Hey, hey fans...hockey may be back in Kansas City!
Jamie Squire - MSNSports - 14 Aug 17
"The NHL hasn't closed the book on returning to Kansas City.
Since opening its doors in 2007, the downtown Sprint Center, which seats more than 17,500 for hockey, has hosted five NHL exhibition games, and will do so again this preseason in a neutral-site contest between the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues.
Jamie Squire / Getty Images Sport / Getty
The Sprint Center is a rare new facility with no pro team as an anchor tenant, but the arena has been a proposed landing spot for a relocation, including the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins in 2007 and the New York Islanders in 2011.
Preseason contests, particularly those involving the cross-state Blues, allow the NHL to gauge hockey interest in Kansas City. But a team in the City of Fountains wouldn't be a first for the NHL. Kansas City was home to the expansion Scouts, who joined the league in 1974. The team lasted just two seasons before uprooting for Denver [
Colorado Rockies], then moving again in 1982 to become the New Jersey Devils.
While the Scouts are no longer, hockey interests in the city have continued to be served at the minor-pro level. For 11 seasons, the Blades skated in the International Hockey League, prior to the league dissolving in 2001, and most recently with the ECHL's Missouri Mavericks.
Should the NHL return to Kansas City [will they be able keep the Scouts name, logo ect...], Mavericks owner and Kansas City Chiefs part-owner, Lamar Hunt Jr., has long been rumored as a potential franchise owner.
Read More: Kansas City not entirely off-radar for future NHL Expansion
"Hockey...The Coolest Game on Earth"!! NHL Official Slogan
Jamie Squire - MSNSports - 14 Aug 17
Since opening its doors in 2007, the downtown Sprint Center, which seats more than 17,500 for hockey, has hosted five NHL exhibition games, and will do so again this preseason in a neutral-site contest between the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues.
The Sprint Center is a rare new facility with no pro team as an anchor tenant, but the arena has been a proposed landing spot for a relocation, including the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins in 2007 and the New York Islanders in 2011.
Preseason contests, particularly those involving the cross-state Blues, allow the NHL to gauge hockey interest in Kansas City. But a team in the City of Fountains wouldn't be a first for the NHL. Kansas City was home to the expansion Scouts, who joined the league in 1974. The team lasted just two seasons before uprooting for Denver [
While the Scouts are no longer, hockey interests in the city have continued to be served at the minor-pro level. For 11 seasons, the Blades skated in the International Hockey League, prior to the league dissolving in 2001, and most recently with the ECHL's Missouri Mavericks.
Should the NHL return to Kansas City [will they be able keep the Scouts name, logo ect...], Mavericks owner and Kansas City Chiefs part-owner, Lamar Hunt Jr., has long been rumored as a potential franchise owner.
Read More: Kansas City not entirely off-radar for future NHL Expansion
"Hockey...The Coolest Game on Earth"!! NHL Official Slogan
