From The Athletic (subscription required), a look at what Vegas has to offer as a hub city (hint, it's everything):
https://theathletic.com/1845595/2020...be-a-hub-city/
There are 14,000 hotel rooms in just the four hotels on the corners of Tropicana and Las Vegas Blvd. MGM Resorts owns 3 of them, plus multiple other resorts to the north and south of T-Mobile Arena. Feeding and housing everyone shouldn't be a problem.
Ice availability isn't as big as in the Canadian cities, but they do have three arenas that have or will play host to at least AHL level games, including the MGM Grand Garden Arena, The Orleans Arena (which will be home to the Golden Knights' AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, for at least two seasons), and the T-Mobile Arena. The Golden Knights' practice facility has two sheets of ice that are NHL calibre for practices.
The biggest question mark is the planned re-opening of the Strip next week. If too many people pour in, it might hurt the NHL's plans to keep everything isolated. If there's an explosion in COVID cases, the whole plan could fall apart.
This quote is interesting:
Quote:
“I think Vegas is a great destination,” Golden Knights owner Bill Foley said Thursday. “We have the hotels all around T-Mobile Arena to satisfy the needs. I believe it would be great for Vegas. The downside is that possibly we (the Golden Knights) wouldn’t be able to play in Vegas. They tend to think that’s an unfair advantage.
“But if Vegas is a hub city, I know the resort industry will do a great job, and we’ll make sure everyone gets as much ice time as they need around town.”
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Yet another mention of not allowing the host city's team to play in that city. Given the list of cities that Bettman mentioned, I wonder if we might see the Western Conference resume play in LA/Anaheim with the Eastern Conference playing its games in Vegas? That would be pretty much the only way to keep the host team from playing at home.