– Scott Stinson of the National Post suggested the NHL made the move largely to pocket $500 million from Foley, the league’s expansion fee.
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The NHL’s Board of Governors are scheduled to meet on June 22 in Las Vegas where they are expected to hold a formal vote on expansion bids from Las Vegas and Quebec City. This large tourists number would not only expand the market to new USA fans, but also across worldwide borders.
“It’s really in 2017 and beyond that this issue is going to get the attention it deserves, and we’ll be prepared to lead that effort”.
There’s already a 20,000-seat arena near the Las Vegas strip ready to house a franchise.
“Las Vegas has been waiting for this for decades”, Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak told ESPN. In 2013, Las Vegas was ranked the sixth most visited US city from travelers around the world.
The NHL contained only six teams as late as the 1966-1967 season before doubling the number of teams the next season. The NHL would likely add the unnamed Las Vegas franchise for the 2017-2018 season.
If the city has some positives, it also has some negatives, like irregular working hours, middling public transit and abundant competition for the entertainment dollar, which may depress sports attendance.
Word from the Associated Press has the league settling on Vegas first- with the anticipated announcement set for the league’s Board of Governors meetings on the 22nd.
Foley hasn’t indicated what he might call his new franchise, but most believe it will be the Las Vegas Black Knights.
Now that Vegas has an National Hockey League team to call their own, it will need a team name. Foley has always been the leader, with the league accepting a $2 million deposit and thoroughly vetting his financial plans a year ago. Organizers will still have to come up with the $500 million fee first.
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“It does not take a lot of arm twisting”, he laughs to imagine a casino customer from some snowed-in northern city deciding to come to Las Vegas for a three-day weekend if his team is also playing in Las Vegas”.
