Maybe if we cheer loud enough, Gary Bettman will hear us.

Maybe if Jim Balsillie conducts enough polls, he'll get enough support for his bid.

A national survey has found that Canada deserves a seventh NHL team - because we have the best fans.

We also think that that team, the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes, should move to Hamilton. And most of us are confident that Balsillie is just the man for the job.

But the poll was commissioned by PSE Sports & Entertainment (PSE), which Balsille owns.

Still, pollsters from Pollara Inc. spoke to more than 1000 people across the country, and the results were impressive.

About 87 per cent of those asked agreed that Canada was worthy of an additional franchise and it was because of our commitment to the sport.

Fully 72 per cent of us supported Balsillie's bid to move the struggling U.S. club to Hamilton - and that's true even in the Prairies.

"This shows, in quantifiable terms, the phenomenal degree of support for bringing a seventh NHL team to Canada," said Bill Walker, spokesperson for PSE Sports and Entertainment.

"Further it demonstrates that the support is nationwide to bring a team to southern Ontario - the biggest un-served hockey market in North America."

Bettman, the commissioner of the NHL, had suggested that the team could return to Winnipeg.

But 70 per cent of people living out west want the team out east. And support runs deep across the country.

In British Columbia, 83 per cent of us support the team's move to Hamilton. That increases to 86 per cent in Atlantic Canada and Ontario, but it drops off in Quebec, where only 54 per cent still support the bid.

Photo credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images.