New city confirms its expansion interest to the NHL
Gary Bettman deals with the possibility of more teams in his league with this significant move. More below:
Earlier this season, reports emerged that he NHL could expand by as many as four teams in the coming years, bringing the total up to 36 teams. There are additional rumours that NHL owners were to formally approve the opening of an expansion period, and several cities have expressed interest in getting a new franchise.
On Wednesday, Kevin Weekes reported that a new city wants to enter the sweepstakes. The insider revealed that, after a discussion with deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and other sources involved, “there was a recent meeting in NYC with a group expressing their interest in bringing an NHL expansion team to New Orleans.”
Ahead of the start to the 2024-25 season, the NHL’s Board of Governors convened for their annual meeting and elected NOT to vote on expansion. That means that we will NOT see an NHL expansion for the 2025-26 season and the earliest that the league could approve expansion would be in the 2026-27 season, if at all.
This clearly hasn’t stopped the interested investors from New Orleans to touch base with the NHL and see what can be done to secure a market down South.
Cities like Kansas City, Houston, Quebec City and Atlanta have been mentioned on several occasions in the past as wanting to get an NHL franchise on their turfs.
I can’t say I’m on board with the whole third time’s a charm in Atlanta. The Atlanta Flames fizzled out after just eight seasons and relocated to Calgary to great success. Ditto for the Atlanta Thrashers who moved to Winnipeg after 11 failed seasons in Georgia. Now the NHL is going to give it another shot?
Houston is what it is… I don’t know a ton about the Houston hockey scene, but the city itself has both the population base and the sports culture to support another pro franchise. Houston already hosts the Astros (MLB), Texans (NFL), Rockets (NBA) and Dynamo FC (MLS). It’s expected that a potential Houston NHL team would be owned by Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, who also owns the Toyota Center in downtown Houston.
Again, I can’t speak much for Houston but I can’t see how or why the NHL would bring hockey back to Atlanta. Again, this is a market that has failed the NHL twice now. Meanwhile, Quebec City has been pushing for an NHL team since the 18,000+ seat Videotron Centre opened back in 2015. In fact, the arena is the third largest arena in North America that does not host an NHL team. Sadly, it appears that the NHL is more concerned with corporate support in their markets and, as such, Quebec City doesn’t really register on their radar. Until la Vieille Capitale lands a corporate headquarters for a major international brand the NHL won’t be interested. Under Gary Bettman, underserved Canadian markets are just small potatoes to the NHL.
Now with New Orleans entering the bidding, it could be another obstacle for the aforementioned cities looking to get their own NHL franchise…
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