NHL Rumors: Las Vegas, Quebec City Expansion Teams Coming?
The NHL is in the continuing process of having two more franchises in the league as the possibility of expansion become clearer. Commissioner Gary Bettman said during the Board of Governors meeting in New York City that Quebec and Las Vegas presented each city's vision for their franchise, as reported by NHL.com.
However, no timetable has been given for the finalization of the process. "We are in the process of gathering information. There have been no deliberations as to whether or not we want to expand, how many teams, or where. There's much work to be done," Commissioner Bettman said.
The commissioner also confirmed that it will take a $500-million fee to have an expansion team, as per the Los Angeles Times. The Quebec and Las Vegas look like they won't be having any problems with the expansion fee.
Quebec City is headed by media giants Quebecor Inc. and has a new arena in the city, the Videotron Centre. Chairman Brian Mulroney pointed out that the lower value of the Canadian dollar will put their bid fee at approximately 670 million in Canadian dollars but is confident that it won't affect their desire to have the team.
"It's an important factor, but even with the exchange range, we can handle the team," Mulroney said via NHL.com. The city was the former home of the Quebec Bulldogs from 1878 to 1920 and the Quebec Nordiques from 1979 to 1995 until they relocated to Denver to become the Colorado Avalanche, per The Internet Hockey Database.
The Las Vegas group is led by businessman Bill Foley, who is a part of the Vegas Wants Hockey group. The NHL confirmed the city's bid last July, and, just like Quebec, is in the third phase of the expansion process. An arena in Las Vegas will be built with the help of AEG and MGM Resorts International. It is scheduled to open sometime in 2016, per the Los Angeles Times.
After the meeting, Foley was ecstatic that their presentation was well-received by the Board of Governors. "We got asked a lot of really good questions. We had answers for all the questions. It was a complete presentation. We talked about our commitment to Las Vegas in terms of the fact that I'm a resident there and living there, arena background, economics of the team, and 13,500 tickets. So we feel it went well," the billionaire said per NHL.com.
Dan Rosen posted on Twitter that Bettman said if the NHL approves the expansion teams, they would probably start after the 2017-2018 season.
"There are a lot of issues and questions that are going to have to be answered before any decision can be made," Bettman added via NHL.com.
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