Defenseman Shea Theodore (pictured above) warms up in a game last season for the Las Vegas Golden Knights. The Golden Knights are the NHL’s most recent expansion team. They set much of the groundwork to make way for a new franchise in Seattle.
It is safe to say that many Americans who follow professional sports want their own team in their own local city in some way or another. The National Hockey League Commissioner, Gary Bettman, met with a group of owners in Seattle, Washington on Tuesday Oct. 2 to decide on whether the NHL should expand to the city, according to CBS News.
If they move forward with new franchises, the league would have 32 teams which would tie with the National Football League for the most out of the United States’ four major leagues. Ice hockey is the fourth most popular sport in America, which makes this change questionable.
The quick answer would be to try and grow the league, gain more fans and promote interest in hockey; the more complicated answer involves the fact that Seattle has been trying to gain another professional sports team ever since they lost the Seattle Supersonics of the NBA to Oklahoma City.
A great deal of work has gone into this process already before the group of owners with Bettman. The overall process is interesting to look at because it requires a deeper look at all the issues that could result from it aside from team performance.
To establish a team in the NHL, the owners must go through steps that will ensure that the league will not lose money. Their first step is to file the application for an expansion team.
Once this is done, the mayor of Seattle announced a mock season ticket drive. This is done to see how many people in the area would attend and buy season tickets for the team. This part is sometimes the hardest obstacle to jump over because if they do not sell enough tickets, then the entire idea is scrapped and they move onto a new city or take a break from expansion.
When Seattle ran the sale in March of 2018, the goal was 10,000 sales. Within the first 12 minutes, they not only passed their goal by the end of the first day, but 32,000 tickets had been sold, according to The Seattle Times.
These figures alone show how much the people of Seattle want a hockey team as well as how long they have waited for this moment. Now that Bettman has approved the vote for the team to be officially accepted into the league, the chance of them making it official is almost certain.
When dealing with the establishment of a new team, the league must be cautious. Even though they are not talked about, concerns still exist and could pose a problem for the team.
One issue that should be considered first is if the city can handle the increase of traffic. Luckily Seattle had a basketball team and currently has both a baseball and football team, so it is familiar with how much traffic hockey could bring.
Seattle is also a decently sized city, so the roads and everyday life in the city must be equipped to handle the added pressure. Similarly, the city needs to maintain an adequate public transportation system to accommodate the influx of foot traffic.
Aside from transportation, the league must make changes in the divisions to fit Seattle into the league. The prospective Seattle team will most likely go to the Pacific Division which would mean one team would move to the Central division.
The ownership group in Seattle and the NHL both understand what needs to be done and what is necessary for the success of a new franchise which will hopefully begin play in the 2020-2021 season. For fans that are eager to see a growing league, these concerns may seem frustrating, but they are necessary.