It’s also been the most public and hubristic bid for a team, otherwise known as the opposite of how Gary Bettman likes to operate. Then there’s Quebec City, which will have an NHL-ready arena next year and has no shortage of financial powerhouses ready to step up for an expansion franchise. Then comes the real fight: Convincing a city council that has otherwise been apathetic to hockey to turn on the funding faucet for an NHL team’s arena. If you’ve been following the Seattle angle, you know the situation: Chris Hansen – the billionaire, not the predator catcher – has an arena construction deal with the city that hangs on attracting an NBA team the only hope for an NHL team there first is if Hansen has a change of heart, and Vancouver billionaire Victor Coleman is working with him to that end. “NHL expansion – four teams added by 2017, Quebec City, Toronto, Seattle, and Las Vegas $1.4b in expansion fees” Four new franchises, none through relocation: It wouldn’t surprise us in the least to see the NHL dive into the market, despite those mysteries, just to be first ones in and because Bettman obviously believes an association with Vegas brings some level of prestige to the League.īloom, of Sports Business News, reported later on Tuesday that the NHL was going full-on expansiongasm by adding every city that it’s considering adding for the last several years. The largest target audience for the team would be the casinos who fill the considerable luxury box space in the new arena and tourists who pop in to see a game while in Sin City – or, perhaps, get comp’d for one. Many of the people who would attend the games as local fans are working while the games are being played. There’s unrivaled competition for entertainment dollars.
NHL 17 CREATE A TEAM PROFESSIONAL
And with the NHL pulling in record revenue, attendance and ratings, the iron hasn’t been hotter to strike for expansion.īut as we’ve noted previously about Vegas: It’s unlike any other market in professional sports. The NHL didn’t structure its realigned conferences with 16 in the East and 14 in the West to make things easier for Winnipeg. MGM Grand and AEG aren’t building a $375 million arena to house a Carrot Top repertoire. Is it likely? Connecting the dots, one could draw that conclusion. They just need to find a team that will trade them one.” That’s like writing, “The Penguins are going to trade for a first-line winger. But the proliferation of this “done deal” report – by Tony Gallagher, no less – is the most Hockey August moment in the history of Hockey August.įor the love of Balsillie, he actually writes “the only thing to be determined” is the group actually owning the team. Or really any declaration that expansion is going to happen. Look, we’re all in total squee-mode for a team in Vegas. So, in summary, expansion to Las Vegas is a “done deal” except for the fact that there isn’t an ownership group that’s been approved by the Board of Governors nor is there an expansion fee established for the market that would, in theory, determine who’s willing to buy-in (oooh, Vegas parlance!). You know, we started getting an inkling that Bettman had changed his tune on Las Vegas when he moved one of the league’s signature promotional events there in 2009, but yes, this is a considerable about-face indeed! Sources close to the situation have indicated Las Vegas is a done deal, the only thing to be determined being which owner will be entitled to proclaim that he brought the first major league sports franchise to Sin City.Īnd given how dead set against a team in the gambling haven the commissioner was 10 years ago, this move into another player friendly state-tax-free zone represents a considerable about-face indeed. Gallagher of The Province wrote with finality that the NHL was coming to Las Vegas through expansion: Bill Daly of the NHL said the four-team expansion is "not in" the NHL's plans.