How long would it take a city to get an NHL team right from scratch?

Question

No arena yet, just an announcement that the city wants a team. What would be the steps to take to actually get the team, and how long would it take?

Answer 1

Forever. The league is so broke that it just will not happen for a long time.

Answer 2

Well seeing as Boston is still trying to get it right, it obviously takes awhile.  With a great team in the early 70's they had a rink and all that, yet haven't won anything since, so a good timetable to be a good NHL team would be 30+ years.

Answer 3

to be a decent team? : a good 20 years or more after they start

to have a team : id say about 8

Answer 4

It would probably be the same thing that happened in San Jose, Ottawa, and Calgary.  The team comes BEFORE the building.

Here are the steps

1.  Ownership groups declare an interest from various cities.  This interest is in the form of a formal (NHL says they are expanding) or informal (NHL has made no formal announcement) business plan that details how a team will work in such a such a city.  For example, Jerry Bruckheimer has provided the NHL with an unsolicited business plan detailing how he would make a franchise work in Las Vegas.  This includes marketing, assumed corporate sponsorship, proposed expenses, and a proposed arena lease.  

2.  The NHL sets an expansion fee (currently believed to be between $300 and $350MM for the next one)

3.  The NHL sets up a committee to grade the proposals and selects those to present to the rest of the NHL.

4.  The NHL Board of Governors meet to listen to the full presentation of the finalists.

5.  The NHL Board of Governors votes on the proposals.  If their is a tie, Gary Bettman casts the final vote.

   The last 4 teams were added based on unsolicited proposals.  There was no formal expansion, but there were many cities expressing an interest (none were Canadian, Ron Joyce chose not to bid for the franchises awarded between 1997 and 2000)).

Currently the NHL has two unsolicited proposals from groups in Las Vegas (led by Jerry Bruckheimer) and Kansas City (led by the Anschutz corporation).  Jim Balsillie refuses to submit a proposal because he doesn't want to spend $300+ million on a team.  He would rather buy a weak team and move it.

Here's the catch, when a team moves, the other owners get no cash.  When the league expands, the owners get cash.

The Canadian Competition Bureau investigated the Nashville transaction at a fans request.  Balsillie said the NHL did nothing wrong, and the Competition bureau found no wrongdoing on either part.

So, if Balsillie wants to get in the game, the owners want his money.