The Las Vegas franchise reveals their logo and official team name outside their arena on Nov. 22
When Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in the Summer of '88, the hockey landscape was changed forever. California became a viable hockey market, and the success spread to other markets that were once thought to be unviable.
Now it's just getting out of hand. In June of 2016, the NHL approved the expansion bid of the Las Vegas group (after an expansion fee of $500 million), and on Nov. 22 the ownership group, led by Bill Foley, announced the name of the team in a display only Vegas would love. On June 21 2017, the Vegas Golden Knights will announce their selections from the expansion draft; a player disbursement mechanism that will give the Las Vegas franchise the undesirables from the 30 pre-existing franchises.
Through all the pyrotechnics and confetti, there is a major crack in the Knights' armor: stadium attendance. To gauge interest in the franchise, Foley launched a season ticket drive, where they exceeded their goal of 15,000 season ticket deposits for their 17,500 seat arena. When asked by ESPN writer Craig Custance about attendance Foley responded candidly, saying "We won't sell out every game with season-ticket holders, but I believe it's going to be 85 percent, 90 percent [filled by season ticket holders]." Foley appears to be counting his chickens before they hatch, as deposits aren't sales. Las Vegas would be smart to ensure that all those deposits turn into actual sales.
For horror stories of hockey attendance, Foley and the Knights don't need to look very far. Their de-facto older brother, the Arizona Coyotes, have struggled in attendance every year they've been in the league. For the last three years, the Coyotes have the third lowest average attendance percentage at 77.3%. In the Coyotes' best season in 2009-10, they finished dead last in attendance percentage, with their arena averaging 68.5% capacity over the course of 41 home games. If there's no market in the desert for an established team, Vegas will have a hard time creating an fanbase of their own.
Of course, there's no reason to believe it will be that bad from the start. The Golden Knights will almost certainly sell out opening night, and will probably experience decent attendance for the first year. However, once the novelty of hockey on the Vegas Strip wears off, they'll have some serious problems on their hands. In fact, Foley's headache will become more painful when the Oakland Raiders of the NFL leave California in favor of Las Vegas, diminishing the Golden Knights' market share even further.
And Foley is going to have to figure that out on his own, because it doesn't look like another Gretzky will be coming along any time soon.