Kansas City Sports: Could the NHL Relocate to Kansas City
The latest round of National Hockey League expansion – which ultimately landed in Las Vegas – didn’t include a bid from Kansas City. The cost of expansion was too high, but there is another option that could make the NHL the newest addition to Kansas City sports.
Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports’ Puck Daddy blog explained that the expansion fee that the NHL required in its latest round was $500 million. Wyshynski’s sources, like Missouri Mavericks owner Lamar Hunt Jr., stated that it was simply too rich for any one investor or group of investors in the Kansas City market.
Creating a new franchise bears many auxiliary costs in addition to the NHL’s expansion fee like licensing and building the team’s infrastructure. Acquiring an existing NHL franchise would allow investors to forego many of those costs.
While there are costs inherent in re-branding and relocating an existing franchise, in addition to whatever amount the seller(s) get for the team, it can still represent a large savings in comparison to expansion. The likelihood of this scenario depends on many factors, however.
The first component is the most obvious; the majority ownership of an existing franchise has to be looking to sell and willing to sell to buyers who want to relocate the team.
New rumors have surfaced regarding the Florida Panthers being shopped after the franchise’s principal owner and chairman Vincent Viola was nominated as Secretary of the Army, but team officials have denied any truth to those rumors amidst a tumultuous restructuring of the organization.
It’s true that despite consistent weak attendance figures and profit margins, the ownership group appears to be committed to the greater Miami area.
That appearance of commitment is less strong in regards to the Carolina Hurricanes. It’s no secret that principal owner Peter Karmanos Jr. has been looking for a partner to buy his majority stake of the team, but allow him to remain in control of the daily operations.
There are recent reports which state that Karmanos may be bending on that requirement, however. If Karmanos caves on the requirement of a partner essentially being silent, then relocation might be possible. Again, though, the official word out of Raleigh is that the team is staying put.
Carolina’s status as a business might be actually more negative than Florida’s. Forbes ranked the team as the least valuable in the NHL, and Karmanos has had trouble keeping the operations in the black on the revenue the franchise draws.
The history of North American professional sports is rife with ownership issuing public statements of commitment to a city and then relocating anyway, and it’s not a requirement for the current ownership to sell in order to relocate their teams.
Most franchise relocations in history have happened without an ownership change. If either ownership group is willing when its current facility lease agreement expires, then it’s simply a matter of Kansas City selling itself.
That may be another reason why Kansas City didn’t participate in the expansion bidding. The Sprint Center is the city’s biggest point of attraction for an NHL franchise looking for a new home, and keeping it without an anchor tenant is key to maintaining that attraction.
That way, when teams looking to relocate see the end of their leases (like the Hurricanes in 2024 or Panthers in 2028) or find legal loopholes to void their leases, the Sprint Center is there to dangle.
Kansas City has other carrots to dangle, however.
The success of the Missouri Mavericks could be used as evidence to demonstrate the city’s feasibility as a hockey market. Wyshynski spoke in his article how television ratings for hockey in Kansas City outperform ratings for games in markets with existing NHL teams.
The game’s youth infrastructure is improving thanks to Hunt’s involvement. The city/state of Missouri could also dangle tax credits and future facilities upgrade commitments. Perhaps most importantly, there is a group already in place that is ready to do the dangling.
NHL21 is a group that has been working to bring the NHL back to Kansas City for years, and it was active when the Arizona Coyotes were struggling financially. When the opportunity arises for a local group to purchase a franchise or try to sway an owner looking to move her/his team that Kansas City is the place, NHL21 will be ready to pounce.
Obviously if an ownership change is not included in a potential relocation, the costs for relocation are limited to simply what’s necessary for that relocation. That would represent a savings of hundreds of millions of dollars in comparison to expansion. If NHL21 can convince ownership that improved returns warrant that investment, relocation to Kansas City could become very attractive.
Kansas City might face competition from other markets, like Quebec City or Seattle, but as of now Seattle has no facility and Quebec City has to deal with the weakness of the Canadian dollar along with Quebec’s tax rates.
Hockey fans in Kansas City shouldn’t expect any significant movement on this front anytime soon, but the cost of relocating a franchise here is the most feasible option for getting an NHL franchise back in the area.
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