JLP
Refugee
- Aug 16, 2005
- 10,706
- 576
Re these statements made recently by Bettman, if there are no plans for expansion or relocation, why were the East and West Conferences recently reorganized to have an unequal number of teams? I thought this was because expansion or relocation was anticipated in the near future.
Commissioner Bettman said the League has no plans to conduct a formal expansion process at the present time.
"We get expressions of interest all the time and those are informal conversations that we have, but in terms of a formal bid process I'm not focused on doing anything like that right now," he said.
Relocation of franchises is also not a concern with new ownership in place with the Florida Panthers, Phoenix Coyotes and New Jersey Devils.
"Relocation was never anything we were interested in and we've been very clear about that and we never believed there would be a reason for relocation despite the speculation to the contrary," Commissioner Bettman said. "And the problem with the speculation to the contrary is it raised expectations, and we didn't think that was fair to our fans in the places that were hoping to get a franchise."
Commissioner Bettman said the League has no plans to conduct a formal expansion process at the present time.
"We get expressions of interest all the time and those are informal conversations that we have, but in terms of a formal bid process I'm not focused on doing anything like that right now," he said.
Relocation of franchises is also not a concern with new ownership in place with the Florida Panthers, Phoenix Coyotes and New Jersey Devils.
"Relocation was never anything we were interested in and we've been very clear about that and we never believed there would be a reason for relocation despite the speculation to the contrary," Commissioner Bettman said. "And the problem with the speculation to the contrary is it raised expectations, and we didn't think that was fair to our fans in the places that were hoping to get a franchise."