Is NHL Expansion in Las Vegas a Sure Bet?
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Frank Doyle
The National Hockey League hasn’t gone all-in with its expansion plans to Las Vegas, but the odds that we’ll see professional hockey in Nevada get better every day.
On Tuesday, the ownership group of the proposed Las Vegas franchise is kicking off a season ticket drive in an effort to solidify support for the team. The group is aiming for 10,000 full-season deposits in an attempt to begin NHL play during the 2016-2017 season.
”We’re going to know early on,” deputy commissioner Bill Daly said during All-Star weekend. ”It’s not going to be one of those things where at the end of a 45-day period, `Get your orders in so we can get an NHL franchise.’ We’re going to know early on whether this is something that people are embracing.”
That’s the hope, anyway. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will be in Las Vegas Tuesday for the press conference that will officially open season ticket sales. The ownership group headed by Bill Foley and the Maloof brothers carry a lot of capital and weight in the Vegas community and Foley has said he’d be “shocked” if they can’t hit their early goal of 10,000 deposits. He isn’t the only one beating the drum for hockey in Sin City either.
”The town’s starving, absolutely starving, for a professional sports franchise,” Canadian poker pro Daniel Negreanu told The Canadian Press. ”I’ve found the support to be overwhelming. People that live here, they’re dying for this.”
That remains to be seen, but one way or another, a 17,500-seat stadium located on the iconic Las Vegas Strip is expected to be ready to house a hockey team by the spring of 2016. That in itself is a big bargaining chip.