Yet, even as these truths become more self-evident, towns in Greater Hartford continue to be reluctant to throw their lot in with the city. Regionalism seems to be a dirty word, instead of our salvation. What if we could provide the region with an identity, a rallying point; what if there were a way to bring back the Whale and give it a built-in metro area base of support; and we did it all by regionally cooperating. Such cooperation would be key; we know that when the Whalers were here, not enough of the region was engaged and ticket sales were not robust enough to keep the team here.