Seattle officially submits application for NHL team

SEATTLE - Seattle is one step closer to getting an NHL team.

Mayor Jenny Durkan tweeted Tuesday afternoon that the Oak View Group submitted an application for an expansion franchise to the NHL.

The Oak View Group and its prospective NHL ownership group, led by billionaire David Bonderman and filmmaker Jerry Bruckheimer, submitted the expansion application and $10 million filing fee. The expansion application has been expected for weeks and is the next step in Seattle's ongoing hope of bringing an NHL franchise to the largest market in the United States without a professional winter sports franchise.

If Seattle is successful in its expansion bid, the new franchise would bring the league to an even 32 teams with 16 in each conference. A new team would also yield a hefty expansion fee - in the neighborhood of $650 million.

In December, the NHL said it would accept an expansion application and granted permission for a season-ticket drive, which hasn't yet begun.





"That doesn't mean we have granted an expansion team," commissioner Gary Bettman said last month. "We have agreed as a league to take and consider an expansion application and to let them run in the next few months a season-ticket drive."