The two-day NHL BOG meetings begin today in Boca Raton, Fla., and while "expansion chatter is on the docket," Commissioner Gary Bettman said there "won't be any vote" on the topic, according to Stephen Whyno of the CP. Bettman added, "There's no effort crying out for immediate expansion" (CP, 12/8). ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun wrote without a vote on expansion, the meetings "won't carry the sexy news many had hoped." The expansion issue "will indeed be discussed, as an update provided to owners on where things stand." LeBrun: "Is expansion coming? Definitely. But it sounds like it's going to wait a bit longer." Expansion will happen at some point because "the league has struggling owners in South Florida and Carolina, for example, that are champing at the bit to get their slice of the expansion fee." The NHL reportedly "could ask for approximately" $500M for an expansion team, and some owners "are eager to get their hands on that moolah." Other items on the agenda this week include the salary cap, over which there has been "much hand-wringing among some of the bigger-market, high-spending clubs." The cap "isn't quite going up as much as they thought it was going to, which is leaving them pressed up against the ceiling." The cap next season is "projected to be" somewhere between $72-74M, up from the current $69M. Meanwhile, there "isn't expected to [be] much talk about future Winter Olympics participation." But a source said that there "will definitely be a formal update" on the return of the World Cup of Hockey in '16. Finally, the league will "update owners on the ongoing concussion litigation" (ESPN.com, 12/7).
THE ICE AGE? SPORTSNET.ca's Chris Johnston wrote these are "extremely heady times" for the NHL heading into the BOG meetings. Gone are "significant front-burner issues that dominated this annual gathering in recent years -- namely, collective bargaining and the national Canadian TV rights negotiations -- and here is a league that is on a more solid financial footing than ever before." The "largest issue hanging over the proceedings is expansion," and it is "only a matter of time before the 30 owners welcome one or two new members." The presence of Quebecor Media President & CEO Pierre Dion at the meetings "might fuel some speculation about Quebec City’s hopes to reclaim a team, but his attendance is said to be purely about providing an update on TVA’s French coverage." Meanwhile, an update "will also be provided on the
proposed sale of a majority stake" in the Coyotes to Philadelphia hedge-fund manager Andrew Barroway. Also, the final details of the World Cup "are currently being nailed down -- expect an official event announcement in January -- and will be shared with the governors here." Among those is a "plan to field a European all-star team and 'Young Guns' team alongside the top six hockey nations." A source said that "profits are being targeted" at $100M for the tournament (
SPORTSNET.ca, 12/7).
