Last year, Toronto, Seattle, Quebec and Las Vegas announced that if the NHL were to expand, they would bid for a team. The NHL’s position is that they are in a “see who is interested stage”, but it is rumored that the league will expand by four teams starting in 2017 to mark its 100th anniversary.
NHL Expansion Candidates Have To Start Building Now
If that is true, then there is a time deadline for cities want a team and have to build a new arena.
In 2010, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made a tour of three cities who lost their NHL teams, Winnipeg, Quebec, and Hartford and stated the terms that would get their teams back. There were three main conditions; good ownership, an adequate fan-base, and an acceptable NHL arena. These terms are true for all potential NHL expansion cities.
But of the four announced candidates, only Quebec and Las Vegas are currently building new arenas. Quebec’s new arena is scheduled to open later this year and Las Vegas will complete construction in 2016. Total construction time for both arenas is estimated to be 2½ to 3 years.
If that is the average time to build a new arena from scratch, then time is rapidly running out for Toronto and Seattle and any other NHL expansion candidate to build a new arena in time for the NHL 2017-18 season.
There have been reports that all four announced cities are “done deals” but it makes sense for the NHL to hold an open competition for expansion to see if even better candidates emerge. It also makes sense to see who else wants a team, if this unannounced deadline is a firm commitment and Toronto and Seattle cannot be ready in time. Favored cities for expansion in every pro league have been known to fumble away “certain” franchises because they were not ready.
So Seattle and Toronto need to get construction started before the end of this year if they want to make their NHL dreams a reality and if they don’t, there are plenty of other cities who could snatch their prize away from them.
Kansas City has an NHL arena built. The uncertainties are ownership and fan-base.
Hamilton also has an NHL size arena built (17,000 seats bigger than Edmonton, Winnipeg, and New York Islanders) and is willing to renovate it to 18,500 seats. They have a great fan-base and would have no trouble attracting a good owner if getting an NHL team were a real possibility.
But the real threats come from the NBA. Currently there are 13 NBA cities that do not have an NHL hockey team as well. If their arenas could be converted for hockey, they would have no problem meeting the 2017 deadline.
If the NHL is serious about a 2017 expansion date, then the formal announcement should come soon, maybe later this year to give potential candidates time to prepare their expansion portfolios. Any city that has an arena problem as well the ownership and fan-base issue has to start moving now.
The last NHL expansion was in 2000 so it will be 17 years for the NHL to accept new members. Potential candidates should keep that in mind if they want a team because they could be waiting a long time out in the cold for a new franchise after 2017 if they are not ready now.
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