to the game then home. Seems a simple idea.

Last week in Montreal, I asked NHL commissioner Gary Bettman about ensuring future teams are downtown rather than in the suburbs. He acknowledged he’s noticed the issue.

“It depends on the market. Some markets are suburban markets. Some areas don’t really have a downtown area,” said Bettman. “It appears the evolution of urban planning, of cities, of the Millennials, and Gen-Zs are living their lives, the focus tends to be downtown.”

New rinks used to be part of an entertainment district. Now cities plan far more, including retail and residential complexes.

“That seems to be, from an urban planning standpoint, the wave of the future and it seems to be a positive in terms of the way people are living.”

Bettman said studies he’s read indicate young people are not getting their drivers’ licences at the same rate as in the past, preferring to live close enough to work to walk, or take Uber or transit.

“The movement downtown, I think, is consistent with that trend,” said Bettman.

Now, it could be argued that “downtown” as Toronto and New York know it does not exist the same way in Raleigh and Fort Lauderdale.

But putting teams on the edge of the suburbs seems a bad idea and it seems like the league and cities have figured that out.

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GOT A QUESTION? Email me at askkevinmcgran@gmail.com and I’ll answer it in Friday’s mailbag.

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