NHL Expansion Rumors Travel North and West

It is widely assumed that Las Vegas and Kansas City are the next two cities in line for either an NHL expansion team, or as a location for a financially failing franchise, such as the Nashville Predators. But the owner of the Ottawa Senators, Eugene Melnyk, has a different idea. Melnyk, whose Biovail Pharmaceuticals company started in Manitoba, was recently quoted as saying that "Winnipeg could support a team, and it was a shame to see Quebec City have to move. I think there is room for more."

"Room for more" would indicate that Melnyk feels that Winnipeg, Quebec City, and perhaps Hamilton, Ontario, should be part of the league. Perhaps some of the league's struggling franchises, such as Nashville, Florida, Phoenix, and Atlanta, might be candidates to fill a void in those Canadian cities.

Melnyk wants to see the NHL return to Winnipeg and Quebec City, the former homes of the Jets and the Nordiques, respectively. These were two cities that failed for a variety of economic reasons in the mid-1990s, including the failing Canadian loonie and a lack of funding to build new arenas. The Nordiques were sold by Marcel Aubut to Charlie Lyons's Ascent group, and moved to Denver in 1995. In October 1995, the owner of the Winnipeg Jets, Barry Shenkarow, sold his hockey team to Richard Burke and Steven Gluckstern of New York for $65 million. Burke and Gluckstern took the franchise to Phoenix during the summer of 1996.

With the Canadian dollar rising to about $1.05 compared to the American greenback, there is some thought that small-market Winnipeg might succeed financially this time around. Winnipeg has a new arena that only seats about 15,000, but the capacity could be expanded to NHL standards. There also seems to be some political support, as the return of the NHL became a campaign issue in Manitoba's provincial elections in May. The party leader of the Progressive Conservatives, Hugh McFadyen, promised to bring back the Winnipeg Jets. McFadyen's party was defeated in its bid to unseat the New Democratic Party and its leader, Gary Doer, in the May elections. Doer is now the Premier of Manitoba, and is himself interested in bringing the NHL back to Winnipeg.

So what does NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman think of Melnyk's remarks? The commissioner is another member of the group that is not ruling out an eventual return to Winnipeg.

"I have a great deal of respect for Eugene Melnyk," Bettman said last week. "It is not something that is being actively considered right now. But if we ever went through the formal process of expansion or relocation, we would consider all of the places that have expressed interest in having an NHL team, including Winnipeg." The list of cities that appear to have an interest in landing an NHL team seems to start with Las Vegas, where the owner of the Los Angeles Kings, Phil Anschutz (through his AEG company), has partnered with Harrah's to build an arena near the Strip. There is even a potential owner for the proposed Las Vegas franchise, as Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer has approached the league with an offer to buy a team. AEG built a new Kansas City arena and operates the facility. A former San Jose Sharks minority owner and a potential Nashville Predators investor, William "Boots" Del Biaggio, had a contract with Anschutz to operate an NHL franchise out of the arena in Kansas City if the NHL had expanded or moved one to the Missouri city. But Del Biaggio ceded that right when he joined David Freedman's Nashville group during Freedman's attempt to buy the Predators from Craig Leipold this past summer. Hamilton, Ontario, was going to be the destination for the Predators had businessman Jim Balsillie been successful in his own bid for Leipold's franchise.

The vice president of the Detroit Red Wings, Jim Devallano, said in September that the Red Wings would return to the Eastern Conference in about four years, when Las Vegas got an NHL team. Bettman's response a few days later was that he was "not exactly sure why" Devallano made the remark. Detroit's ownership would like to move back to the East Coast, where travel isn't as taxing. He would also like to renew old rivalries with Toronto and Montreal, and have the majority of the team's televised road games on the air earlier in the evening, instead of having to deal with two- and three-hour time differences in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. Columbus, Ohio, is the only other Western Conference team in the Eastern time zone.

The six Canadian franchises are doing quite well these days, especially compared to their plight before the 2004–05 lockout. Edmonton's owners made no secret that they were looking forward to getting a new Collective Bargaining Agreement complete with the players' union that included a salary cap. All of the Canadian owners were paying salaries based on the American dollar, and prior to the lockout, the loonie was sitting in the $.62–65 range compared to the American greenback.

"It's great for the Canadian teams," Bettman said of the current currency exchange. "But the dollar both north and south of the border will go in cycles. I think people make too much out of it. We have always just watched [the fluctuation between the American and Canadian dollar], and there has never been anything we can do about it. When the dollar is strong in Canada, it obviously helps the revenues of NHL clubs." The NHL, according to Bettman, has had a solid month of business since the season opened in London on September 29. The owner of the New Jersey Devils, Jeffrey Vanderbeek, and the city of Newark opened a new building for Vanderbeek's Devils franchise, and the league has launched the NHL Network, a hockey channel on American cable and satellite TV that is similar to its Canadian Hockey Channel.

"Attendance is up, business is strong, and the game on the ice is really good. It's very competitive, very exciting. We should have a good season," Bettman said. "[The new cable network] is good, actually. We are in a bunch of homes. I think we are in somewhere around 12 million homes as the distributors are launching. We have a very strong presence on DirecTV. I think we are off to a good start."

Bettman and the league are pleased with just getting the network off the ground, and will take carriage wherever it can find a willing cable operator. That was the stance the commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, took with NBATV, and if it meant going onto a digital sports tier, then it was on a digital sports tier.

The league is waiting to see what happens in Nashville, as that is Bettman's and the NHL owners' most pressing problem in the short term. But the league, in its first month of the season's play, is also enjoying its on- and off-ice successes.

evanjweiner@yahoo.com