Investors in various cities want in.
The Commissioner of the National Hockey League, Gary Bettman, is trying to shut down talk that his league is ready to expand again. There were some unsubstantiated reports that the league had decided to put expansion teams in the Atlanta market and in Houston. The reports lacked substance as in how much the league would charge for a franchise and where an Atlanta area team actually play in the market. Small details that should have been reported. “Everything that’s been written in the last week is categorically wrong,” Bettman said. “We’re not going through an expansion process. And other than updating the board on October 1st as to places that have expressed an interest, there’s nothing else that’s going to be done on expansion. Everything else was either speculation, or I don’t know what to call it, but it had no basis in fact,”
The league did relieve itself of an arena problem by transferring the Phoenix-area franchise to Salt Lake City with a promise to eventually return to Phoenix once a suitable arena became available. No arena is being built in the market in the near future. There seems to be one problem franchise right now, that one in Winnipeg as the franchise did not sell enough season tickets in the 2023-2024 season. Last February the Winnipeg Jets chairman Mark Chipman said his business’s future in the Manitoba capital could be in jeopardy if attendance doesn’t improve. One other problem seems to be on the verge of being solved. Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer is inching closer to get an arena built in downtown Ottawa. There seems to be interest from investors in joining the league in not just Atlanta and Houston. There have been expressions of interest from parties in Cincinnati, Kansas City, Omaha and Québec City as well but nothing is happening.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman
