CNBC recently had NHL league commissioner Gary Bettman on air to sit down and address what many NHL fans have recently been speculating about-will there be an expansion? And, if there is-how much would be needed to fund it, how it could work with 32 teams already in the league, and what most people are wondering-where it would be located.
The most recent NHL expansions are the Seattle Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights. After a bid opened in 2015, it was announced in 2016 that Vegas would be welcoming an NHL team and started their first season in the 2017-2018 campaign. Just a few weeks into the Knights first season, the city of Seattle came together with the Oak View Group to renovate KeyArena, making it possible place for an NHL team. A year after that, the NHL approved Seattle as an expansion into the league, with them starting their inaugural season in 2021.
With these 2 teams joining the league, it evened out the conferences and divisions. 16 teams in each conference, 8 per division, making things easier for the league and scheduling games, with teams in each other's division playing each other 3-4 times per season, teams in their conference outside of their division three times, and teams outside their conference twice. This also helped playoff chances be leveled among divisions, with the top 3 teams in each division going to the playoffs and each conference receiving two wild card spots, with no conference having an upper hand with less teams to compete for a wild card slot.
Hockey fans themselves are divided on if expanding the NHL is a good idea. Among the 32 teams currently in the league, there's 7 Canadian franchises to the United States 25, which is a subject a lot of Canadian NHL fans aren't happy with when bringing up a possible expansion they want to bring it to Canada. When looking at the NHL teams on a map, there's a cluster on both the west and east coast's of North America right now, which makes sense when you look at the hockey market, it's not as popular in the mid-west. Another issue that fans bring up is that they don't believe there is enough talent within the hockey world right now to make teams have enough star quality. One thing that makes the NHL special is that even with the cap salary model-there's still enough room to acquire plenty of stars on the same team, fans are worried that if the NHL keeps expanding, this means that there won't be enough of that star power to go around.
During Bettman's interview on CNBC, they broached the subject first with numbers, asking Bettman if the rumor's about 2 billion dollars being raised to bring an expansion back to Atlanta (had a franchise from 1999-2011 before relocating to Winnipeg). While also mentioning a few other locations, such as Houston and Indianapolis as possible locations as well.
Bettman's response was that the NHL isn't in an expansion mode right now, and if they were to expand, it makes the most sense to bring 2 teams on. He also responded to the money needed in order to bring a team into the league right now, while CNBC showed a graphic on their top 5 most valued teams in the league right now (Leafs, Rangers, Canadiens, Kings, Oilers with valuations between 3.1-4.3 billion). Bettman explained that expanding would mean dividing their equity from 32 to 34 teams is something they need to keep in mind as well, and clarified that it would be in the 2 billion dollar range to bring a expansion team in right now.
The key takeaway's from Bettman's interview are that an expansion is not completely off the table right now, but, if it comes to the point where an offer is brought it for the right price (2 million range, then it's going to need to work within the current NHL system right now, with 2 teams being brought in. Bettman didn't clarify where he thought a good location for a new team would be good or even a timeline for when we could see it expand again. He also agreed among fans that he likes the NHL's competitiveness, boasting that he thinks his league is the best among major sports for that aspect.