A season-ticket drive for a prospective NHL team in Las Vegas "is now into its fourth week and hasn’t reach a goal of 10,000 deposits," but that is not a "cause for concern at the top levels" of the league, according to Chris Johnston of SPORTSNET.ca. The ownership group, led by Fidelity National Financial Chair William Foley, "had received about 7,700 commitments by the end of last week and that didn’t even include tickets requested by the casinos." NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly on Wednesday said, "The numbers that are coming out are ... within very strict parameters. When they designed their ticket drive, they did it with our input and basically we told them what we'd like to see is how many local, non-corporate fans they can get to put up real money without a promise of having a NHL team." He added, "If you look at it through that lens, I think the response has been good." Johnston noted no official timetable "has been placed on the length of the season-ticket campaign." However, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman "expects that its success or failure will be evident sooner rather later." He said, "If we're still having this discussion in September and they haven't achieved their objectives, then I think that will speak for itself." Meanwhile, there "doesn't seem to be much brewing with the other potential NHL cities" (SPORTSNET.ca, 3/5). YAHOO SPORTS' Josh Cooper noted Foley's group "has been aggressive, its marketing campaign including a local television ad that aired during the Super Bowl." Foley is also "already making local moves contingent on the NHL coming to Las Vegas" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 3/5).
