NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was not mincing words today when discussing the possibility of Eastern expansion and the prospect of the Florida Panthers relocating to Quebec City.
"Let me say this the right way," Bettman told Sportsnet reporters today, according to ProHockeyTalk.com. "I don't think it's fair for the speculation on any franchise, including the Panthers, to be that it's moving. It's not. The Panthers have good ownership that's committed to South Florida, and any speculation that that team's future is anywhere but in South Florida is unfounded."
There has been speculation for months - years, even - that the NHL would be expanding, due in large part to the presence of 16 teams in the Eastern Conference and only 14 in the Western, and that Quebec City, which is slated to have a new arena by 2015, very well might be one of the places it expands to.
Quebec City is however, of course, an Eastern location.
"Eastern expansion at this point would probably have more issues to deal with than a Western expansion, simply because we're already out of balance, and I'm not sure that anybody would want to see that get worse," said Bettman.
And while he may be doing his best to put to bed any notion that the Panthers could be moving, the idea is not as far-fetched as he'd like to make it seem.
The Panthers opened this season with a record-low attendance of 12,087, according to George Richards of The Miami Herald. The team is bad, and their prospects for improvement are not particularly bright.
The team's co-owners, Vinnie Viola and Doug Cifo, admitted in an open letter to fans earlier this season that, while they're committed to Broward County, Florida, the team has lost "tremendous amounts of money."
For the time being, it seems the Panthers won't be going anywhere, and Quebec City won't be home to either an expansion team or an already established team's relocation, but should financial issues in South Florida continue, look for Bettman's mind to change rather quickly.
