from Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,
Foley has had preliminary discussions with AHL president Dave Andrews and team senior vice president Murray Craven is overseeing the process by which the farm team will be established. It is expected to cost Foley around $5 million to join the AHL if he opts for his own team, far less if he partners with another NHL team early on. Foley paid a record $500 million to join the NHL after the league awarded him his franchise on June 22.
“It’s like building another team from scratch, only cheaper,” Craven said of a start-up AHL team.
Foley said he is contemplating sharing an affiliation at the start, then eventually going his own way once Las Vegas has enough players to stock its own roster and that of whatever ECHL team it eventually ties into. Foley has had extensive talks with an NHL team — he wouldn’t say which — about sharing the AHL affiliate for 2017-18. He did say the NHL team he’s considering doing business with owns its AHL team.
In that case, it’s likely the Ontario Reign, which is owned by AEG, the company that owns the Los Angeles Kings. Or it could be the San Diego Gulls, a team owned and operated by the Anaheim Ducks. Foley has forged friendships with the ownership of both the Kings and the Ducks. However, the other six AHL teams that play in the Western Conference’s Pacific Division are also owned by their NHL affiliates.
“We’re still trying to figure out what we want to do,” Craven said. “The choices (for expansion) aren’t that numerous.”
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