There is a cap on how many franchises the league can support too.
32 teams has them on par with the other largest North American sports leagues, and I don't see them growing to 34 in the short term to be honest.
10 years ago I think NHL was really trying to protect that expansion fee cost, but I think now that Vegas and Seattle are in place we see a move where some of the less profitable teams might get shopped around a bit more to improve the overall league profitability.
Merulo was rumored to pay around $300M. If you could value the franchise at around $300M, plus another $200M in relocation fees, that gets you right around where your $500M valuation for a franchise wants to sit, even if all that money doesn't directly go to the owners immediately (Vegas expansion fee was $500M).
Best plan might be relocating to Houston and getting the $200M fee for relocation, and then if you do try to expand maybe you go back to Phoenix as an option in 5-10 years and can actually get an expansion fee at that time. Owners actually would come out ahead in that scenario with an expansion fee and a relocation fee.
For Phoenix specifically the real long term solution really feels like it would be a partnership with the Suns for an arena that supports Hockey and Basketball. Still seems like a miss that they weren't able to figure something out together as part of the recent renovation / redevelopment of that arena.
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 02-02-2022 at 03:29 PM.
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