NHL expansion: Las Vegas, Quebec presenting formal bids to owners
The NHL Board of Governors meets in New York on Tuesday, and the delegations from Las Vegas and Quebec City will formally present their bids.
Louis Jean of TVA confirmed that Quebecor will be there to “submit an application” to the B.O.G. Mike Zeisberger of the Toronto Sun previously reported that Las Vegas’s representatives will also be there.
[Yahoo Fantasy Hockey: Sign up for a league today]
Via the Sun, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said:
“The (expansion) process is going well,” Daly said in a phone interview Friday. “All of the initial submissions of the three phases of the application process have been completed. We’re in the process of the evaluation of those submissions now.
“We’ve obviously been in touch with the applicants. They have been invited to present to our executive committee prior to our board meeting (where) the presentations of the two applicants will be heard. We’ll then will report to the board later on in the day in respect to the nature and the content of these presentations and where we are in the process.
“I don’t think we’re in position to announce to the board a specific time line. I think we’ll continue to work toward completing our process. And when everything is complete from that perspective, we’ll tee it up and start making some decisions.”
Tuesday’s presentations could lead to a formal announcement of NHL expansion at the December owners' meetings in Pebble Beach.
Meanwhile, Quebec is going to be front and center (centre?) tonight as the new Videotron Centre hosts the Montreal Canadiens and the Pittsburgh Penguins in an NHL exhibition game, the first League game in the state-of-the-art new barn.
Michel Therrien is excited:
“There are a lot of memories. I was a young kid when I saw the rivalry with the Nordiques and the Canadiens. I grew up in Montreal, so obviously I was a Habs fan,” explained Therrien, who also spent 272 games behind the Penguins’ bench during his lengthy coaching career. “But, Quebec City has always been a special place for me. It’s going to be fun to play that first NHL game in that new building.”
So Quebec has a pretty new building and it also has vowed it doesn’t need public funding off the hop in order to buy an expansion franchise, although Quebecor would be open to partnering with others after the team is secured.
Things look solid up nord. If the NHL wants to expand, of course.
MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY
