The talk of the NHL expanding into Las Vegas has been going on for quite some time. So long, in fact, that it’s been amusing to watch league officials continually distance themselves from the subject. With that thought in mind, this report from the Star Tribune which details that the league has finally admitted to exploring a team in Vegas shouldn’t take anyone by surprise.
Here’s the most intriguing part of the article:
Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said Monday that, while in Las Vegas for other business this past weekend, he met again with a potential ownership group that has expressed an interest in owning a franchise.
Daly, in an interview in his Manhattan office, said he also got a chance to tour the site next to New York New York Hotel and Casino where a $350 million, 20,000-seat arena is being built by MGM Resorts. MGM also has had preliminary talks with the potential owners who want the arena to house their prospective NHL team. The arena is expected to be completed by 2016, and Daly looked at suite mock-ups: “It’s nice,” he said.
The location mentioned above, the site being built by MGM Resorts, has long been the rumored location of an NHL team in Vegas. The big question left dangling out there is whether the city could support a major sports franchise. An NHL team would need a strong local base which could then be supported by the large number of tourists in the area.
Daly comments on this exact dilemma:
“The demographics of the market are pretty good in terms of average annual income. Las Vegas natives earn good salaries, good livings. I think they genuinely like sports. It’s a nighttime city, so it would have to be uniquely scheduled in terms of focusing maybe on industry nights as opposed to your typical Thursday-Saturday nights where everybody would be working.
Clearly we think for a Las Vegas market to support a professional sports franchise, you need the support of locals. You can’t depend on tourists to fill your building every night — even rich ones. You really need a local fan base.
What’s difficult on making a call on Vegas is it’s such a unique market. It’s really hard to know. The owners are going to have to be satisfied that the prospects of putting a franchise there are good and the fundamentals are solid.”
Vegas is certainly a unique entity. The gambling aspect is another angle the NHL needs to prepare for. Should a team open up in Vegas, the NHL would ask for the sportsbooks to prohibit betting on them. The idea behind that being that the league wants to attract actual fans who are following the team and not just watching because they placed a bet.
Long story short, the NHL is finally being open about the propositions of a team coming to Vegas. That’s not to say a deal is going to happen, but it’s clear the league is putting serious thought into Vegas. Previously, the NHL remained distant on the subject and kept saying that expansion won’t be happening in the very near future. Now that they’re opening up, it’s a safe guess that we’ll be hearing more about this topic soon.