Report: Seattle could be in line for an NHL expansion franchise

NHL, NHL Expansion, Seattle | Comments

It seems ludicrous for a league currently in a lockout to be interested in expanding to a city currently without an arena, but so goes the NHL.

According to James Mirtle of Toronto’s Globe and Mail, Chicago Wolves (AHL) owner Don Levin, who would like to get in on NHL ownership, told ESPN earlier this week that he thought the NHL would expand in three years.

Mirtle writes:

The league has stronger interest in going to Seattle than any other market but has been waiting on the building to come together before considering it a realistic possibility.

Expansion to 32 teams has been talked about off and on in NHL circles for the past few years, with Quebec City and a second Toronto team getting much of the attention.

Despite a few setbacks in some troubled markets, however, the league’s brass want to continue to try and expand the league’s footprint in the United States. The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area is the 15th largest in the country and is also likely close enough to Vancouver that the team could establish a rivalry with the Canucks.

Seattle is more viable now that the city is close to building a new arena.

Published On Sep 21, 2012

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Thomas Baker 44 pts

Talk contraction and see how the union responds. Less members less dues for the union and oh my the poor player agents.

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Thomas Baker 44 pts

At a time where small market teams are unprofitable and the owners unwilling to accept a form of revenue sharing to bail them out, to mention league expansion is ludicrous. If the the owners don't want revenue sharing, then the topic should be contraction not expansion. Get rid of the unprofitable teams. The union will take a big hit as there will be less room for marginal union members in the league.

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matthewstrubel 5 pts

It seems ludicrous for the league to expand (insert period)

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Keith7 5 pts

"It seems ludicrous for a league currently in a lockout to be interested in expanding to a city currently without an arena"

No, not really. An arena can be built in 3 years, especially if they are told that they are going to get a franchise. The fact that they are in a lockout has really no bearing on anything.

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PAUL20 5 pts

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The league is stupid. Players think they all should be paid like they are Mario Lemieux. uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggh

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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JohnJune 5 pts

PAUL20 Paul, it is the owners dolling out all that money, so the league can't be hurting as much as they say they are. I mean look at the money spent on free agents this summer. No one held a gun the the owners heads and told them they had to pay what they paid. Look at The Wild and the 13 year $100 million $ contracts or two players. And that isn't for both of them, it was for EACH of them. Montreal overpaid for Brandon Prurst, they didn't need to, but they did. The Preds will pay shea Weber a ton of money, because if they don't, some team will...so don't go putting this all on the players wanting big money. If the owners don't want to pay it, they don't have to. I mean if you were a player and someone said to you, "come play for us and we will pay you $10 million a year, for 13 years", I don't think you would say, "oh, that is too much money!"

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