from Jared Clinton of The Hockey News,

With somewhere in the neighborhood of 32,000 season-ticket deposits and a market seemingly readymade for the NHL, Seattle projects to be the league’s 32nd franchise. Before that can become official, however, the group looking to bring an expansion team to Seattle needs league approval, and it might not be much longer before they get the green light.

In speaking Tuesday with Dave Mahler and Dick Fain on Seattle’s 950 KJR, president and CEO of the group heading up Seattle’s NHL bid, Tod Leiweke, said that he and prospective team owners David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer will be heading to New York City in the first week of October to meet with the NHL’s executive committee to get the process started on the league approving a team in Seattle.

“I’ve never prepared like this for a presentation or meeting, and I’ve had a few in my career,” Leiweke said. “This is an important moment because we owe it to the city to do our best. There’s so much excitement and those 32,000 depositors absolutely deserve us getting up there that day and giving it everything we’ve got.”

If all goes well at that meeting, Leiweke said the group would then go before the “entire membership of the NHL to make our case.” That could come as soon as December at the NHL’s Board of Governors meetings.

read on