Fansided

NHL could be coming to Seattle very soon

By Josh Hill

Jan 24, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; View of the NHL logo at Dodger Stadium. Preparations are in place on the day before the Stadium Series hockey game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 24, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; View of the NHL logo at Dodger Stadium. Preparations are in place on the day before the Stadium Series hockey game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports /
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The NHL may be making it’s way to Seattle in the near future as an investment group prepares to make a bid. 

Ever since losing the Seattle Sonics half a decade ago, the Seattle sports community had been own on its luck until the Seahawks lifted their spirits. But while the Seahawks are one of the best teams in the NFL and made it to back-to-back Super Bowls, the sports comment isn’t yet complete.

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That’s where not the NBA comes into play, but the NHL. While the Sonics have been gone since 2008, Seattle hasn’t had a professional hockey team in a very long time. It’s been nearly 100 years since there was a hockey champion who hailed from Seattle as most fans have had to watch the successes and failures of the Vancouver Canucks from just across the border.

Al of that could be changing soon though, as the NHL may be making it’s way out to Seattle soon.

According to the Seattle Times, there is an investment group that is nearing a deal to publicly announce themselves as suitors of an NHL franchise with the intent on moving it to Seattle.

"Two sources with strong NHL ties indicate that New York investment banker Ray Bartoszek also spent much of 2014 courting investors to lure an NHL team to a Tukwila site owned by Seattle real-estate magnate David Sabey. Bartoszek, 50, who’d hoped to buy and relocate the Phoenix Coyotes to Seattle in 2013, is said by two sources to be close to finalizing and announcing his group of national and local investors."

There has been no public announcement yet and that’s something that complicates a timeline on getting the NHL to Seattle.  What’s also of note here is that the NHL is going to be moving to Seattle before the NBA, at least in all likelihood.

Despite the success and clear popularity of the Seattle Sonics, the NBA is gun-shy about making another trek out to Seattle and planting a franchise there. This feeling hasn’t changed despite the recent boom in interest in the Seattle area when it comes to the sports scene.

Still, with the success of the Seahawks, the rise of the Mariners and the potential arrival of an NHL franchise, all of that could lead to the Sonics one day soon returning to Seattle and to fully create a sports scene unlike any other.

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