NHL Board of Governors Approve Seattle Expansion Team

It all pays off Tuesday when the NHL Board of Governors is expected to approve Seattle as the home of the league's 32nd franchise. The group led by majority owner David Bonderman, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and president and CEO Tod Leiweke had been hoping for play to begin in 2020, but uncertainty over completing arena renovations in time means Seattle will have to wait another year for the return of a major winter sports team.

Seattle is expected to join the league for the 2021-2022 season.

National Hockey League general managers will be a little more leery about the players made available in the expansion draft after watching Vegas go all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in its first year last season. The logic behind the BOG's decision is simple: Seattle's arrival would put the Pacific Division at nine teams while the Central would still have seven. It said the expansion fee will be apportioned equally to the rest of the league's teams except Las Vegas, which joined the NHL in the 2017-18 season.

"Today is an exciting and historic day for our League as we expand to one of North America's most innovative, attractive and fastest-growing cities", NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement.

Moves to launch the team have already proved successful, with a drive for season tickets securing 10,000 deposits in the first 12 minutes alone and 32,000 in 31 hours. The building, opened in 1962, was formerly the home of the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics, who moved to Oklahoma City in 2008.

"The NHL is thrilled to welcome you", NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said at press conference on Tuesday. Even after Vegas made a surprising run to the Stanley Cup Final in its inaugural season, Bettman said in May that he had received "no pushback whatsoever" from other league owners about repeating the same process for Seattle. "The Golden Knights will not participate in this expansion draft, meaning they won't lose a player". Seattle will be getting Cup Crazy in June 2022? Preliminary work has been underway on the arena since an agreement between Oak View Group and the city of Seattle was finalized in late September, but the heavy work can now get started. Believe it or not, there are no permanent public ice rinks inside the Seattle city limits, but that will change with the training center, which will feature a grand total of three rinks.

There are also plans to build a $70-million practice facility.