Candidates pop up after NHL muses about expansion
LAS VEGAS — Get your applications ready.
For the first time in 15 years, the National Hockey League will open its doors to the possibility of expansion. From July 6 to Aug. 10, the league will be accepting formal applications from interested parties.
Commissioner Gary Bettman did not say whether one, two or more teams would be added. He did not even guarantee that this means the league would necessarily expand.
Already, potential candidates are lining up.
Quebecor confirmed its interest in bringing the Nordiques back to Quebec City, putting out a news release 90 minutes after Bettman’s announcement.
President and CEO Pierre Dion said Quebecor has “all the ingredients” for expansion.
“We know in the province of Quebec, hockey is a religion. We are all, as individuals, hockey maniacs,” Dion said in French at the MGM Grand after Bettman’s announcement.
“Quebec is an extraordinary market and we have a corporation, Quebecor, who has shown for three or four years its willingness to be a major player in sports, with TVA Sports, the (QMJHL’s) Armada, the Remparts and the manager of the arena for the next 25 years.”
Videotron Arena, which will have a capacity of 18,259, is almost ready.
At least one Toronto-area group, meanwhile, plans to contact the NHL in hopes of bringing a second team to the selfproclaimed centre of the hockey universe.
GTA Sports and Entertainment CEO Graeme Roustan, who has been attempting to build an 18,000-plus seat arena in Markham, Ont., for several years, confirmed Wednesday night his organization will pursue the opportunity.
“I’d say that in the coming days we intend to reach out to the league about bringing another NHL franchise to southern Ontario,” Roustan said in a phone interview with Postmedia News. “We’re now seeing an opportunity for a process to apply for an NHL franchise, which we’ve privately been hoping for. We’re going to proceed with the process. Hopefully we’re successful with it.”
But it would appear that Las Vegas, which is building a new arena and recently had a successful ticket drive, is the frontrunner in the process.
“The board’s aware that Las Vegas stepped up in obviously a significant and positive way to show support in having a majorleague team in Las Vegas,” Bettman said Wednesday. “But the fact of the matter is there is no list, there is no priority, there has been no determination other than, ‘ OK, we’ve been listening for a while. Let’s take a look.’”
The league did not set a date on when it would decide to expand, but deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the earliest any new teams would begin playing would be in 2017-18.
The league last expanded to 30 teams from 28 in 2000, when Columbus and Minnesota were added. Since then, there has been significant interest from places such as Las Vegas, Seattle, Quebec City and Toronto.
Each comes with pros and cons. Seattle has no arena. Quebec has an arena but is in the east and has ownership issues. And while Toronto certainly has the market to support another team, the Maple Leafs might not be willing to let another team infringe on its territory.
“One of the factors that you obviously consider in any expansion process is what your footprint looks like and what the alignment would mean,” Bettman said. “I don’t think you expand just on notions of symmetry … but moving forward that is an interest we will have to deal with.”
Bettman provided little details as to what the board of governors is looking for from a potential candidate, but he said expansion would not come cheap.
“We haven’t set a fee,” he said, “but based on discussions that I’ve had with ownership, I don’t think there would be any appetite to expand if the number didn’t start with a five.”
In case you were wondering, Bettman meant $500 million US. The last four teams added to the league — Columbus and Minnesota in 2000, Atlanta in 1999 and Nashville in 1998 — paid a reported $80 million US each.