Las Vegas has it's first professional sports franchise as the NHL has settled on Las Vegas for its upcoming expansion.

According to the AP, as long as organizers can come up with the $500 million dollar fee, the deal will go through.

The last time the NHL expanded, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild paid $80 million in an expansion fee, but NHL commissioner Gary Bettman had proposed an expansion fee of $500 million and that is what the new franchise will have to pay.

The inaugural year for the Las Vegas based NHL franchise would be 2017-2018.

The other location that was considered was Quebec City.

According to ESPN.com, this Las Vegas bid has secured more than 13,200 season-ticket deposits for a potential team and has a 20,000-seat arena near the Las Vegas Strip that opened in April in which they will call home.

The whole bid has been led by successful businessman Bill Foley.

The decision to bring the NHL to Las Vegas could pave the way for the Oakland Raiders and the NFL to make a deal in Sin City as well.

 

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