NHL Rumors: NHL Expansion – The Potential Front-Runners and the Secondary Markets

The Fourth Period: (youtube video) Dennis Bernstein and David Pagnotta from Quebec City on the weekend, discussing the idea of NHL expansion in the future, and which cities could be of interest.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Pagnotta: “… Los Angeles Kings now hosting the Florida Panthers in a market that well, it loves its hockey.”

Bernstein: “It does.”

Pagnotta: “It loves its hockey, and it’s been itching to get pro hockey at the NHL level back in Quebec City. I still believe we’re a ways away.”

Bernstein: “Agreed.”

Pagnotta: “But the reaction from a lot of the players, especially on the Kings, over the last couple of days, has been very positive.”

Bernstein: “Yeah, it’s a really nice market. We were at practice . There was applause during the drills they were going through. I’ve never seen applause at a practice.

So it’s a great market. They love hockey. It’s just, it’s still a small market. There are other cities that are certainly way ahead of the curve with respect to expansion. So while Quebec could be a great place to play or bring back a team, it’s going to be a minute since that, if that’s going to happen.”

Pagnotta: “Yeah, you’re still looking at from, from all of the talk of, of expansion. And you know, they, the league did address this, and Gary Bettman and Bill Daly did address it earlier this week at the Board of Governors meetings, that it’s not on the docket.

Well, the expansion process isn’t but it doesn’t mean they’re not talking to willing participants and interested parties from Atlanta. We know there are two groups. Houston, there’s a group they’re trying to build up on. Arizona with the new, with the Sun’s owner now into the mix and expressing interest in bringing a team back to Phoenix/Scottsdale.

And there are other markets outside of Quebec City that are also expressing continuous interest. We have groups in Omaha, in Oklahoma City, in San Diego, in Portland, and so on and so on and so on.

So we’ll see kind of how this goes. But certainly from the environment here, and we talked to a number of the players after the game the other night, that the atmosphere here in Quebec City through the roof.”

Bernstein: “Yeah, it felt like an NHL game, even though it was a preseason game. And you mentioned the markets, Dave. You’re talking about two top 10 media markets in the US and Atlanta and Houston. That’s going to trump whatever goes down here in Quebec City.

So it’s unfortunate, and there’s a legacy and history of hockey in this market. But again, it’s going to be further down the path than the other cities you mentioned.”

Pagnotta: “Yeah, I think we’re going to start to see or hear some noise as the season progresses, with respect to getting to 34 teams.”

Bernstein: “Right. I think when we get to that 36 discussion, that’s when Quebec City will, will realistically re-enter the mix, because their corporate support has been an issue, but a lot of it has been coming back to the market. So we’ll see kind of how that, how that moves along. But that’s the expansion process. That’s the expansion talk. I want to get that out of the way.”