Quote:
Originally Posted by MisterJoji
Not trying to say you're wrong as you seem to be very knowledgable on this front. Just wondering where you got the 250 million for an expansion fee from? During the last round of expansion the Wild and Bluejackets paid 80 million 13 years ago. Has that price really more than tripled since then? If you look at what San Jose paid 9 years prior to that, they paid 45 million. Why did the price not even double from 1991-2000, but it costs more than triple the amount from 2000-2013? Seems ridiculously high. Also who sets the territory fee? Again, 1/4 million dollars seems insanely high as I can't see the Leafs losing any money with a 2nd team in the GTA. With a 20 year wait list to get Leafs season tickets, it wouldn't even dent their cheque book.
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Historically, expansion fees have been set to whatever the league thought they could get at the time. Between 1967 and 1970, they tripled from $2 million to $6 million. Then, they stayed at $6 million for the rest of the 70s (the Islanders paid an additional $5M to the Rangers, and the Oilers, Nordiques, Jets, and Whalers each paid an extra $1.5M that went to the WHA, but the NHL received $6M from each).
The WHA teams paid $7.5M total each in 1979. 12 years later, the Sharks paid 6 times that much.
Even though Columbus and Minnesota didn't start play until 2000, the last four expansion teams were all awarded in 1997 (conditional upon completion of their new arenas), so it was only 6 years between the Sharks paying a $45M expansion fee and the Preds, Thrashers, Wild, and Jackets paying $80M.
Now it has been 16 years since the last expansion franchises were awarded, which is the longest period since 1967 without an expansion. There have also been two lockouts, designed to level the financial playing field and make it possible for every team to compete both on and off the ice. Given all that, I don't think a $200M+ expansion fee is out of the question.