Seattle in NHL, a dicembre l'annuncio ufficiale

The season has just begun and already looks to the future, with the NHL expansion in Seattle, which aims to become the 32nd team of the League. EXPANSION A SEATTLE: WE ARE ALMOST! ️ In recent days, the negotiations for the expansion of the NHL in Seattle, which we have been talking about for years, have made two decisive steps forward. Last week, the City Council of Seattle finally decided to approve the building plan for the renewal of the Key Arena (a building where they played the Seattle Supersonics until 2008), a condition deemed indispensable by the NHL Board for the expansions. a $ 700 million dollar intervention, fully paid up by Seattle Hockey Partners, led by Tim Leiweke, who will become the owner of the future franchise. In recent months there has been a long stall in negotiations, as the City Council of Seattle , before authorizing such an intervention, asked the NHL series guarantees about the expansion in Seattle. At the same time, the NHL Board of Governors '' Executive Committee, before giving any guarantee in this regard, wanted to be sure that the necessary investments would be made to build a suitable plant. After this impasse, representatives of the Seattle consortium last Tuesday Hockey Partners met the leaders of the NHL to present the project related to the new team. Well, at the end of this meeting, the Board of Governors' Executive Committee and the same Gary Bettmann have expressed a first, preliminary, positive opinion. December 3, 2018, when the NHL Board will meet for the final vote that, in the eventuality, will decree the officiality of the expansion in Seattle. There is still great optimism: Seattle is the largest city in the States without a professional team hockey (there are only the Seattle Thunderbirds who play in WHL, ie one of the CHL Canadian junior championships, and and amateur teams) and has a booming economy.In addition, around the future franchise there is great excitement: the reservations for the season tickets of the team have already reached 33,000.In the state there is no reason to believe that in December the NHL Board did not vote favorably, thus renouncing the entry fee of $ 650 million that will be paid by Seattle Hockey Partners. In short, although the official is still missing, the question is no longer SE Seattle will become the 32nd NHL franchise, but WHEN.The goal is to have the new Seattle arena ready for the 2020/2021 season and to proceed with the 'expansion draft in summer 2020. In this regard, Bettman has already anticipated that the rules of the 2020 expansion draft will be the same as that which in 2017 allowed Vegas to immediately build a competitive team. Besides, we already know that the Golden Knights will not be part of that draft and, therefore, will not be deprived of any player. The last question to ask is: how will the team be called? From the rumors leaked, it seems that the lawyer of Seattle Hockey Partners has registered 13 web domains in view of the future choice of the name of the franchise: Emeralds, Totems, Rainiers, Evergreens, Kraken, Renegades, Sea Lions, Firebirds, Cougars, Eagles, Seals, Whales, Sockeyes.