Report: NHL Wants $400M For Expansion Franchise

By Cory Buck | Oct 27, 2014

Oct 9, 2014; Washington, DC, USA; A general view of the NHL Face-Off 2014 logo on the ice prior to the game between the Washington Capitals and the Montreal Canadiens at Verizon Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /

The NHL is quietly setting the expansion franchise fees at $400M or more after the lucrative sales of the New York Islanders and Arizona Coyotes.

While NHL commissioner Gary Bettman publicly maintains that the league isn’t interested in expansion, reports continue to surface that suggest the top brass is planning to do just that. The Seattle Times writes that recent franchise sales, along with the league’s new 12-year broadcasting deal, have set the price for an NHL team through the roof at nearly half a billion dollars just to put a city in expansion talks.

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The Times writes of the franchise sales:

"First, the long-suffering Islanders sold for $485 million. That’s nearly two-and-a-half times a recent Forbes estimate of their worth, but the team is moving to a new Brooklyn arena and resides in the nation’s biggest media market.It’s the Coyotes’ sale that’s really garnered attention. The team’s owner, the IceArizona consortium, is selling a 51 percent stake to hedge fund manager Andrew Barroway for a reported $155 million based on a recent franchise appraisal of $305 million."

Thanks to a 12-year $4.9 billion broadcasting deal with Rogers Communications in Canada, NHL franchises are flush with cash, leading Gary Bettman to refute little more than the numbers as they pertain to rumors about franchise expansion.

“The part of the story I found particularly difficult was…$1.4 billion is way too low. It undervalues our franchises,” Bettman said when asked about talks surrounding NHL teams in Seattle, Las Vegas, Quebec City and possibly even a second team in Toronto. Essentially, he’s claiming that four teams in those markets would be worth more than $1.4 billion, which puts the asking price around $400M or more per franchise.

For now the NHL is mum on any and all expansion talk, but one doesn’t need quotes or confirmation to see that the NHL is building a strong position with which to negotiate. It’s only a matter of time until the league hears a price it can’t refuse and the NHL gets a few teams larger.

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