Hamilton ON is a wonderful city located next to Lake Ontario, only an hour south from Toronto. Hamilton is already home to multiple sports teams such as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, The Hamilton Bulldogs, Forge FC among many others and has one of the most passionate and supporting fan bases. Hamilton had an NHL team back from 1920-1925 named the Hamilton Tigers but was disbanded after strike by the players. Hamilton is home to The FirstOntario Centre, a multipurpose arena that serves as both a concert venue and a hockey rink. For hockey games the arena can hold a maximum of 17,400 people, has a NHL regulation sized rink, has concessions in place and has 12+ parking lots, including onsite parking. With NHL games drawing in fairly large crowds, it is easily feasible that at least 14,000 seats will be filled during games, with even more seats being purchased when the Toronto Maple Leafs are playing, due to the short trip for Leaf's fans to make. With low-tier seating being sold for $70-110, mid-tier seating being sold for $110-$150 and High-tier seating being sold for $150-200, Hamilton could expect anywhere from $1,539,780-2,146,360 per game with only 14,000 seats being sold, and $2,871,000-4,002,000 per game with a sellout. With there being 82 regular season games in the NHL, Hamilton could be making $126,261,960-176,001,520 a season with 14,000 seats sold and $235,422,000-328,164,000 with a sellout. That is a lot of money being brought into Hamilton that could go back into maintaining the city, as well as bring a lot of jobs into to the market. Now with the numbers out of the way you might be wondering what to name the team? Well with Hamilton already having an OHL team named The Hamilton Bulldogs it seems only fitting for our NHL team to take up the name. However a few other ideas of mine would be The Hamilton Tigers or The Hamilton Tiger-Cats as both names are also Hamilton based teams with The Hamilton Tiger-Cats being a CFL team and The Hamilton Tigers being the original Hamilton NHL team name. I truly feel like Hamilton needs an NHL team. Hamilton is a city with tons of diversity, spirit, character and passion. A city that prides itself in its sports teams with open arms and unwavering support. A Hamilton sports crowd is one of the loudest in the country, with the roar of the Tiger-Cats crowd being heard up to 3km away! I would love to see a team here in Hamilton for many reasons, with new jobs, a stronger economy, massive revenue and Hamilton pride being just a few of the many reasons I have. With the NHL already expressing interest in adding another Canadian team to the leagues roster, as well as having to NHL franchises in close proximity to Hamilton (The Toronto Maple Leafs and The Buffalo Sabres) which would potentially lead to fans making the journey between the venues to support their team, it would also bring revenue to nearby franchises as well as the NHL. My goal is to get 50,000 signatures, I feel like with less then 20,000 seats being available, having nearly 3 times that amount of people interested in the idea would be proof enough that they wouldn't have an issue with filling the arena. Once we get the required amount of signatures my goal would be to bring it to the attention of Hamilton's mayor, city council, MP and MPP, hopefully getting the ball rolling. If you also feel like a Hamilton NHL team would be a great addition to Hamilton and to the NHL please sign the petition!