The idea of a NHL franchise in Las Vegas appears to be one step closer. Ken Boehlke of The Sin Bin, a site dedicated to covering the plans to put a pro hockey team in Vegas, reported Tuesday night that the NHL’s four-hour executive committee meeting in New York wrapped up with a positive recommendation of expansion to Vegas:
Our sources in Las Vegas with extensive knowledge of the organization and the expansion process have confirmed the Executive Committee formulated a positive recommendation for expansion to Las Vegas and the official announcement will come on June 22nd prior to the NHL Awards ceremony.
…The announcement is currently scheduled to take place at a press conference in Las Vegas to be held before the Awards, not during.
…The next step in the process is for [Bill Foley, head of the Vegas bid] to sign the expansion contract and send it, plus $500 million, back to the league. At that point, the 30 owners will vote at the Board of Governors meeting to accept the expansion contract and expand the league to 31. Las Vegas will begin play in the 2017-18 season.
Our sources were not told directly whether or not Quebec City will also be awarded a franchise, but we were told “it’s pretty much widely assumed we’re coming in alone.”
Yahoo’s Josh Cooper notes that the NHL has said no comment would come from this meeting, and that Foley and other investors in the Vegas bid told the Las Vegas Review-Journal earlier Tuesday that they hadn’t heard from the league, so there may be some reason for caution. Still, the Vegas bid has received strong support from many in the NHL, and their new arena and 14,000 season-ticket deposits are particularly impressive. Cooper also mentions that an early agreement here may be important for the NHL, as that would beat any announcement of a move to Vegas from the NFL’s Oakland Raiders (which still remains a possibility). We’ll see how this plays out, but signs look good for hockey in Vegas.