Talking About NHL Expansion

There’s been a lot of talk in recent weeks about the possibility of the National Hockey League expanding the amount of teams it has, with the next team going into Las Vegas, Nevada. You can get the official word from league commissioner Gary Bettman here. Bettman and the league’s board of governors have approved a season-ticket drive by potential owner Bill Foley. The idea of this is to test the market and see if there’s enough interest (if any) by the locals for getting season tickets for a potential hockey team in Las Vegas. Since this has become such a hot topic I’ve decided to take a look at some other realistic possibilities for an NHL expansion.

In The East

Expanding to the east makes about as much sense as putting a second hockey team in the desert. The NHL is out of balance currently with 14 teams in the west and 16 teams in the east, that’s a real problem and not enough people are talking about it.There’s a lot of talk that Quebec City “deserves a team” and that Toronto “deserves” a second team. To be frank though, Quebec City already had a pro hockey team, (TWICE) and both times left the city, and there’s already a team in Toronto that has the attention of the entire city. Expansion in the east is unlikely, relocation seems to have a better chance but still a long-shot; obvious choice Florida Panthers have an owner that’s committed to South Florida so there’s no real possibility of them moving soon. It’s not inconceivable that the NHL should consider putting a team in Cleveland, but that would also probably end up in the east, so that’ll be some time.

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In The West

In the west there are tons of options so let’s break them down one at a time in order of likeliness.

Las Vegas– the city has an arena (well, it’s being built now) and is expected to be finished in 2016, for hockey the arena will seat 18,000 fans. The season-ticket drive will test to see how many locals in Vegas are interested in full, half, or partial ticket plans. The team will also need to get support from the corporate part of Vegas, and they’ll have to give the casinos good reason to let a hockey team take their main source of revenue during prime-time in Vegas (7 p.m.). According to “The Hockey Stuff” there are about 90,000 avid hockey fans currently in Las Vegas, which is a little more than half as many fans as last-place ranked Nashville has; this could in part be because there isn’t a team in Vegas, but commissioner Bettman believes that Vegas can work, so we’ll see what the ticket drive says.

Seattle– Seattle seems to be fan-favorite of possible expansion choices, and it probably makes the most sense. The city has rougly 240,000 avid hockey fans, which is just slightly less than the optimal number, but just like Vegas a number that should improve if and when a team actually arrives in the city. There seems to be somewhat of an arena crisis going on, but once that’s sorted out I’m sure the NHL will happily talk to any potential owners of a Seattle team. The NHL needs two western teams to figure out it’s unbalanced conferences, it seems as though Vegas and Seattle are the prime targets.

Kansas City– Kansas City is a market that had a team and then failed, the team drew an average attendance of about 8,000 (which is comparable to the attendance of some of the stronger AHL markets) and after two seasons moved to Denver. KC has a beautiful arena, the Sprint Center which seats 17,544 and was built in 2007. There was some speculation that the Pittsburgh Penguins were going to move to KC when their financia/arena future was uncertain, but that was worked out; then the speculation that the New York Islanders would move there was killed after a preseason game was very poorly attended by the local crowd. There is minor discussion between the NHL and Kansas City about a possible relocation or expansion, but nothing worth noting.

Portland- I’m going to say Portland should see a fair shot at getting an NHL team, the market there supports the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL very well, and it would create a natural rivalry with the Seattle (insert name here) and the Vancouver Canucks. Portland of a population of slightly over 600,000 people. The Portland Trail Blazers play at the Moda Center in Portland, which seats 19,980 for a basketball setup. If the NHL decides to go to Portland AND Seattle, it could either work out great and build rivalries with Vancouver and the two American cities (also the San Jose Sharks in Northern California), or it would backfire and over saturate the market.

Honorable Mentions: 

Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City