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Las Vegas and Seattle Expansion Close? |
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Welcome to the Hotstove!
Tony Gallagher of the Vancouver Province just dropped a bombshell report of sorts, insinuating that the NHL was much closer than it led on to expanding to two western markets.
The crux of Gallagher's piece deals with Seattle, the market the NHL has long coveted and one that's inevitably going to be expanded into in the coming years. The league's always played their cards close when it comes to expansion/relocation in the Gary Bettman era, but talk about Seattle never seems to really dissipate. Geographically and conceptually, it makes a ton of sense. The only question really deals with the venue, and I'd guess that's something that's going to be sorted out in short order.
The other market's the interesting one -- Las Vegas. We've talked about the league's play-fest with Las Vegas in the past. Though it's never really seemed like a serious target, the fact that it's located in the west has more or less kept it in the discussion. Here's what Gary Bettman had to say two months ago on it:
“Right now, we’re not looking to expand. I know Las Vegas is an important city. Whether or not it’s a city for the NHL to put a team in is still to be determined. We have not done any investigating as to whether or not the city could support the NHL or looked at potential ownership groups. If the owners were to approve expansion, we would certainly begin looking more closely at Las Vegas and other potential markets.”
Have things changed? According to Gallagher, they have. Quickly.
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.
And 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.
But people have been betting on hockey games for years and to pretend games couldn’t be fixed just as easily anywhere as in Vegas is pretty ridiculous, so that posturing has fallen by the wayside.
A new team close to the newly renamed Arizona squad and California’s big three is all but assured, the only question being when and with which other city. Or should that be plural?
A large part of me doubts that things have progressed this quickly, and I anticipate the NHL will issue some statement to quash this rumor in the coming days. But, you kind of sense that the NHL is, at the very least, giving the possibility of Las Vegas expansion very real consideration.
Does this move make sense to you, if it shakes out as Gallagher alleges? Or would you handle differently?
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