Sporticast: To Expand Or To Relocate, That Is The Question

On the 592nd Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams speak with colleague Kurt Badenhausen about his latest list of NHL franchise valuations, the league’s looming expansion, and why the biggest-market teams tend to struggle to win Stanley Cup titles.

The Toronto Maple Leafs ($4.8 billion) are the most valuable franchise in the NHL, followed by the New York Rangers ($4.15 billion), Montreal Canadiens ($3.8 billion), Los Angeles Kings ($3.33 billion) and Boston Bruins ($3.31 billion). The Columbus Blue Jackets ($1.5 billion) rank 32nd.

The hosts break down the numbers, including a surge for Sun Belt franchises like the Carolina Hurricanes and the Florida Panthers, both of which have won recent championships. Those teams have better weather, and some are in states without income taxes, which many think helps them attract talent to their rosters.

Now the league is looking to expand in the American South, something that would have sounded insane a decade ago, when all the expansion conversations seemed focused around putting second teams in Quebec or Ontario or other cold-weather places. The get-in price for this round of NHL expansion, which will likely start in Texas, is probably around $2.5 billion.

They close by diving into the economics of expansion vs. relocation. At $2.5 billion, interested parties could likely buy a number of different existing NHL teams, which have infrastructure already in place. The hosts talk about why that is, how relocation fees help rebalance the calculus, and also why this conversation is different in some other leagues that are expanding, like the NBA, NWSL and WNBA.

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