Las Vegas NHL franchise has its colors: black, gold and gray
Prospective NHL Las Vegas owner Bill Foley held a meet and greet with hockey fans earlier this week and while he didn’t reveal much, his confidence about getting a team remained high.
“The league has been supportive and positive with our efforts,” he said. “We feel like we’re on the 1-yard line with this thing.”
On Monday, ESPN.com’s Scott Burnside reported that the Las Vegas ticket drive had surpassed the 11,000 sold mark, an impressive feat considering there’s no guarantee that the NHL will be coming.
“I’m not prepared to say how many tickets we’ve sold,” Foley said, “but it’s been awesome in terms of response from the market.”
If the league does put a team in Las Vegas, Burnside reports it’s not expected to happen until the 2017-18 season.
There was one little nugget of news regarding the Las Vegas Whatevers during the meet and greet. Foley said the team’s colors will be black, gold and gray, which matches with the color scheme of the United States Military Academy, whose sports teams are known as the Black Knights, the Vegas billionaire’s initial favorite for the team’s name.
Foley did say, however, there will be a “Name the Team” contest with season-ticket holders where the field will be narrowed down to 10 finalists. So for those of you who support “Las Vegas Aces” option, there’s still hope.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said on Monday that he’ll give a report on the Las Vegas drive to the Board of Governors when they meet in June and, according to our Nick Cotsonika, a formal expansion process could begin if they decided to go forward.
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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy
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