page_title: Potential National Hockey League expansion
section_title: Kansas City
hierarchical_section_title: Potential National Hockey League expansion / Expansion sites in the United States / Kansas City
caption_attribution_description: English: Sprint Center (view from south), Kansas City, Missouri
context_page_description: The National Hockey League has undergone several rounds of expansion and other organizational changes during its 102-year history to reach its current thirty-one teams: twenty-four in the United States, and seven in Canada. The league is in the process of a two-team expansion, which added the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017 and the Seattle Kraken set to begin play in 2021, at which point the league will have thirty-two teams. The league's most recent relocation was in 2011, when the former Atlanta Thrashers relocated to become the second and current incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets.
  To gauge interest and help determine whether the NHL should entertain further expansion, the NHL Board of Governors accepted applications for new franchises during the 2015 offseason. Two potential ownership groups submitted applications for prospective teams in Las Vegas and Quebec City. The geographic distribution of teams between the NHL's two conferences was not a primary consideration for expansion, and the earliest time when a new franchise could start play was the 2017–18 season. On June 22, 2016, the NHL approved expansion to Las Vegas starting in the 2017–18 season with the Vegas Golden Knights.
context_section_description: Kansas City, Missouri has hosted NHL hockey before. The Kansas City Scouts played in Kemper Arena from 1974 until 1976. The team averaged only 8,218 in attendance per game in the 17,000-seat arena, leading to the team's sale and relocation to Denver to become the Colorado Rockies. Professional hockey continued at the arena in the form of the minor league Kansas City Blues, followed by the Kansas City Blades and the Kansas City Outlaws. The ECHL's Kansas City Mavericks currently play at the suburban Silverstein Eye Centers Arena in Independence, Missouri.
  Kansas City opened an NHL-ready arena named T-Mobile Center in 2007. The arena is managed by the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which owns the Los Angeles Kings, among other sports interests. In 2007, when the Pittsburgh Penguins faced financial troubles and no prospect of a new arena, the president of AEG offered to relocate the team to Missouri to play in the new Sprint Center rent-free and to become managing partners in the facility. The Penguins, however, remained in Pittsburgh and got their new arena in 2010.
  Kansas City sports investor Lamar Hunt Jr. called the NHL's $500 million price tag for an expansion franchise "a ridiculously big fee," and said that he is not aware of anyone in Kansas City who will make a push for a team. Neither he nor Cliff Illig, co-owner of MLS's Sporting Kansas City, have any intention of bidding in the NHL expansion window.
caption: The T-Mobile Center in Kansas City
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