We’ve all been wondering why in the world the NHL has been so coy about their desire to expand the league to 32. There’s been heavy speculation that the holdup was the troubling situations in Florida and Arizona. According to a well respected radio host with TSN in Canada, the stadium situation in Miami was the final piece before the league was ready to give the go ahead.
The NHL delay in announcing the expansion is directly linked to the Florida Panthers situation. The Panthers and the Broward county held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss a $86 million subsidy in public funds in order to to help the team. The NHL is reported to be waiting for the confirmation of the deal in order to move forward with the NHL Expansion announcement. – Carl Dombroski, NHLNordiques.com
There is of course still the chance that the Miami deal, but the quotes coming out of Miami seem quite promising.
The tourists development tax dollars do not come from tax payers in Broward County, but from people who come and visit here. Those people are the people funding the arena. – Commissioner Barbara Sharief
As we mentioned earlier, the comments from The Creator about a practice facility are also a major sign that the NHL has given Las Vegas the go ahead privately.
I hate that we still have to deal with sources, and try to read between the lines of every statement, but that’s just where we are at this time.
The Creator says hang in there, so we’ll have to keep doing just that, but there’s no denying that the more pieces of the puzzle we unveil, the more they seem to fit together like we’ve always hoped.
jf
Tourism tax dollars being spent on the stadium are still tax dollars being spent. We already dealt with this in Vegas where we couldn’t get the MLS stadium downtown approved. How does it get through in Broward county where there are even more retirees to complain?
Ken Boehlke
Using public funds on a stadium is a complete boondoggle, but if any city is going to fall for it (again) it’s Miami.