NHL to put expansion team in Las Vegas

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Natebishop3

Natebishop3

Don't tread on me!
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http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/16203078/nhl-settles-las-vegas-quebec-city-expansion

The 2017-18 season is the earliest the league would expand.

The franchise would be the NHL's 31st team and the first major professional sports franchise in Las Vegas, the rapidly growing gambling center of the American West.

The NHL hasn't expanded since 2000, when Minnesota and Columbus paid $80 million each to join the league. Prospective Vegas owner Bill Foley is a wealthy businessman who isn't likely to blink at the elevated price tag previously proposed by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman as an expansion fee.

The Las Vegas bid says it has secured more than 13,200 season-ticket deposits for the new team, which will play in T-Mobile Arena, the sparkling new multipurpose building on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip. The arena, which seats 17,500 for hockey, was built entirely with private money by MGM Resorts International and Anschutz Entertainment Group, the owners of theLos Angeles Kings.
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Apparently they haven't learned their lesson about putting hockey in the desert.
 
http://www.lighthousehockey.com/2016/6/14/11934290/nhl-news-las-vegas-expansion-meetup-time

The NHL appears ready to expand for the first time since 2000, with Las Vegas set to get a team to begin play as early as 2017-18. As expected Quebec, the other candidate city in this round of expansion, will have to wait for now.

The Associated Press is reporting a decision -- one many saw coming, and even commissioner Gary Bettman said he expected it would be leaked -- that would be announced at the June 22 board of governors meeting before the annual NHL awards in the city of sin.


Las Vegas' entrance would be pending them footing the $500 million expansion fee, but their prospective owner Bill Foley has long been prepared for that, as well as bringing 13,000 season ticket pledges for a brand-spanking new arena in the city's heart.

  • Foley, a West Point grad, is believed to want to pick a team name around that theme and Vegas. (His companies are called "Black Knight" this and that, so...) The league and marketing partners may have some say there.
  • 2017-18 is the earliest a team would begin and probably suits Foley and the NHL's timeline, but that's to be determined.
  • The NHL wants any expansion team to be competitive, so the expansion draft rules will be tougher than they were in the past, and teams may only have a year and a half to prepare their rosters to game it. That could see some interesting contract swaps, callups and other maneuvers next season as teams try to create candidates to be claimed.
  • Leagues used to semi-dream of Vegas but were worried about the gambling association. Nobody gambles on the NHL though (alright, not exactly true) and leagues have become much better about nakedly taking the mighty dollar anyway.
  • Another block to Vegas in the past was that it's not that big of a city. That's also changed, however, as the region has grown to well over 2 million people.
  • With talk of Vegas over the last year, one of the ideas was that they might have more matinee games since so many people work weekend evenings serving the soul-less tourists who flock to town to consummate gambling dreams and fantasies of sexual exploits that go horribly, penicillin-worthily wrong.
The team would play in the Western Conference, obviously, adding one more party-friendly leg to the Islanders' twice-annual swings out West.

So...LHH meetup in Vegas, anyone?
 
NHL..meh
Raiders...hmmm, not too shabby.
Blazers....OH YEAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
 
The new arena is amazing! We did our first fight in it last month and it is top of the line throughout.
 
HCP said:
The new arena is amazing! We did our first fight in it last month and it is top of the line throughout.
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Same thing was said about the Moda Center. They also said the Moda Center was made for Hockey. So where's the damn team?
 
So what's the situation with the Phoenix team? Still looking to move?
 
So at what point are the major pro sports going to recognize that we're the fastest growing city in the country? It's ridiculous that we only have one pro team, not counting the Timbers, because I don't put MLS on the same level as the other four major sports.
 
Natebishop3 said:
So at what point are the major pro sports going to recognize that we're the fastest growing city in the country? It's ridiculous that we only have one pro team, not counting the Timbers, because I don't put MLS on the same level as the other four major sports.
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You have to think if Chris Dudley was elected we might have another pro team by now. You guys are too concerned with taxing sugary drinks and building bike lanes up there right now.
 
santeesioux said:
You have to think if Chris Dudley was elected we might have another pro team by now. You guys are too concerned with taxing sugary drinks and building bike lanes up there right now.
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We need another major city in Oregon. If you look at places like Texas, they've got Houston, and Dallas, and San Antonio. What we need is a non-liberal city that can get some teams.
 
Natebishop3 said:
We need another major city in Oregon. If you look at places like Texas, they've got Houston, and Dallas, and San Antonio. What we need is a non-liberal city that can get some teams.
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Medford and Klamath Falls were really starting to grow like Bend about ten years ago until the economy tanked. We were getting all kinds of stores and shit, now half of the buildings are empty. If this whole region could have grown like it was for about 40 years, we could have had a decent sized Medford-Klamath-other smaller cities like Grants Pass and Roseburge metro area.
 
Natebishop3 said:
We need another major city in Oregon. If you look at places like Texas, they've got Houston, and Dallas, and San Antonio. What we need is a non-liberal city that can get some teams.
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Vancouver's really growing. There is a large portion of the town that is unincorporated, if it was they'd be the second biggest city in Washington. Even bigger than Spokane.

The metro area should be big enough to attract a team. Makes no sense why we can't.
 
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