A huge concern surrounding a potential expansion bid in Las Vegas is the city’s relative lack of passion currently exhibited toward the league and the sport.

Here at The Sin Bin, we are convinced that Las Vegas will go crazy for a professional hockey franchise, even if the people of Las Vegas don’t quite know it yet.

Commissioner Gary Bettman made some interesting, I may even call them peculiar, comments about this very subject.

Commissioner Bettman said fan passion and activation is a small part of the expansion process. “The fact is obviously it’s a great building (QC’s Videotron Centre) and there are a lot of great hockey fans (in Quebec City), but there’s a lot more that has to go into the expansion process. We understand the interest that the people in Quebec City have for hockey. There’s no doubt in my mind about that. That’s one of the many factors that has to be evaluated, including whether or not ultimately the League wants to expand,” said Bettman. –NHL.com

Sounds an awful lot like, “hold your horses QC.” Oddly enough, this is an excellent mindset for the commissioner and the league to have in regards to a successful bid in Las Vegas.

The only issue with The Creator‘s bid is the perceived lack of existing support in the city. 13,5000 tickets have been sold, but it took almost six months, while in Winnipeg they sold out their building within hours. Throughout the entire process, this has been seen as a major negative to Vegas, but now with these comments from the Commish, maybe it’s not as important as we thought.

What “fan passion and activation is a small part,” really means is, “we care a lot more about dollars and cents (or loonie and toonie) than anything else.”

Please focus on money, that’s the best case scenario for Las Vegas. The Creator’s application is spotless except for fan passion and activation.

I’d be very concerned if I were from Quebec City over what Commissioner Bettman said, but here in Vegas, it’s time to party, because the only issue we have is considered “a very small part.”

The NHL wants their money, and The Creator is continuing to stand in front of them holding a gigantic bag of cash. It continues to appear that it’s just a matter of time until Bettman and the league take that bag off his hands.