Every day that passes I seem to grow more and more impatient wondering why it’s taking so long for any concrete information to come out of the NHL regarding expansion.

We’ve heard the rumors, both good and bad, but the only true info we ever seem to get is Gary Bettman saying, hang in there.

The latest in the long line of possible reasons for the announcement delay is a bit different from any we’ve heard before.

There’s concern amongst some of the larger market teams that, in four years, Las Vegas and Quebec City will be among those teams that will reap the benefits of revenue sharing. That means those with higher revenues are going to have to pay more money into the pot. –Bruce Garrioch, Ottawa Sun

In other words, the richest owners are afraid that adding the new teams will eventually cause them to lose money as they’ll have more owners to share their profits with under the NHL’s revenue sharing system.

Our friends at NHLNordiques.com came up with three ways the league might handle this issue.

  • The NHL decides to stop the expansion process
  • The NHL strongest top 3 markets get a bigger share of the expansion fee
  • The Expansion have to pay more than $500M

The interesting question, and the one The Creator and Quebecor must prove to the league is, “Will these new franchises indeed qualify for revenue sharing?”

We obviously do not have the answer to this question, nor the other major one involving money and expansion.

Will the addition of two teams help the league grow enough to offset the difference between the $1 billion expansion fee and possible revenue sharing dollars?

Again, we have no way of answering these questions.

However, we are sure of one thing. The Creator is not going to let money get in the way of bringing a team to Las Vegas. We are confident that he’ll do whatever is necessary to make it happen, even if he has to make some sacrifices on top of the $500 mil.

It’s just another of the seemingly countless number of hurdles standing in our way.

But like the rest of them…revenue sharing

In the end, revenue sharing won’t stand in the way of expansion but it might be delaying it a bit. – Bruce Garrioch, Ottawa Sun

In the mean time, I guess we’ll just have to keep tweeting everyone’s favorite hashtag.

#GiveUsOurDamnTeam