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March 28, 2024

Sports Business:

NHL commissioner’s message to Las Vegas: Don’t get ahead of yourself

National Hockey League Presser at MGM

L.E. Baskow

Gavin Maloof drops a ceremonial “first puck” during the “Let’s Bring Hockey to Las Vegas!” press conference at the MGM Grand Ballroom on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015.

NHL expansion

The NHL added nine expansion teams between 1991 and 2000 to reach its current 30 teams. Seven of the teams were placed in nontraditional hockey markets: San Jose, Calif.; Tampa, Fla.; Miami; Anaheim, Calif.; Nashville, Tenn.; Atlanta; and Columbus, Ohio. The other teams are in Ottawa, Ontario; and St. Paul, Minn. In 2011, the Atlanta Thrashers were sold and moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba. The league recently realigned its divisions, and there are 16 teams in the Eastern Conference and 14 in the Western Conference.

National Hockey League Presser at MGM

Gary Bettman, commissioner of the NHL, addresses the crowd as Bill Foley, chairman of Fidelity National Financial Inc., Black Knight and FIS, listens during the “Let’s Bring Hockey to Las Vegas!” press conference Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015, at MGM Grand Ballroom. Launch slideshow »

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is used to playing the villain. He routinely gets booed during the NHL draft and at arenas throughout the league when he hands out trophies during the playoffs.

That wasn’t the case Tuesday afternoon at the MGM Grand, where Bettman was greeted with raucous applause when he was introduced at a news conference to launch an effort to bring an NHL team to Las Vegas.

But Bettman’s next welcome in Las Vegas might not be so warm if the league decides not to add an expansion team in Southern Nevada. Bettman said that even if the ownership group’s season-ticket drive reaches its goal, there’s no guarantee the NHL would choose Las Vegas — or expand at all.

Ownership-group leader Bill Foley had asked Bettman, whom he called a friend and counselor, to attend and speak at Tuesday’s event.

"When Bill asked to conduct a season-ticket drive in Las Vegas, he said he wanted to be satisfied that his pursuit of an NHL team here would make sense and erase any doubts about whether Las Vegas was prepared to support professional sports,” Bettman said. “He knew he wasn't promised what the result might be, but he clearly wanted to take the temperature of the market."

The question is whether Las Vegas' interest matches Foley's interest, the commissioner said.

"I have no promises to make today,” Bettman said. “I do wish Bill and the people of Nevada good luck in this endeavor."

Bettman wouldn’t address how the NHL views sports betting or how the league would handle placing a team in a state where it is legal.

“That’s something that we’re going to have to discuss at the appropriate time if we get to that point,” he said.

Bettman said the issue is “not something we’ve focused on. Relative to the other sports, our take is relatively small. So I don’t think it would be the same issue for us that it is for the NBA and the NFL, but again, we haven’t focused on it because it’s premature.”

Veteran bookmaker Jimmy Vaccaro, of the South Point, said bets on the NHL account for 0.5 to 1 percent of the sports book’s annual take.

“It shows up but not in great numbers,” he said.

Vaccaro said having a local team available for betting would help rather than hurt, saying the situation would be similar to sports books taking bets on UNLV games for the past decade.

A Las Vegas team’s games could be taken off the board, but gaming control regulators and the NHL would decide that, Vaccaro said.

The league has a multiyear deal with the fantasy sports website DraftKings, but Bettman said that’s a different situation.

“I don’t think fantasy sports is the same as gambling on two teams playing heads-up,” he said.

Foley is confident the league will approve an expansion team in Las Vegas if his season-ticket drive results in 10,000 commitments and deposits. The team would play in a 17,500-seat, $375 million Strip arena owned by MGM Resorts International and Anschutz Entertainment Group. Construction on the arena behind New York-New York is scheduled to be completed by April 2016.

Bettman said 10,000 season tickets is a "pretty strong benchmark."

“We aren’t going to be satisfied with 10,000,” Foley said. “We want to sell 17,500 tickets.”

Available through vegaswantshockey.com, season tickets range from $20-$40 per game for the upper ends of the arena to $150-$220 for center ice in the lower bowl. They can be secured in commitments of one, three, five or 10 years. Deposit money is refundable if Las Vegas fails to get a franchise.

The commissioner wouldn’t say what factors the league would consider besides season tickets sold when evaluating Las Vegas, saying such talk is premature.

A decision about Las Vegas and expansion in general would be up to the league’s Board of Governors, which requires a three-quarters vote to approve new teams. Hockey Vision Las Vegas, the group Foley leads, would have to pay an expansion fee estimated at $450 million.

Las Vegas has hosted the NHL Awards event since 2009, but Bettman said that won’t affect the league’s view of the city.

“We love coming here for the awards show,” he said. “Las Vegas has been a great host. Our players, our guests love coming here, but that’s different than this.”

Foley said he thinks the city is a good fit for the NHL because of its diversified fan base and population of more than 2 million.

“Las Vegas is not just about the Strip and about gambling and about entertainment,” he said. “Las Vegas has all kinds of businesses. … We have a high disposable income in Las Vegas, and we have people that are going to be hungry for a major-league sports franchise.”

Disposable income might not be as high as Foley thinks. A report by the nonprofit Corporation for Enterprise Development last month said Nevadans have some of the highest rates of lousy consumer credit, bankruptcies, foreclosures, underemployment, mortgage delinquencies and uninsured residents.

Foley, who is CEO of the insurance and mortgage company Fidelity National Financial, doesn’t think the Las Vegas housing market will be an obstacle.

“Not only are prices firming, prices are accelerating in Las Vegas,” Foley said. “We’re getting through that dead inventory, and now Las Vegas is back.”

According to a report from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, single-family home sales in the area last month were down 19 percent from December and down 13 percent from a year ago. Prices were down 2 percent from December but up 8 percent from a year ago. For 2014, the number of sales was down 12 percent from 2013.

Foley and his partners are counting on the Founding 75, a group of locals each committed to selling at least 60 season tickets, to drum up support. Among that group is poker professional Daniel Negreanu, a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“They put a group of people together that are all diverse so that we can cover the entire city,” Negreanu said.

To promote the effort, he will star in YouTube videos and use Twitter and his influence in the poker world by “going to Bellagio and Aria and making myself present, and really just hustling. And that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m committed to it.”

Would Negreanu turn his back on the Leafs to become a fan of a Las Vegas team?

“I’ve turned my back on them many a time,” he said with a laugh, before saying he would root for both teams. That could be a problem if they were to meet in the finals.

“We’ll deal with that when it happens,” Negreanu said, echoing many of Bettman's sentiments.

Brian Deka can be reached at 702-259-4073 or [email protected]. Follow Brian on Twitter at twitter.com/briandeka.

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