Could the Next NHL Expansion Fee Be $2 Billion or More?

Gary Bettman Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports

The prospects of NHL expansion continue to be a hot topic in hockey circles.

Veteran observers noted a recent All-Star Game discussion by league commissioner Gary Bettman about interest from Utah Jazz owners and groups elsewhere as an indication we could be headed toward the addition of one or two teams in the next few years.

In this recent interview with Bettman by The Hockey News publisher W. Graeme Roustan for the 2024 Money & Power Issue, Bettman threw out some financial numbers for expansion that are extremely intriguing.

When asked by Roustan whether a franchise expansion fee would be in the $2-billion range, Bettman said that was a “notional amount” but had more to say.

“Whether it’s $2 billion, or $2.5 billion, or a billion-seven, I think that’s the range I believe the owners would want to be in if we were going to consider expansion,” Bettman told Roustan before cautioning against the notion expansion is imminent. “We’re not in expansion mode. I’m not telling the world ‘File your applications, and we’ll pick the best one,’ because we’re not there yet.”

Needless to say, a $2-billion or $2.5-billion expansion fee would be an enormous haul for the 32 team owners, who don’t have to split a single penny of expansion fees with the NHL Players’ Association. Even Bettman’s low-end appraisal of $1.7 billion for a new team would considerably raise the bar for all of the league’s franchises.

In the Money & Power Issue, Roustan valued the league’s top teams at or near the $3-billion plateau. The Toronto Maple Leafs were valued at $3 billion, while the New York Rangers were valued at $2.75 billion. Getting a new owner or two to pay anywhere close to that would be a massive achievement by Bettman.

The last time the NHL expanded, the Vegas Golden Knights ownership group had to pay $500 million in 2017, while the Seattle Kraken paid $650 million to join the league in 2021. Bumping those numbers up to more than four times what they started at in less than a decade is more than enough reason for NHL owners to increase the league to 33 or 34 franchises.

Bettman’s remarks to Roustan, as well as his comments at a press conference at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game, signal that expansion is looking like more of a possibility for the league, even if it’s not there yet for a while. Bettman is as meticulous in his dealings with the media as any hockey figure, so he would not have just given a range of numbers if he did not believe they were achievable.

The 32 current owners wouldn’t be hurting themselves if they accepted the money that came with expansion – per new team, at a $2-billion valuation, owners would each get $62.5 million. And with so many markets trying to get into business with the NHL, with Bettman mentioning Houston, Salt Lake City and Atlanta as just a few, that could drive up the price.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – Bettman has done very well for the owners in the 31 years he’s been the commissioner. And another round of expansion will only endear him more to the team owners he works for. There’s not going to be an expansion announcement anytime soon, but we’d be willing to wager that, in the relatively near future, the NHL is going to grow again by two teams.

When it does, players will be elated at the addition of 46 new NHL jobs, and team owners will be thrilled with the $125 million or more that would come their way with two new teams if the expansion fees are in that $2-billion range. There’s not much downside to expansion, and that’s why it’s almost certainly going to happen.