Expansion to 36, which city is number 36?

[Melrose Munch]

Honestly... even if *this board* is rushing to re-enter the Phoenix market, it all depends on whether infrastructure is built (or in progress, at the very least) and an owner is available. Phoenix will almost certainly come after Houston and Atlanta, unless the league themselves hold back.

I think the league needs to try something else. Earth has been salted

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Nobody’s rushing anything. The 5-year clause that Meruelo got to get back in automatically (after he paid the money back) was a bone thrown to the market and an incentive on him getting the job done if he was interested. “If” being the key word, and he clearly wasn’t given that he bounced at basically the first chance possible.

The NHL’s line of priority is, and has always been throughout this recent process dating back to Vegas, “who can write them the biggest check?”

Pick a major market, any major market. If someone from there writes a billion+ dollar check to the NHL, they’re the new priority.

I’m sure that Bettman would like to see the Yotes revived, but he would like a billion freaking dollars a billion times more.

 

[bleedblue94]

Realistically it's:
Houston
Atlanta
Arizona

And then one of Portland, San Diego, of GTA 2.0

 

[PCSPounder]

San Diego… no owner and the owner of another team wants to build an arena. Paying rent in San Diego is way more foolish than paying rent in Los Angeles.

Atlanta… there’s an effort.

Houston… someone does not become a “potential owner” by continuing to attempt to talk down the expansion fee or purchase price.

Arizona… going to need 10 years to recover from the chaos.

Any other markets Gary Bettman mentioned should not be counted until we hear from potential owners rather than arena managers. Mentioning Kansas City spiced that lie a bit.

That doesn’t mean we won’t talk about it, and that doesn’t mean Gary Bettman won’t try to invoke the names of other markets when someone in the ownership cartel wants a new arena. But mark my words… expansion is off. Maybe in 10 years, we’ll come back to this Atlanta deal WHEN two more markets have the components to cause the necessary bidding war. Right now, those conditions do not exist.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

If they don’t make it, they don’t make it,
It doesn’t work for Canadian teams, and even worse for fans.

Any Canadian NHL fan who is fine with postseasons void of Canadian teams is not really an NHL fan at all.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

But would any true Scotsman be okay with that?

 

[Takuto Maruki]

Any Canadian NHL fan who is fine with postseasons void of Canadian teams is not really an NHL fan at all.

Tell that to this fan of an American team, living in Canada, who could give less of a damn about a Canadian team getting in, or ultimately winning it all.

 

[WaW]

32 is too many. 36 is nauseating.

 

[dj4aces]

32 is too many. 36 is nauseating.

Sounds like I need to invest in Clorox, because someone's gonna be buying a lot of Glad trash bags.

 

[garbageteam]

Realistically it's:
Houston
Atlanta
Arizona

And then one of Portland, San Diego, of GTA 2.0

might be fighting for tiny, leftover breadcrumbs here but I continue to think GTA 2.0 has a significantly lower chance than QC. I'm just not buying it being possible/viable, their odds are practically zero due to all the serious challenges. Even Hamilton's got a bigger shot. Quebec remains the likeliest for an 8th Canadian team. I still think they've got a chance even though everyone's written them off.

I think Atlanta is going to be next regardless of whether they have an expansion partner or not.

 

[KevFu]

I remain curious if perhaps the ownership of the Padres could be talked into something. The Padres are a third socal team, going strong, not exactly setting the world on fire but a healthy, stable franchise that's holding its own in a pretty tough division.

Well, the Padres owner just died.

The thing about the Padres is that they are the PERFECT example of what we talk about with "market saturation" for teams.

San Diego had the Padres and the Chargers. The Chargers left for LA. The Padres revenues skyrocketed. Because Chargers STH now bought more Padres tickets, and single-game, it's only the Padres.

But also corporate dollars: The advertisers, there's less total sports ad space in San Diego, so the Padres not only got more people wanting to advertise, but the demand allowed them to raise prices for limited quantities.

It was a slight increase in attendance, but a massive increase in revenues. The Padres stopped being "a small market team" and signed Machado, Tatis, traded for Soto and signed Bogaerts. That was four guys making the $300m contract money per season. (Sure, they traded Soto, but they've got the other three).


That being said, I don't think that the Padres finances are going to revert back to small market with a second team rejoining, because the Padres will be #1 to an NHL team instead of #2 to an NHL team. And the NHL will be fine because NHL teams require about a third of revenue NFL teams require. It's more that it's just fascinating to view and take lessons from.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

Atlanta
Houston
Back to Phoenix
Kansas City

 

[KevFu]

There should be no rush to go back into Phoenix

This Board. Atlanta and Houston are more of a priority at the moment.

I mean, you're right there's no rush. But like, the normal flow of expansion is a ridiculously slow process. We were talking about the NHL's expansion to 32 because everyone knew it was absolutely happening, totally imminent and the NHL was moving on it SOON..... and then 10 years later, Seattle took the ice for the first time.

In baseball, Manfred has been giddy to expand (and probably ruin baseball in the process) and everyone has known he's gung-ho for expansion and has been since 2016. And at this point, the intention is to announce their expansion in 2029 and have them start playing in 2031.

So when we talk about the NHL going to 36 teams, we're talking about knowing who those cities are and teams awarded within 20 years. Not like, by the start of 2026.