Las Vegas awarded National Hockey League franchise in first sports team to be based in the city

The gambling capital that is Las Vegas will finally be getting a sports franchise after the National Hockey League granted a team to the Nevada city.

Las Vegas has long been the home of boxing and hosted major martial arts events but never had a team in one of North America’s four major sports leagues.

But the NHL announced that they would be expanding and that the 31st team in the league will be based in Las Vegas from next year.

The city has just had a brand new state-of-the-art 17,000-seat arena built which will play home to the newest team in North American professional sport.

The NHL Board of Governors unanimously voted to approve the granting of the league’s 31st franchise during a meeting in Las Vegas while also voting to defer an expansion application from Quebec City.

Billionaire Bill Foley will own the club and he and other investors will pay a £337million ($500 million) expansion fee that will be distributed equally among the other 30 NHL teams.

The Quebecor group, which also hoped to put a new team in a new state-of-the-art arena, was frustrated in its dream to return NHL hockey to the Canadian city after the Quebec Nordiques moved in 1995 to Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche, breaking even more hearts in Quebec City by winning the Stanley Cup the very next season.

Las Vegas marks the first NHL expansion team since 1997, when the league agreed to add teams on a staggered basis in Nashville, Atlanta, Columbus and Minnesota.

“In the fall of 2017, when we celebrate the 100th birthday of the NHL, we will do so as a league of 31 teams,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said.

He added that the league was “truly excited that an NHL franchise will be the first major professional sports team in this vibrant, growing, global destination city.”

The Las Vegas franchise will join the NHL’s Pacific division in 2017-18 alongside Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, Phoenix, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

Existing clubs will be able to protect nine or 10 players in an expansion draft next season to fill out roster spots for the new club.