Allan Muir of Sports Illustrated has a recent column answering reader mail. In one answer, he “pretty much guarantee(s) (expansion is) going to happen,” and probably within five years. Muir’s “best bets” for expansion are Toronto/Southwestern Ontario and Kansas City.
As Muir says earlier in the same answer, Gary Bettman has made it clear that he will fight tooth and nail to prevent teams from relocating.* So in spite of the existence of several teams on shaky footing, the prospects for Kansas City (or anywhere else) gaining a relocated team in the at-all near future seem slim at best. And I’m not as optimistic as Muir is for our chances at an expansion team. But it is always nice to read that someone in the know thinks we still have a real shot.
*Say what you want about Bettman defending his current markets so staunchly, but I sure wish the league would have been willing back in 1976 to go to bat for Kansas City to allow us more time to develop as an NHL market. As I’ve reported before, the league would have even allowed the Scouts to fold in the middle of a season if it came to that. Maybe we still have the Scouts if the league would have been willing to help in the slightest.
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