Las Vegas Expansion Nearing?

[flemingc04]

The Commissioner of the National Hockey League, Gary Bettman, has repeatedly insisted that the league is not engaged in an active "expansion process," but reports insisting otherwise continue to crop up.The latest is from veteran Vancouver Province columnist Tony Gallagher, who suggested on Tuesday that the NHL will expand to Las Vegas, Nev. sooner rather than later:

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.

Gallagher also insists that there's fire behind all of the NHL-related smoke emanating out of Seattle, Wash. and reports that Vancouver-born billionaire Victor Coleman would be among the bidders interested in bringing a second NHL club to the Pacific Northwest.

http://www.thescore.com/news/563625

I've always been against the idea of a team in Las Vegas. Rather than a hockey game, I can picture games in LV being more of a production and spectacle just so that they can compete with with events and attractions around. Just look at the NHL awards and the difference from when they were moved from Toronto to Vegas. While many tickets would be purchased by casinos and multi-millionaires, the tickets would be given as gifts/prizes to people from outside Vegas. Basically most of the spectators be tourists rather than local fans. Talk about a morale killer a team and it's players.

[scottkoz20]

see, I disagree with you to a certain extent. I understand the point you make on the tourist factor and we know about cities like Phoenix, Miami, Dallas (when they were going bad) and other non-traditional markets that have had provided a "home ice" advantage to the opponent. However, unlike the cities I mentioned, the NHL is not the only game in town where it would be in for Las Vegas.

Look at Oklahoma City, that is a market that only has the Thunder and fill that arena nightly. I think it would be the same for Las Vegas.

The part of the story which I think is more important is the fact that Seattle is mentioned as a 2nd club in the Northwest. I think this is important because of the unbalanced conference setups, those 2 cities make the most "cents".

[Professor-Chaos]

Basically most of the spectators be tourists rather than local fans. Talk about a morale killer a team and it's players.

That'd be a great way to sell the game and acquire new fans..

P-C
--

[pwskelly]

If the league wants to market the game then Vegas would be the best pick. If the league wants to increase revenue it should move a team to Hamilton and deal with the Leafs. Any NHL franchise near the GTA would explode.

[30ranfordfan]

Vegas is an interesting one.....

Largest city in North America NOT to have a major professional sports team.

NHL is probably the only league crazy enough to try it though. I would imagine the other three (NFL, MLB, NBA) would not want to go into the belly of the beast like that, especially since none of those league are very far removed from their own gambling scandals (MLB & NBA that is).

The casinos would buy up tickets like crazy, and comp their guests. Sell outs would be the norm in Vegas.



Reports now are 4 new teams happening: Vegas, Seattle, Quebec City, and Toronto #2


If I'm a betting man (think anyone in Vegas will take this bet? lol) and the NHL does follow through on 4 new teams in 2017, watch for two more Western teams by 2020. I'd bet on KC and one more.... Houston maybe.... but the 'where' isn't all that huge (yet).

I say this because 4 more teams, two out west and two in Ontario / Quebec: It doesn't fix the inequity in the current divisions. You'd got from having divisions of 7 & 7 (west) and 8 & 8 (east) to 8 & 8 (west) and 9 &9 (east). Adding two more teams, and going with an even 36, would allow 4 divisions of 9, everything is even. It also allows for a very easy schedule:

4 games (2 home, 2 away) against division opponents: 32 games
Play each of those teams one more time each (half @ home, half on the road. Alternate who hosts who each year): 8 games
2 games (1 home, 1 away) against conference opponents: 18 games
Play one cross conference division @ home, and the other on the road (alternate year over year): 18 games

That's 76 games

A 76 games schedule, that's completely balanced. You play your own division way more often than the rest of the league.... you never go more than 1 year without seeing an individual team. I know what you're thinking though "Sean, you're crazy. Owners will never give up 6 games off the schedule."

Of course they won't, and they won't need to.......

Each division of 9 sends 8 teams to the playoffs. You double the number of post season teams to 32, virtually guaranteeing everyone a shot at the cup, and that first round replaces the missing regular season games.

Run your divisional playoffs like the conference ones used to be: 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, etc. You end up with divisional winners, play the other division in your conference, and go to the finals. Done and Done :)

[capt55]

They were talking about another team in TO this morning.

[theboxbreaker96]

I like the idea of Seattle and Vegas. I guess Quebec wouldn't be that bad either. I think its unnecessary to have 2 teams in Toronto. How would fans just support another team? For example if they put another team in Pittsburgh the Pens are always my team. Obviously Toronto is 10x bigger. Im sure they would sell out though so whats the difference I guess.

I think it would be better to put teams in places where they are not (Kansas City, Hamilton, Seattle, Vegas to name a few) It doesn't make much sense to have 2 teams in NY or Toronto unless they are separated by a lot of miles. I don't know how big Toronto is. Just my opinion.

[Devlin]

Not so sure casinos would comp people with tickets. They like the customers to
stay in the casino. though I do not think it is a bad idea.

[30ranfordfan]

They could stick another team in the Air Canada Centre, and there's be no problems selling it out. A second team in Toronto works because the demand for tickets greatly out weigh's the supply of them.

If you don't go right in the heart of Toronto (i.e. share the building with the Leafs) you'd be looking at suburbs. Markham has been talked about, and it would probably be fine. If you go to the far East end of the city - you're probably still fine (but that would make it impossible for anyone west of Toronto to go to a week day game without leaving work very early)

They'd have to stick it somewhere that public transportation works (if they want to be able to draw from most of the area) but there's absolutely room for another team. Going to Hamilton wouldn't be a whole lot different than a lot of Toronto suburbs. It'd be like the Devils. They're not really a New York team, but as far as geography goes - they may as well be.

In all honesty, they could stick another 2 teams within 60 miles of the Leafs, and so long as they picked the right spots - they'd be fine.

I would lean towards either sharing the ACC, or building in the city's east end. I'd also look at building something near Woodstock (it's about 70 miles south west of Toronto) due to the easy access via multiple highways. They've got a massive Toyota plant there, a very easy top sponsor. Would probably have to call the team the "Ontario whatevers".

If (when?) another team comes to Ontario, they have to be careful not to suck too many fans away from the Sabres. The east end of Toronto and Woodstock would almost ensure they wouldn't. Those places would still be too far to get the regular Hamilton / St. Catherines people that cross the boarder a lot. Woodstock isn't a huge city itself (well under 100k people) but you're close enough to London (over half a million) close enough to Kitchener-Waterloo / Cambridge / Guelph (another half million) close enough to Brantford (another 100k) and not all the far from Hamilton, Toronto, and all the surrounding cities.

I like the idea of Seattle and Vegas. I guess Quebec wouldn't be that bad either. I think its unnecessary to have 2 teams in Toronto. How would fans just support another team? For example if they put another team in Pittsburgh the Pens are always my team. Obviously Toronto is 10x bigger. Im sure they would sell out though so whats the difference I guess.

I think it would be better to put teams in places where they are not (Kansas City, Hamilton, Seattle, Vegas to name a few) It doesn't make much sense to have 2 teams in NY or Toronto unless they are separated by a lot of miles. I don't know how big Toronto is. Just my opinion.

If three teams can work in the Greater New York area, three can work in and around Toronto.

[the_nange]

If the league wants to market the game then Vegas would be the best pick. If the league wants to increase revenue it should move a team to Hamilton and deal with the Leafs. Any NHL franchise near the GTA would explode.

Pretty good summary of what the league wants to do vs what the league should do revenue wise.

As Ranfordfan said, if NY can have 3 teams (even if it's 1 that does "well" and 2 that struggles to make a profit), Southern Ontario can for sure take another team. On top of all that, enough cities in Southern Ontario have a big brother-younger brother type sibling rivalry with Toronto already, and plenty of their fans aren't TML fans, so locals will go to the games in my opinion.