Potential National Hockey League expansion

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The

unnamed Utah team in 2024. The league has also relocated several franchises, most recently in 2011 when the former Atlanta Thrashers became the second and current incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets
.

To gauge interest and help determine whether the NHL should entertain further expansion, the NHL Board of Governors accepted applications for new franchises during the 2015 off-season. Two potential ownership groups submitted applications for prospective teams in Las Vegas and Quebec City. The geographic distribution of teams between the NHL's two conferences was not a primary consideration for expansion, and the earliest time when a new franchise could start play was the 2017–18 season.[1] On June 22, 2016, the NHL approved expansion to Las Vegas starting in the 2017–18 season with the Golden Knights,[2] but deferred Quebec City's bid for a team.[3] With the Quebec City bid still shelved by the league's board of directors, the league opened up another expansion window in December 2017, specifically to allow an ownership group from Seattle to place a bid; no other cities were allowed to submit bids in that window. The Seattle bid was approved on December 4, 2018, and the team began play in the 2021–22 season as the Kraken; commissioner Gary Bettman then stated the league would not expand any further for the foreseeable future,[4] while deputy commissioner Bill Daly stated that the league may revisit expansion in the near future if it is deemed in the best interest of the league.[5] In 2023, NHL insiders Kevin Weekes and John Buccigross hinted that the league was considering franchises in Houston and Atlanta.[6] In January 2024, the Smith Entertainment Group, chaired by Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, issued a formal request for the NHL to open an expansion process to bring a team to Salt Lake City.[7][8] Two weeks later, during the 2024 All-Star Weekend, commissioner Bettman publicly listed six cities that had expressed interest in expansion.[9] In March, former player Anson Carter and the newly-formed Alpharetta Sports & Entertainment also issued a formal request to bring the NHL back to Atlanta.[10] In April 2024, the league established the new Utah NHL team under the ownership of the Smith Entertainment Group, with the hockey assets of the Arizona Coyotes franchise, which was simultaneously deactivated with the option to rejoin the league as an expansion team, contingent on constructing a new arena.[11]

Expansion sites in Canada

The potential of adding additional franchises in Canada had been an ongoing source of controversy for the NHL in recent years as numerous groups proposed expanding the league into a new Canadian city, or purchasing a struggling American franchise and relocating it north; to a certain extent, these issues continue even after the Atlanta Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg, becoming the country's seventh active team. Quebec City and the Golden Horseshoe area of Southern Ontario are most frequently proposed as locations for new Canadian teams, as was Winnipeg prior to the announced relocation of the Thrashers.

Background

History of Canadian franchises (1967–present)

Throughout the history of the NHL, attempts to bring franchises to Canadian cities have caused points of contention. Among them, the league's existing Canadian teams, especially the Montreal Canadiens, historically have raised concerns about further dividing the NHL's Canadian television revenue.[12]

Vancouver's rejected bid for one of six new franchises added in 1967 outraged Canadians, who felt they had been "sold out". Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson stated that "the NHL decision to expand only in the US impinges on the sacred principles of all Canadians."[13] Three years later, the Vancouver Canucks joined as the league's third Canadian franchise.[14]

The 1979 defeat by a single vote of a

New England Whalers, who would be renamed the Hartford Whalers).[15] The Calgary Flames became Canada's seventh franchise in 1980, relocating from Atlanta.[16]

US dollar in Canadian dollars from 1990. The financial health of many NHL franchises in Canada was historically affected by the value of the Canadian dollar
.

There was considerable upheaval amongst Canadian franchises in the 1990s. In 1992, the NHL returned to Ottawa, beating out Hamilton for an expansion team.[17] However, the declining value of the Canadian dollar at that time, coupled with rapidly escalating salaries, placed hardships on Canadian franchises.[18] As a result, the Nordiques and Jets left Canada, becoming the Colorado Avalanche in 1995 and the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996 respectively. Fears persisted up to the 2004–05 NHL lockout that the Flames, Oilers, and Senators could follow suit. The financial fortunes of Canada's teams rebounded following the lockout: Canada's six franchises represented one-third of NHL revenues in 2006–07, primarily due to the surging value of the Canadian dollar.[19]

In May 2011,

2011 NHL Entry Draft, it was announced that the team would be named the Jets
.

Current views on Canadian expansion

Map of the Golden Horseshoe in Ontario. It has been suggested the region could support another NHL franchise

Former

National Hockey League Players Association executive director Paul Kelly has repeatedly argued in favor of bringing a new team to Canada. In early 2008, he described the Canadian market to The Palm Beach Post: "The six Canadian franchises do so well, they pack the buildings, get great TV, great revenue streams. If you put another team up there, be it in Nova Scotia or Hamilton, it would be more of the same."[20] Prior to the relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg, Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke in favor of another team in Canada, stating he has spoken with NHL owners in the past about bringing a new team to southern Ontario.[21]

A study published in April 2011 by the

Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation concluded that Canada can support 12 NHL teams, twice the number it had at the time of the study, including second franchises for Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.[22]

In May 2013, Nate Silver, editor of the polling and statistical analysis website FiveThirtyEight, concluded that there were about as many avid hockey fans in Canada as in the United States, despite the US having nine times Canada's population. He determined that among current NHL media markets, the average Canadian market had considerably more hockey fans than the typical US market, and that Canada could support 11 or 12 teams, with two additional franchises in the Golden Horseshoe, a second franchise in Montreal, and a team in Quebec City. Silver also believed Vancouver could support a second franchise, although he thought that some of the Vancouver-area hockey market could be drawn by a Seattle-based team.[23]

Quebec City

Team photograph of the Quebec Bulldogs, c. 1914. The Bulldogs were one of two professional hockey clubs formerly based in Quebec City

NHL–WHA merger. In 1995, they moved to Denver to become the Colorado Avalanche. Part of the challenge for both the Bulldogs and Nordiques was that Quebec City was by far the smallest market in the NHL. According to the Television Bureau of Canada, a prospective Quebec City team would now be in the league's second-smallest market, ahead of only Winnipeg.[24] However, Silver's analysis suggested that the Quebec City market was comparable to the US markets of Buffalo and Washington, D.C. in terms of avid hockey fans.[23]

In October 2009, Quebec City mayor

Regis Labeaume spoke with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and former Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut regarding a new Nordiques team (no relation to the previous team of the same name).[25] Bettman stated that Quebec City could be considered as a candidate for an NHL team provided it built a new arena and a team were for sale.[26]

In May 2011, Labeaume stated that Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO of Quebecor, was in talks with the NHL regarding a new Nordiques' team in Quebec City.[27] He later became a politician for and leader of the Parti Québécois, a sovereignist political party in the province. In September 2012, Quebec premier Jean Charest (a member of the rival Liberal Party and whose government had invested in the new arena) claimed that the political aspect might hinder Quebec City's chances of getting a franchise, saying that Bettman might be less likely to allow a team to move if sovereignists were in power.[28] According to Sports Illustrated, the league is wary of the Quebec sovereignty movement because of concerns that it could destabilize the Canadian dollar.[29] However, Mayor Labeaume insisted that Péladeau's involvement in politics would not hinder either the management of the new arena or the negotiations over getting a franchise.[30]

In March 2014, news broke that former Canadian prime minister and vice-chairman of Quebecor Brian Mulroney was also involved with negotiations.[30] Labeaume pointed out that Mulroney and Bettman had negotiated directly for some time, and that "Mr. Bettman is a businessman. The Quebec sovereignty project will not bother him."[31]

Videotron Centre is an indoor arena opened in Quebec City in 2015

Prior to the

Colisée Pepsi, the former home of the Nordiques.[32] The Canadiens were well received despite being from rival Montreal, and the designated away team of the game. Montreal was also scheduled to host the Carolina Hurricanes at the Colisée Pepsi in 2012; however, that game was canceled due to the 2012–13 NHL lockout.[33] In September 2012, construction started on an 18,000-seat arena in Quebec City that would eventually become known as Centre Vidéotron, the cost of which (C$400 million) was split equally between the provincial and municipal governments.[31] The arena opened on September 12, 2015.[34]

On June 24, 2015, Quebecor announced that it planned to apply for an NHL expansion franchise, with the aim of bringing a Nordiques team back to Quebec City.[35] Nearly a month later, on July 20, 2015, Quebecor formally announced it had submitted an application to the NHL for an expansion franchise.[36][37] On July 21, 2015, the NHL confirmed it had received an application from Quebecor.[38] On August 5, 2015, it was announced that Quebec City had moved on to Phase II of the expansion process.[39] The bid subsequently advanced to Phase III, which ended on September 4.[40]

Centre Vidéotron hosted a neutral-site preseason game between the Canadiens and the

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stated in a press conference after the NHL's Board of Governors meeting that though the league continued to explore the possibility of expansion, no deadline had been established for a decision. Commissioner Bettman also said that expansion requires a three-quarters affirmative vote from the Board of Governors, but the members of the executive committee would first have to make a recommendation to the group.[44]

Quebec City's 2015 bid on an expansion team, while not entirely ruled out, was significantly weakened after the

US dollar when the deferment was announced) and the distribution of teams across the two conferences, which at the time placed 14 teams in the West and the other 16 in the East; the league was therefore more interested in adding teams to the West.[3]

Centre Vidéotron was awarded some exhibition games leading into the

preseason games in successive years; on October 4, 2016, and September 18, 2017, between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens. In November 2021, Quebec Premier François Legault stated that he would meet with Commissioner Bettman in the coming months to "find out what we need to bring back the Nordiques".[47]

Hamilton

Hamilton was a candidate for expansion in 1990, being one of the favorites, but lost out to the Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning.[48] Hamilton's bid group attempted to negotiate the $50 million expansion fee; a condition the NHL rejected.[17] While it was speculated that the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres did not want an NHL team in Hamilton due to territorial competition, former league president Gil Stein has denied that was the case.[17]

Jim Balsillie in 2008. Balsillie has made several attempts to purchase an NHL team with the intent to relocate it to Hamilton or another locale in southern Ontario

BlackBerry founder and former co-CEO Jim Balsillie has made several attempts to purchase an existing NHL team with the purpose of bringing it to Southern Ontario. He signed an agreement in principle to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins for US$175 million on October 5, 2006.[49] Penguins' majority owner Mario Lemieux agreed to the sale after struggling to gain support from local governments to build a new arena. Balsillie's purchase agreement offered to help finance a new arena, but also contained a stated intention to relocate the team to Hamilton or Kitchener-Waterloo if no deal on a new arena could be reached.[50] Balsillie later retracted his bid, claiming that the NHL had placed conditions on the sale that he was not comfortable with, including a commitment to keep the team in Pittsburgh under any circumstances.[51]

Balsillie then reached an agreement to purchase the Nashville Predators for $238 million on May 24, 2007, and began a season ticket campaign in Hamilton a week later intending to prove that the city was capable of hosting an NHL team.[49] Thousands of fans purchased tickets, however the sale again fell through a month later when Predators owner Craig Leipold terminated the agreement.[52] The Predators were later sold to a group of ten investors, led by Nashville businessman David Freeman, who promised to keep the team in Nashville.[53] Leipold accepted $40 million less from Freeman's group than Balsillie offered, and later ended up as the majority owner of the Minnesota Wild.[54]

During the 2008–09 NHL season, the future of the Phoenix Coyotes was on shaky ground as the team expected to lose as much as $45 million, and the league had to step in to assist with paying the team's bills.[54] Coyotes' managing partner Jerry Moyes filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early May 2009. Immediately afterwards, an offer by Balsillie to purchase the team was made public.[55] The NHL challenged the Coyotes' ability to file for bankruptcy, claiming that as a result of the financial support the league had been offering the franchise, the league itself is in control of the team, and that Moyes did not have authority to act as he did.[56] Balsillie launched a public relations campaign aiming at igniting Canadian nationalistic feelings and the perception that Bettman had an anti-Canadian agenda,[57] including a website.[58] His bid to purchase the Coyotes failed as the bankruptcy judge ruled his offer did not meet the NHL's rules on relocation.[59]

The Hamilton Spectator reported in May 2009, that a Vancouver-based group led by Tom Gaglardi was planning to make a bid to purchase the Atlanta Thrashers and relocate the team to Hamilton in time for the 2010–11 NHL season.[60] This never materialized, and the idea was eventually rendered moot by the Thrashers' sale and relocation to Winnipeg. Gaglardi later purchased the Dallas Stars and kept the team in Dallas.

FirstOntario Centre has been suggested as a potential venue for a Hamilton-based NHL team

Under NHL rules, an expansion or relocation of a team to Hamilton could potentially be blocked by the

Terry Pegula, who planned to keep the team in Buffalo.[62] Relocation to Kitchener–Waterloo would avoid the territorial rights compensation as it is more than 50 miles (80 kilometres) from Buffalo and Toronto.[63]

Greater Toronto Area

Although Toronto is already home to the

AHL development team, the Toronto Marlies, its suburbs have been mentioned as potential sites for an NHL franchise, under the premise that the Greater Toronto Area, or GTA, is the most-populous metropolitan area in Canada and therefore could support two NHL teams.[63]
Unlike other potential expansion markets, a new arena would need to be constructed, and most of the proposals for a new Toronto area team include a new arena along with them.

In April 2009, a group of businesspeople met with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly to discuss the possibility of bringing a second NHL franchise into the Toronto area, most likely in Vaughan, Ontario. Despite the talks, Daly reportedly stated the NHL is "not currently considering expansion nor do we have any intention or desire to relocate an existing franchise."[64]

In June 2009, a group headed by Andrew Lopez and Herbert Carnegie proposed a $1 billion plan for a second Toronto team, called the Legacy, to begin play no earlier than 2012. The group announced a plan for a 30,000-seat arena, half of which would be priced at C$50 or less. The arena would be situated in Downsview Park in the north of the city. Twenty-five percent of net profits would be given to charity.[65]

In 2011, a proposal surfaced to build a multi-purpose 19,500-seat arena in

Unionville commuter train station on land owned by Rudy Bratty, chairman and CEO of Remington Group, an organization that is charged with the development of Markham's downtown.[67] However, the GTA Sports and Entertainment Group did not file an application for expansion prior to the July 20, 2015 deadline in the most recent round of league expansion.[69]

Saskatoon

Saskatoon came close to landing an NHL team in 1983 when Saskatoon native "Wild"

Saskatchewan Place, which opened in 1988. Hunter made one more attempt to land a team for Saskatoon, applying for an expansion franchise during the league's 1990s expansion rush. Hunter reportedly raised $50 million, but after failing to secure the remaining $20 million he required from the province, withdrew the bid.[74]

Phoenix Coyotes
home games there in 2009.

When the Ice Edge Holdings investment group made a bid to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes in 2009, they planned to move a portion of the team's home games to Saskatoon in an effort to maintain the team's viability in its main home in Phoenix, similar to the former Bills Toronto Series arrangement in the National Football League. The group had leased Saskatoon's SaskTel Centre for five home games in the 2009–10 season.[75] The group was believed to lack the funds to buy the team outright, but remained in contention as potential minority owner until May 2011, when it pulled out of negotiations.[76] Some members of the Ice Edge group later joined the ownership group led by Canadian businessman George Gosbee, who ultimately purchased the Coyotes and kept them in Arizona.

On Ice Management, an ownership group backed by auto racer, former Moncton Wildcats owner, and former professional hockey player John Graham, backed a long-shot bid to bring the NHL to Saskatoon.[77] The Calgary Flames were scheduled to host the Ottawa Senators in Saskatoon for a preseason game, sponsored by Graham, in September 2013. That game led to speculation that the city may host the Flames if the team's regular arena, Scotiabank Saddledome, which had been damaged in the 2013 Alberta floods, did not complete its repairs in time for the 2013–14 season.[78] In the end, repairs were completed on a compressed schedule, and the Saddledome reopened in September 2013.[79] Although neither Graham nor any other bidder representing Saskatoon placed a bid in the expansion window, the city again hosted a neutral-site preseason game in 2015.[80]

Expansion sites in the United States

Several cities in the United States have been mentioned in the media as possible future sites for new or relocated NHL teams. In December 2007, organizations from Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, and Seattle presented their proposals for a franchise to the NHL's executive committee;[81][82][83] the latter two later received expansion teams, with the Vegas Golden Knights joining the NHL in 2017 and the Seattle Kraken joining in 2021.

Atlanta

Formerly the home of the

USD, and would have a seating capacity of 18,000 for ice hockey.[84]

Unrelated to the South Forsyth project, former NHL player Anson Carter and several partners announced the formation of Alpharetta Sports & Entertainment in early 2024, requesting that the NHL begin the expansion process to bring a team to a proposed development in Alpharetta.[85]

Houston

Toyota Center in Houston
, 2010

Greater Houston is the largest market in terms of both city proper and metro population in the US or Canada without an NHL franchise; since 2016, Houston is also now the largest metropolitan area without a complete set of teams in the major professional sports leagues.[86] The area ranks second in the nation with 22 based Fortune 500 companies, only behind New York City, which has 45.[87]

Professional ice hockey dates back to 1946 in Houston with the establishment of the

AVCO World Trophy and featured the first father/son combination to play together in professional hockey, Gordie Howe and his two sons Mark and Marty. The Aeros, despite being a successful franchise, were left out of the NHL–WHA merger and were forced to fold in 1978. Another team also named the Aeros, of the American Hockey League (AHL), played at The Summit (renamed the Compaq Center in 1998 and converted to a megachurch after the Aeros' departure), and moved to the Toyota Center in 2003; the Aeros were unable to negotiate a lease extension, leading to the team's departure from Houston in 2013.[88]

The

Les Alexander's attempt to purchase the Edmonton Oilers in 1998[90]
which was thwarted when a local ownership group came together and matched his offer.

In 2017, the Toyota Center and Houston Rockets were purchased by Tilman Fertitta. In a press conference, Fertitta expressed his interest in bringing an NHL team to the Toyota Center[91] and he had reportedly met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Fertitta has stated his intentions of possibly finding a tenant that could help fill the building throughout the year, including the mention of attracting an NHL franchise.[92] In 2023, it was reported that the Toyota Center was beginning a staged a $30M renovation of the facility, which notably included the installation of permanent ice-making equipment.[93] In 2024, reports indicated that discussions between Fertitta and the NHL were "turning more serious," and that Fertitta hoped an ice hockey franchise could boost activity in Downtown Houston.[94][95]

Phoenix

During the Arizona Coyotes' sale to Ryan Smith and relocation to Salt Lake City after the 2023–24 season, it was announced that rather than function as an official relocation, the Coyotes franchise would instead be marked "inactive" by the NHL, with the Utah franchise considered an expansion team in a similar manner to the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens. Former Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo will remain part of the NHL Board of Governors and retain the rights to the Coyotes brand; Meruelo has also been granted a five-year window to build a new arena in the Phoenix area, after which he will be awarded a new expansion franchise acting as a "reactivated" Coyotes. Should the Coyotes fail to get a new arena by the five-year window, the franchise will cease all operations.[96][97]

Other locations

During the 2024 All-Star Weekend, commissioner Gary Bettman publicly listed six cities that had expressed interest in expansion;[9] besides the aforementioned Atlanta and Houston, as well as the later-awarded Salt Lake City, commissioner Bettman also noted that groups from Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Omaha had reached out to the league.[9]

Cincinnati's professional hockey lineage includes the World Hockey Association's Cincinnati Stingers, for whom future Hockey Hall of Famers Mike Gartner and Mark Messier played, as well as the American Hockey League's Cincinnati Mighty Ducks and multiple incarnations of the now-ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones. Potential expansion, however, is made difficult by the need to replace the aging Heritage Bank Center with a more modern arena, as well as a lack of interested ownership.[98]

A glass-covered indoor arena.
The T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, 2022.

Kansas City previously hosted the NHL's

Kemper Arena from 1974 to 1976; the team ultimately relocated to Denver to become the Colorado Rockies, owing to poor attendance and on-ice performance in Kansas City.[99][100][101] The city has since hosted a succession of minor-league teams, most recently the currently-active Kansas City Mavericks of the ECHL; it was also a candidate for relocating the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2007, though this did not materialize.[102][103] The T-Mobile Center is capable of hosting an NHL team,[104] having previously hosted St. Louis Blues preseason games,[105] and both local officials (including Mayor Quinton Lucas) and prominent Kansas City individuals (including Mavericks owner Lamar Hunt Jr. and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes) have expressed interest in either expansion or the relocation of an existing team.[104][105][106] However, no interested ownership groups have publicly come forward, with Hunt previously describing the NHL's $500 million USD expansion fee as "ridiculously big" in 2015,[105] and later stating in 2023 that an expansion team "doesn't seem realistic."[107]

Omaha has had a comparatively limited hockey history, with its professional lineage limited to multiple incarnations of the minor-league

Governor Jim Pillen additionally met with NHL officials in New York City in February 2024, in order to pitch the league on expansion.[108]

Expansion outside Canada and the United States

Speculation about NHL expansion to Europe took place as far back as the 1960s. David Molson, then-owner of the Montreal Canadiens, stated that he looked forward to a "world playoff" for the Stanley Cup.[110] In 1969, Clarence Campbell, president of the NHL, was quoted as saying "It is conceivable that the Stanley Cup will be played for in Moscow in the not too distant future. When it does, the World Tournament as we know it will just disappear.... The game will continue to expand."[110]

Although no European cities have been named[by whom?] in recent years,[when?] NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly stated in 2008 that expansion into Europe was a possibility "within 10 years' time."[111] In August 2010, the International Ice Hockey Federation president René Fasel stated that he would strongly oppose any expansion by the NHL into European markets.[112] Time zone complications would also be an obstacle.[112] 2008 was also the year that the Russian Superleague evolved into the Kontinental Hockey League, which is recognized as one of the world's premier professional leagues after the NHL and has grown to include several other European cities.

See also

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Further reading

External links

  • makeitseven.ca, Archived version of Jim Balsillie's attempt to bring the Coyotes to Hamilton
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