I think a split between Bell and Rogers makes sense, but I don't see how one would be willing to concede the downtown union station market for some rinky dink 905 option and the expense of having to build a new arena... who wants to willingly own the second rate team?
I don't buy the whole "stick the team beside a highway" kind of thing, because when you look at most successful rinks in this league, they are located right at transit hubs. ACC, Bell Centre, Madison Square Garden, TD Banknorth, etc.
I see one of them walking away from MLSE, but they stay in the ACC as an equal tenant, a la Lakers vs Clippers.
How do they do that? The ACC is owned by MLSE. The owner that stays and still has part of MLSE would be crazy to give it up. Beside, how do you schedule another hockey team when beside the Leafs, the MLSE Raptors are also playing there in the same season and time periods. Is the new hockey team to get Tuesday afternoons? Sorry, but they won't fit in and would have to get a new arena.
Rogers won't be leaving, they are set with their new contract. Aside from that, the part of Bell that owns part of MLSE is the Bell pension fund and not BCE. They had to be an arms length company from Bell to get that ownership since Bell owns part of the Montreal Canadiens and would violate NHL ownership rules if they had directly acquired what is know as the Bell part of MLSE.
It is doubtful a company like the Bell pension fund would enter into a high risk purchase of an expansion team that has no arena, no set fan base, and would have to pay a penalty to the Leafs for invading their market. Pension funds do not operate that way. As well, before Bell, other than the pension fund group, can acquire a new team, they would have to sell their stake in the Habs.
Last, this expansion rumour was just a tweet by sports writer Howard Bloom of SportsBizNews that
suggested the NHL will expand. It has been denied by the NHL as soon as it was released including full descriptions of the denial in the newspapers.
Its all just blab, nothing more.