The NHL announced Wednesday what had been expected for the last few months – an expansion team will being play in Las Vegas during the 2017-18 season.
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“Today, the temperature in this market is about 115 degrees, which means the prospect of Las Vegas hosting an outdoor game is not in great shape”, Bettman joked.
There are bad owners and inept general managers in cold-weather cities, and good owners and clever executives in warm-weather cities.
“The first thing we’re going to do is to establish what the culture is going to be for this team”, Foley said. That’s the strategy deployed by so-called Sun Belt teams, with generally good results.
“Without question, we are very impressed with Bill Foley, the City of Las Vegas and the T-Mobile Arena”, Jacobs said.
In a statement, the National Hockey League said club owners concluded that a lack of geographical balance – many more teams in the Eastern portion of the United States and Canada – plus a belief it would be better not to try and bring in multiple teams at once and the dollar devaluation issue made this the wrong time for going into Quebec City. The Central Division will remain at seven teams and Bettman said there is no timeline or plan for adding a 32nd team to balance the conferences, although the league has made its interest in Seattle plain.
“The worldwide recognition that this city has, that it spotlights entertainment, excitement and fun in ways that are unique to the world, we viewed as an opportunity”, Bettman said. T-Mobile Arena opened in April and has a capacity of 17,368 for hockey. Note that he said deferred, not permanently denied. However, if a team is in violation of Expansion Draft rules, Vegas could acquire additional players due to the penalty.
Las Vegas will begin building its roster with an expansion draft, which will take place in the summer of 2017. The club will select one player from each of the existing 30 teams – at least 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders. All players with “no movement” clauses at the time of the expansion draft must be protected. Along with a top-six pick in next years draft, the Vegas franchise will be stocked by a June 2017 expansion draft that will be more favorable than previous drafts, theoretically allowing Foleys team to become competitive more quickly.
The Chicago Blackhawks’ NHL scoring champion won the Hart Trophy on Wednesday night, becoming the first player born and trained in the U.S.to be named the league’s most valuable player. Foley, a graduate of West Point, said he loves the nickname of his alma mater, the Army Black Knights.
“As this announcement shows, the stigma associated with Las Vegas and professional sports is entirely unfounded”. We’re dedicated to it. We’ll leave no stone unturned.
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It’s more of a bet than that, and other professional leagues probably will monitor it closely. The IHLs Las Vegas Thunder sometimes drew more fans than UNLVs beloved basketball team at the Thomas and Mack Arena in the 1990s, and the Minnesota Wilds Jason Zucker leads a handful of locals who went on to hockey careers.
