Three cities confirm their expansion interest to the NHL

In the weeks leading up to the general managers’ meeting on Wednesday, there was a lot of chatter about a potential expansion in the league. Of course, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman shrugged off the rumours and claims there is no immediate plans to expand.

However, insider Chris Johnston reports that the commissioner confirmed that the NHL has received expansion interest: “Places like Atlanta, like Houston, like Quebec City.”

But of course, Bettman added this: “But we’re not in an expansion mode right now and it’s not really something, at least right now, that’s anywhere close to front-burner for us.”

It has only been two seasons since the Seattle Kraken joined the league, but the team has done well in the market.
We all know how Bettman’s main priority is to make money - despite his stubbornness to support the Arizona Coyotes, who are currently waiting for a vote to build their future rink in the city of Tempe.

In recent season with the addition of the Golden Knights and the Kraken, Vegas paid $500 million to get in and the ante went up to $650 million for Seattle. Some believe that the next round of expansion will cost a team a cool $1 billion. The NHL experiment has already been done and failed in all three interested cities - but that was a long time ago. Time for another shot? 

But the real question is : are “Places like Atlanta, like Houston, like Quebec City” ready to pay up?

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