Las Vegas is building a $350 million sports arena. It’s being built by Bill Foley and the Las Vegas-based Maloof family. The structure is being built to meet the requirements of both the NBA and the NHL. It will be completed by spring of 2016.
Bill Foley and the Maloof family are exploring to see how much interest there is for a pro hockey franchise in the immediate future. They are soliciting people for a commitment of $150 to $900 for season tickets depending on the seat location. Foley’s goal is to collect between 10,000 and 12,500 deposits on season tickets. He hopes to land an NHL team for the 2016-2017 season.
Gary Bettmen, Commissioner of the NHL, attended the news conference at the MGM Grand to kick off the drive this week. He explained the NHL hasn’t made any promises to have the first professional team in Las Vegas.
The NHL has not had an expansion team in the league since 2000. That’s when the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild entered the league. This made the total of NHL teams increase from 28 to 30, the total we have today.
Las Vegas has had NHL preseason games over the course of the last few years. They seemed to have drawn fairly well. These games have been played against the Los Angeles Kings.
Las Vegas hasn’t had a real major professional team in the city but the closest they came was in 2001 with the XFL. This was the World Wrestling Federation Owner Vince McMahon’s football league. He hoped to compete with the NFL. The team was called the Las Vegas Outlaws. They played at Sam Boyd Stadium. The league folded after one season due to loss of revenue. There went the hopes of a professional team of any kind coming to Sin City.
Las Vegas deserves a pro team. They have college basketball and football. Adding a hockey team will allow people to watch live hockey and boost the economy.
Could Las Vegas support a professional sports team? If so, which sport?
My guess is that Vegas will get at least one professional team . They could use it but it will keep many people out of the Casinos so maybe those owners will oppose it.
We can only hope that Vegas will love hockey. It would be nice to see a team in Vegas. That’s good that they are building the place.
I think Vegas would more likely support an NBA team than an NHL team. To support NHL team they would really need to grow interest in the sport in the desert city. As for NHL expansion, I’m personally opposed to it. I think 30 teams is too many quite frankly. The more pro teams you have in one sport the more diluted the talent becomes. With expansion you now end up with guys at the NHL level who really only have minor league skill set. It diminishes the quality of the NHL in my opinion. My guess is the NHL will expand into Seattle and perhaps Vegas but I hope not! NHL should look at moving teams not supported by fans and communities such as Florida Panthers.
I think if they are going to expand they have to bring in another team. Make it 32 teams not just 31.