The NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and the board of governors opened the formal expansion process, and began accepting applications in July, 2015. The NHL has been reviewing applications, and Lax Vegas has emerged as the top candidate for expansion, in part due to favorable resident income, and localized demographics. NHL interest is high for expansion in the city especially due to fact it is one the largest U.S. metropolitan areas without a professional sports team. If the NHL was able to break into this market theoretically they would capture all of it. The league’s checklist for identifying successful markets for NHL expansion include; a suitable area, strong ownership, and sufficient market demand. Las Vegas has been in the process of
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To be successful the NHL will have to convince local residents to spend their income on pro hockey rather than on other forms entertainment, or gaming businesses that dominate sin city. Concerns with local economy is that it’s heavily reliant on tourism, which presents other issues. In recent years the economy struggled during the housing crisis, tourism diminished, and unemployment tripled between 2008-2010 reaching 15%. Since then the city has significantly improved, but still remains sensitive to fluctuations in the national consumer economy. According to the NHL Commissioner expansion fees for Las Vegas would fall between $450 and $500 million. This would benefit owners- for additional franchise expansion, $16-million would be given to each existing franchise as part of hockey related revenue. The labor force in the NHL would also benefit from significant expansion. It would increase the number of jobs, expand the labor union, and likely increase hockey related
To be successful the NHL will have to convince local residents to spend their income on pro hockey rather than on other forms entertainment, or gaming businesses that dominate sin city. Concerns with local economy is that it’s heavily reliant on tourism, which presents other issues. In recent years the economy struggled during the housing crisis, tourism diminished, and unemployment tripled between 2008-2010 reaching 15%. Since then the city has significantly improved, but still remains sensitive to fluctuations in the national consumer economy. According to the NHL Commissioner expansion fees for Las Vegas would fall between $450 and $500 million. This would benefit owners- for additional franchise expansion, $16-million would be given to each existing franchise as part of hockey related revenue. The labor force in the NHL would also benefit from significant expansion. It would increase the number of jobs, expand the labor union, and likely increase hockey related