Posted on 06/22/2016 3:16:23 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Las Vegas will get its first major professional sports league team in 2017 with an NHL expansion franchise, Commissioner Gary Bettman announced Wednesday.
With the addition of the Las Vegas franchise, the National Hockey League will have 31 teams.
Principal owner Bill Foley, a Las Vegas businessman, and his partners will pay a $500 million expansion fee for the franchise.
"The first thing we're going to do is to establish what the culture is going to be for this team," Foley said. "This team is going to be a team built to win. We're going to take care of our hockey players in every way possible."
The team doesn't have a name yet. Foley, a graduate of West Point, said he loves the nickname of his alma mater, the Army Black Knights. But the team will work with the league to consider several ideas for names, he said.
Foley said he hopes to have a name by the time the NHL season starts in the fall so the franchise can begin to sell jerseys and other merchandise.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Bill Foley owns Black Knight Financial Services in Jacksonville, Florida.
It’s a layoff machine. Lay off 200 Americans to be replaced by 150 Indians at 1/2 the pay.
I spit in Foley’s direction.
What is a Vegas PTB? Sorry never heard that term before and can’t find it searching online.
They always want a new stadium. Always.
Ptb = Powers that be
I think
Las Vegas Mexicans Handing Out Hooker Leaflets On The Sidewalk
has a nice ring to it but it might be tricky to stitch onto a jersey.
Vegas gambled and built a new arena before any league comitted to moving/making a new team there.
Thanks.
Well now that they have the NHL, they may well redouble their efforts to get NBA basketball.
That means vegas will call the refs “La Migra”.
The NHL belongs where it gets cold in winter.
Actually Vegas does get cold in the winter, it doesn’t get wet, so it doesn’t make snow. but it does get cold. And of course, in the end, all that about hockey belonging where it’s cold is just silly. That’s demanding the sport not to move with the population. People are fleeing the snowbelt, if hockey doesn’t go with them hockey dies, not a good plan. It’s played indoors (mostly) the weather doesn’t matter.
Hartford was a stupid choice.A very small market within easy driving distance of two huge markets.As for Quebec City,might it have had to compete with Montreal...and lost?
I was thinking the “Chips” or the “Odds”. Hah! That one has an appeal, but obviously no chance ;-)
I dunno, Hartford already had the Whalers, they just got promoted. I don't think Ice Hockey even exists in the Vegas Universe, at least in common knowledge.
The Quebec Nordiques and Hartford (New England) Whalers were holdovers from the 1972-1979 World Hockey Association. When the WHA folded after it’s war with the NHL, those two teams along with the Edmonton Oilers and Winnipeg Jets (Arizona Coyotes since 1996) joined the NHL while the Birmingham (Alabama) Bulls and Cincinnati Stingers folded.
The Nordiques were in a very awkward spot as the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs really did not want them competing for Eastern Canadian TV revenue plus the Canadiens were owned by Molson Breweries, while Carling O’Keefe (one of Molson’s main competitors at the time) owned the Nordiques. As a result, Nordiques games were seldom seen on television until about 1983-84 when CTV/Carling O’Keefe began televising such games. Predictably, the Molsons/Canadiens faction did not approve of this. The long and short of it all had the NHL ownership being very corrupt and caved in a few years later and ended the TV deal and soon Molson’s bought out Carling O’Keefe.
That's what Nashville did! During the construction it was rumored that the San Antonio Spurs would relocate here and be the first tenant. But the NHL won out.
The trick is to go after the kids - be very kid-friendly. The more kids that you turn into fans the more you build your base of season ticket buyers when these kids grow into working, tax paying adults. That's what Nashville did. It took 10 nail-biting years and a change in ownership, but look at us now! And NashVegas is a third the size of Las Vegas. So it can happen.
And the thing that both cities have in common is that they know how to put on a really good show. As of right now Nashville is arguably the most entertaining hockey venue in the league if this past season's All Star Game is any indication. To a man the players loved it here! And I have no doubt that Vegas will try to one-up us. Let the games begin!
anyone remember the good old days when we had 16 teams? then they merged with another league. I wish they never did that, thats when the bruins lost gerry cheevers.
NHL in Quebec: excellent suggestion. High five. Please, take the Mighty Ducks.
Yours are better than mine. The heat in Vegas is getting to me.
That was in 1972, when the World Hockey Association was created. Gerry Cheevers went to the Cleveland Crusaders, Ted Green and John McKenzie became New England Whalers, and Derek Sanderson played a whopping 10 games for the Philadelphia Blazers after signing a 2.5 million dollar contract. BTW, the NHL expanded to 16 teams that season when they added the New York Islanders and Atlanta Flames.
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