The NHL may not actively be seeking expansion, but it’s already established a floor for what any future franchise will cost.
The price tag for the NHL’s next team will be at least $2 billion, league sources confirmed to The Athletic on Friday, with the caveat that each situation could be unique depending on the terms and circumstances around the arrangement.
While that figure has been floating around league circles as a rumored expansion fee for the past year, it’s becoming more concrete. New York Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky even mentioned it publicly Thursday while speaking at the Front Office Sports Asset Class summit in New York.
“(NHL commissioner) Gary Bettman told our (Board of Governors) meeting that if there’s expansion, the minimum price will be a $2 billion fee, plus a $500 million to $600 million equity commitment for a new arena,” Ledecky said, according to Front Office Sports.
The NHL’s Board of Governors met on Wednesday in New York, with Bettman saying afterward that no updates were given on expansion.
While the league has received interest from prospective groups in Atlanta, Houston and Austin, Tex., among others, Bettman has been consistent in saying that he’ll only take an application to the executive committee when one of them can present a strong case based on four criteria: proof of stable ownership and wherewithal, a suitable market, a suitable arena and a demonstration that they will make the league stronger.
“It’s not a door that we open,” Bettman said Wednesday. “If somebody knocks on the door, we’ll peek around to see who’s knocking and then decide what to do with it.”
The $2 billion minimum price tag being placed on the NHL’s 33rd franchise is worth more than the league’s last two expansion teams combined. Bill Foley paid $500 million after being awarded the Vegas Golden Knights in June 2016, while a David Bonderman-led group ponied up $650 million for the Seattle Kraken after being granted the league’s 32nd team in December 2018.
Bettman believes the success of those teams has helped fuel the interest the NHL is getting, even while not conducting a formal expansion process.
“I know why expansion comes up as a topic a lot,” he said earlier this month. “I think it’s fair to say that our two most recent expansions may have been the two most successful launching of teams in the history of expansion in any sport, and that’s again a testament to the NHL owners making the decision, both based on the merits of the application, and then giving the teams an opportunity to be competitive from Day 1.”
The next NHL Board of Governors meeting is scheduled for Dec. 8 and 9 in Colorado Springs, Colo.