The Creator was not invited to the Board of Governors meeting, but obviously was contacted afterwards to give him the latest update.
Closing out his little message, The Creator gave Gary Bettman a lesson in how to wish people happy holidays.
Thank you for your continued support and patience as we move through this process. I hope you and your family have a very happy and safe Holiday Season!
Probably the number one holdup in the expansion process, so we think, is the concern the league has over a few of its struggling franchises.
One such franchise resides in Miami, Florida or Broward County. The Panthers have recently struggled to draw and playing their games in a somewhat dilapidated BB&T Center has cost them money.
So, the Panthers reached out to the county and asked for some financial help to renovate the arena, and in turn, guarantee the Panthers stayed put.
The vote was held Tuesday afternoon.
The commission voted 5-3 to grant the Panthers’ request for an $86 million financial grant that will keep the team in South Florida — and in the county-owned BB&T Center — for the foreseeable future. – George Richard, Miami Herald
This is a massive piece to the NHL expansion puzzle. With Arizona’s situation appearing to be somewhat stable, the league is just left with Carolina as the only remaining problem child. Hurricanes owner, Peter Karmanos, Jr. is on the Board of Governors executive committee, so any necessary information about his club should not be left unknown in any board meetings.
Assuming the league is comfortable with Carolina staying put, they should be able to more confidently, and hopefully quickly, green-light expansion to Las Vegas.
If they are still concerned about the status of the Canes, it would obviously make most sense to move them to Quebec City (keeping them in the Eastern Conference), which frees up the league to add one expansion team now and possibly another (cough, Seattle) later.
Obviously we aren’t quite ready to pop the cork on the champagne and begin the celebration, but things could have gotten really sticky if the Broward County deal fell through. Lucky for us, it didn’t, and now the road to hockey in Las Vegas got a little bit clearer.
Well, another meeting has officially come and gone without even the slightest piece of new information from the league on expansion.
Since the moment The Creator submitted his application for an expansion team into the NHL, commissioner Gary Bettman has coughed up the exact same rhetoric.
We haven’t set a date. We’re not on a timetable. – Gary Bettman, NHL.com
At least he’s trying to sound like he has something new to say though.
I think overwhelmingly, we were at 99 percent in terms of the information they needed and wanted.
Yay! We’re close. Right?
Will it be in the next couple of weeks or the next couple of months? Maybe, but we haven’t set a date for the next meeting.
I think I hate this guy.
Then he said something that absolutely made me want to vomit.
I think the holidays and the time of the year causes us to reflect on what makes sense with everybody’s calendars.
Bettman went on to spew a bunch of garbage about concerns and markets and arenas and then said maybe about 50 times.
Here at SinBin.vegas we are trying to stay optimistic. We really are, but every time one of these key dates passes, it gets more and more frustrating. In the end I think we’ll wind up with a team and will look back on these days with a healthy chuckle, but until then, it feels more like this.
It’s an important, significant business decision and it’s being treated in a business like way.
It had long been speculated that the December Board of Governors meeting would be the one where the NHL finally makes a decision on expansion and awards Las Vegas its first professional sports franchise ever.
Unfortunately, it appears a final vote will not take place at this meeting. However, that does not mean it’s a date you should cross off on your calendar. A lot is expected to come from the Board of Governors meeting, including some discussion on expansion. The meeting will be held in Monterey and will officially begin on Tuesday. Here’s what you should expect to hear when it’s all said and done.
On Monday, the day before the actual meeting kicks off, there will be a gathering of the executive committee of the Board of Governors.
It’s here in this smaller meeting where a meaningful discussion on expansion is expected to take place regarding applicants Las Vegas and Quebec City. Wherever that discussion goes, the league office will then present to full Board of Governors on the status of expansion applications and review the process. -Pierre LeBrun, TSN.ca
If all goes well, there should be an announcement of when the final vote will take place. Expect that to be sometime on or around January 31st, the date of the NHL All Star Game.
You can also expect to hear a number of quotes from Bill Daly and Gary Bettman regarding the timeline moving forward. In the past they’ve been pretty forthcoming in saying that 2017-18 is still a possibility, but depending on the discussions with league owners, this may change.
Finally, we expect to get more information on the cities possibly holding up the process. Broward County’s arena vote will occur before the meeting and will certainly be discussed one way or the other, and with Peter Karmanos, Jr. (Hurricanes owner) on the executive board, relocation from Carolina should be cleared up before the expansion discussion gets to the full meeting table.
Aside from expansion, the board is expected to touch on topics such as coach compensation, future salary caps, concussion protocol, and a revisitation of the All Star Game format and 3-on-3 overtime.
We are not expecting big news, but we should have plenty to read between the lines with. However, any time the big wigs come together, there’s always a chance that major news comes our way.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date with the latest NHL to Vegas news.
According to a story from everyone’s favorite Pierre, ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun, the Las Vegas and Quebec ownership groups will present to the NHL Board of Governors’ executive committee on September 29th.
This will be the first time the potential expansion owners will have an official meeting with the NHL ownership’s top group.
There was some hope that the league would be ready to make their recommendation to the Board of Governors at this meeting, but it appears that will have to wait a little longer.
The sense at this point is that the December board of governors will be the one that makes recommendations, either way, on expansion. -Pierre LeBrun
Nonetheless, this is excellent news for Las Vegas. The Creator has never gotten an official sit down with the league’s executive board, so the fact that he’s being given one at one of the biggest offseason get togethers is huge.
The longer expansion talk goes, and the higher up the food chain it moves, the more likely it is to come to fruition.
Even though we’ll likely get very few details of what actually goes on in this meeting, I have to say, I’m pumped for September 29th.
"Clearly we were the better team early and they were the better team late. In between we did enough to win. If we want to be a more complete team we're going to have to be better for the full 60 minutes." -Cassidy
