New City Enters Derby To Land NHL Expansion Team
A new city entered the derby to land an NHL expansion team, according to insider Kevin Weekes.
With NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman's recent announcement about the salary cap increase, there's no doubt that the league is in a great financial position.
When business is good, more people want to get in on it, and it appears another city has expressed interest in acquiring a team.
Last year, during the NHL All-Star Game, Gary Bettman announced the cities interested in acquiring a team.
At the time, he mentioned cities such as Houston, Atlanta, Kansas City, Omaha (Nebraska), and Cincinnati.
Today, we have learned that NHL executives have met with investors looking to bring an expansion team to New Orleans.
The insider Kevin Weekes revealed the new development in a post on X:
It's safe to say that the league's owners will certainly be on board.
When the Vegas Golden Knights joined the league in 2017, the NHL's 30 other owners shared a sum of $500 million USD, and when the Seattle Kraken became the league's 32nd franchise, the team's owners had to pay expansion fees of $650 million USD, which was once again divided among the other team owners.
Whenever NHL executives decide to proceed with another expansion, they will likely receive the approval of team owners, even though Bettman mentioned the league wasn't looking to expand at the moment:
"We feel no compulsion to do it right now. We just came off our most successful season in our history, we've got collective bargaining to deal with, we've got new media arrangements to do in Canada in the next couple of years. If something came in and checked all the boxes, and we felt that it might make sense, we might consider it. But we're not there right now, and it seems like everybody is, on the one hand, pushing us with, 'Why don't you expand?' and at the same time saying, 'Why would you expand?' So, it's not a front-burner topic right now."
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