Many Las Vegas residents may not be able to watch Golden Knights games on TV

The NHL expansion team Las Vegas Golden Knights secured a local television partner on Monday. Unfortunately for Las Vegas residents, the broadcast partner isn’t part of the channel lineup for Las Vegas’ primary cable carrier.

Root Sports and the Las Vegas Golden Knights announced a multi-year deal to put Golden Knights games on its Root Sports Rocky Mountain channel when the 2017-18 NHL season begins. Root Rocky Mountain isn’t part of the current channel lineup for Cox Cable, the largest cable provider in Las Vegas, however.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Golden Knights majority owner Bill Foley said the team would be part of negotiations to bring Root to Cox and CenturyLink. Currently, only DirecTV carries Root in the Las Vegas metro among major television providers. Foley expressed confidence that both cable providers would carry Root, though he didn’t commit to that deal being done before the puck drops on the Golden Knights’ inaugural season.

Despite the current difficulty in getting Golden Knights games in front of a large part of the Las Vegas television audience, the team will still enjoy one of the largest television distribution areas in the NHL. The league has allotted all of Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming along with select parts of Arizona, California and Nevada for the Golden Knights’ home territory as far as television goes. A big reason for the large expanse of coverage area is that some of those areas are sparsely populated, and for television, population density is more important than miles of land covered.

Next: 27 greatest American players of all-time

If the negotiations with Cox fail, Las Vegas residents who are Cox customers or visitors staying in hotels which have service through Cox will have few options. Switching to DirecTV will be one of the primary options, though cancellation and startup costs may be a barrier for some. The only other options are going to a bar or restaurant showing the games on DirecTV, or simply attending the games in person.

It will not only behoove the local population, but the Golden Knights as well, if Root is part of Cox’s lineup by the beginning of the next NHL regular season. If that doesn’t happen, many Las Vegas residents hoping to watch Golden Knights games will instead be put on ice.