‘Nothing new to report’ on possible NHL expansion

TORONTO — NHL expansion is likely coming in the near future, though the league hasn’t committed to any official plan just yet.

For more than a year, commissioner Gary Bettman has said the NHL is listening when approached by cities interested in acquiring a team even though there’s no formal expansion process underway. Amid reports this week indicating solid plans are in place, deputy commissioner Bill Daly said there’s “nothing new to report on this subject.”

“Nothing new has happened,” Daly said Wednesday in an email.

Status quo doesn’t necessarily mean the NHL won’t eventually expand to Las Vegas, as the Vancouver Province reported Tuesday was a “done deal.” And it doesn’t necessarily discount the possibility of adding four teams by 2017, one each in Las Vegas, Seattle and Quebec City and a second in Toronto, as SportsBusinessNews.com reported via Twitter.

Getting to 32 teams sooner rather than later would make sense for a league that moved to unbalanced conferences with 16 teams in the East and 14 in the West beginning last season. Las Vegas and Seattle fit geographically.

But the NHL has several hurdles to overcome before awarding franchises, including answering arena and ownership questions.

MGM and AEG are in the process of building a 20,000-seat facility in Las Vegas that could be ready by the spring of 2017, and either UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center or Orleans Arena could be short-term options. But it’s still unclear who would own a team in Las Vegas, let alone what could happen to sportsbooks if the NHL is the first major North American professional league to move in there.

Seattle, with its vocal and passionate fanbase, has a less-thanideal arrangement in the shortterm with Key Arena. Getting a new building would be crucial to the NHL going to the Pacific Northwest. Chris Hansen, who tried to buy the NBA’s Sacramento Kings to move them to Seattle, and Don Levin, owner of the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, could head up an ownership group there.

Communications giant Quebecor would love to resurrect the Quebec City Nordiques.