Yes. That's the point I was making in my original post. The NFL analogy with socialism makes no sense. The teams do what puts the most money in their pockets. With lots of teams, you could spread a lot of wealth around to many teams and players (socialism), but all the existing owners and players would suffer. They won't do it because they are monopolistic capitalists, not socialists.
I'm a leftist? Are you being sarcastic? I don't think any city should be allowed to force taxpayers to build a stadium to play a lame game. Any city. Understand? That's why they keep leaving or threatening to leave. Call it extortion. They never used to leave or threaten to leave decades ago and everything was finer.
Yep, the original NHL Russkies were the old guard that played for CSKA Moscow (the Soviet Army team, which got to cherry pick the best and the brightest).
Capitalism and money attract players from all countries, no boundaries. Russkies can't make the money in their motherland, so they join the imperialist Americans. The NBA has players from many countries. Sammy Sosa came from the Dominican Republic. US coaches couldn't make Doug Flute tick so he went to Canada where he became a star quarterback. Michael Jordan came from Africa, etc etc. Players don't get the big money from socialist and communist countries, so they come here.