The entertainment capital of the world is about to add a new attraction. On June 22 the National Hockey League (NHL) revealed that it is bringing a new franchise to the city, the first expansion the NHL has permitted in over 15 years. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made the announcement at Wynn Las Vegas following a Board of Governors meeting. The as of yet unnamed team will begin play in the 2017-18 season.
Adding a professional hockey team complements Las Vegas’ long term strategy of expanding its non-gaming attractions. City officials believe hockey will be a major draw for the millions of tourists and conventioneers who convene in the city each year. It is also expected to give the 2.3 million local residents in Greater Las Vegas a lot to cheer about.
T-Mobile Arena
The new team will play its home games in the brand new T-Mobile Arena, which opened on The Strip in April. The technologically-sophisticated arena seats 17,368. After a season-ticket drive was launched 16 months ago, they city received more than 14,000 deposits for season tickets and sold out all of the luxury seats in the arena for the hockey season.
The NHL will receive a $500 million expansion fee from Bill Foley, the billionaire who spearheaded the campaign to bring pro hockey to Vegas. The money will be distributed equally among the 30 existing professional teams.
Foley is excited about the future. “I believe it’s going to be great for Las Vegas,” Foley told Nicholas J. Cotsonika, a columnist for NHL.com last year. “It will give Las Vegas an identity other than being a tourist town with great restaurants, gambling, shows and so on.”
Quebec City on Hold
Quebecor Inc. had also put in a bid to bring hockey back to Quebec City, however the NHL Board of Governors deferred on that decision. Cotsonika hypothesizes that the decision was purely business, because Las Vegas presents the best odds of long-term success.
“It was not a slight of Canada. The Board of Governors believes Quebec City represents a prime opportunity for expansion, but the Board deferred Quebec’s bid largely because the current weakness of the Canadian dollar does not provide a strong foundation,” he wrote in a posting on NHL.com.
Other factors that may have come into play include the League’s geographic imbalance within the conferences (there are currently 14 teams in the Western Conference, and 16 in the Eastern Conference), as well as the difficulty of introducing two new teams concurrently.
Timeline & Procedure
An expansion draft will take place next summer to build the Las Vegas team. The new franchise will select one player from each of the existing 30 teams, including at least 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies. It must select a minimum of 20 players who have existing contracts that carry through the 2017-18 season, and the average annual value of the total contracts it takes on must be at least 60 percent of the 2016-17 season salary-cap limit, which is $73 million.
The existing 30 teams can protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie, or eight skaters regardless of position and one goalie, from the expansion draft. Any player with a “no movement” clause in his contract at the time of the expansion draft must be protected.
Vegas Has a History with Hockey
Espn.com notes that although the Las Vegas lacks a pro hockey team, it has hosted NHL games in the past. In September 1991, for example, the Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers played an outdoor game at Caesars Palace. In addition, the NHL has held its postseason awards show in Las Vegas since 2009.
