The NHL is creeping ever close to what has now become an almost concrete certainty - the establishment of an expansion team based out of Las Vegas, Nevada.
The latest step taken by the league towards this end was the choosing of billionaire businessman William Foley and the Maloof family as owners for the new franchise, according to a report from Josh Kosman and Larry Brooks of The New York Post.
Bill Daly, the NHL's Deputy Commissioner, met with a potential ownership group on in Las Vegas Monday, as reported by HNGN previously.
He did not identify the group but sources close to the situation said it was Foley, a billionaire businessman, and the Maloof family, former owners of the NBA Sacramento Kings.
The Maloofs are influential in Las Vegas and known also for such ventures as producing movies and running the Palms Casino Resort.
There is no timetable set for the expansion, but in an as yet unreported revelation, two western cities are expected to be chosen for teams, and according to the Post's sources, one of them will be Las Vegas.
The NHL will not decide on expansion definitively until it determines the second city, a hockey source told Kosman and Brooks.
Sources also tell them that the franchise fee will be in the ballpark (or ice rink) of about $400 million - five times higher than the fee charged to owners of the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets in 2000, the last time the league expanded.
