I’m starting to get the butterflies that can only be compared to a six year old at Christmas. I can’t wait to see my gift known as T-Mobile Arena. My first experience will be Guns ‘n Roses an epic reunion of a major rock act and Las Vegas has it first.

Make no mistake, this arena is the best thing the Strip has done for the city, and yes, the order of that statement is accurate. The past few weeks Las Vegas played host to four college basketball tournaments, Pac-12, Mountain West, West Coast, and WAC. Every tournament director would agree the element Las Vegas brings has provided an incredible atmosphere. There is little doubt in my mind that the success of these tournaments have been a precursor to Las Vegas hosting a regional.

No one would ever accuse me of being happy with the length of the process but one fact has been constant, the league has never given off a negative vibe to the potential of Las Vegas joining the league. To give you an idea of how I’ve felt during the process go see the movie ‘Zootopia’. Think of me when Hopps and Nick go to the DMV to get a plate run from Flash. I won’t give it away but I’m Hopps and the league is clearly the sloth. You’ll laugh hard when you see it.

This week at the NHL General Manager meeting they discussed how an expansion draft would work. Logically this would be the final step before an announcement is made. With our continuing reliance on nuggets of information, we hear Bettman say that he wants an expansion team to be competitive from the start. Talk like that doesn’t get to that point, after all this time, without them being close to the end. A late March or early April announcement is expected, in fact, a source has flat out told me that they are being prepped for a major arena announcement at the end of the month or early April. I have already decided its going to be about the NHL or the Excalibur’s ‘Tournament of Kings’ is going to offer an expansion horse to Las Vegas.