There are at least 20 of us coming from ST Louis for the first Blues game in Vegas. It will be a yearly event for fans in many cities. My guess? They get a substantial out of town crowd most nights

You're right, it will be interesting to see how many locals bought tickets to use, and how many bought tickets to put on StubHub. And if that number will fluctuate depending on the success of the team. I've said it elsewhere - I'm going in full Knights gear to every home game, except when they play Boston. It's not that I won't give up the Bruins as my #1 team. I just enjoy being a contrarian.

This team will be closely watched to see if this will work in Las Vegas. You got the Raiders knocking on the door and the other leagues would surely like to put a team in this market if they can avoid the gambling stigma as Vegas has to be a bigger market than cities like Jacksonville or Columbus (Ohio).

For Vegas, getting all of the professional sports leagues in town would be a HUGE boon to the economy I believe. It will help draw more people as gambling is no longer as big of a draw as it used to be. The younger generation isn't addicted to slots and table games as their parents and grandparents are and why fly to LV when you got a casino in a BUNCH of other states in the US now. No longer is it Vegas or Atlantic City like in the old, old days.

Furthermore, the only monopoly Vegas still holds on the ENTIRE US, is sports betting. Look at the busiest times of the year in Vegas other than national holidays and CES...Super Bowl weekend, NYE which happens to coincide with Bowl season, and of course March Madness. Imagine being able to actually see some live sports once in town!

The big draw now is entertainment in the city between shows, restaurants, and the night/day clubs. Sports is a HUGE entertainment market and other than gambling and watching it on TV, what else can you do in Vegas? Having a major sports team would be huge. The stands might be filled with more fans of the visiting teams (especially with teams with huge fan bases like Cowboys, Packers, NYC teams, and neighboring LA teams), but tickets should be sold pretty well. The branding also seems like Vegas has a certain ring to it which should draw some extra attention.

So as a Vegas resident, I am keeping my fingers crossed that the Golden Knights have a solid year and build a nice fan base pretty quickly to convince the Raiders to come over and then maybe get an MLB and NBA team was well. Fingers crossed!

Just order gear from all teams and enjoy being a contrarian all season.

Should've been the Aces. Works so many times over.

What free agent is going to want to go to a team called Golden Knights? Doomed to failure before the first draft.

They are going to be pretty high on the list for guys who like hookers & blow.

I am pretty sure the idea of bottle service at XS on your off nights will be appealing to the Johnny Manziels of the NHL.

Not a bad idea, but I think I'd get cold wearing only a diaper, bonnet and rattle whenever Montreal is in town.

**** the Habs.

The league put two restrictions on the name:

1. Nothing gambling-related
2. Couldn't be more than three total words

WTF? Did they tell Montreal and Vancouver they couldn't name their teams after anything hoser related? Eh?

Plus you'd get real tired carrying around the diving board all night long... oh and don't forget your cell phone so you can call the police if one of the Habs gets hit really hard.

Wow... can't believe they never even told the Army that they were stealing the parachute teams name.

See you in court sonny!!!!

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ct-us...129-story.html

Fail. Shoulda been the Degenerates

I guess owner figured he would rather go to war against the Army, than go to war against the Silver Knight Baton Twirlers.

http://silverknightsbatoncorps.org/

Teen age girls with batons more dangerous than soldiers with batons.

Prob woulda been considered gaming related. Hookers-n-Blow would be identifiable with Vegas but not gaming related.

I don't understand how you can trademark a team nickname, especially something as generic as <whatever color> Knights.

Lots of teams of the same nicknames as other teams even within their same league. And it's not like anyone is going to confuse a professional hockey team with a military academy parachute troop, or buy tickets to a Las Vegas NHL game expecting to see a parachute show.

You should ask Mr Foley why he unhappily abandoned his first name choice of "Black Knights"... I'm sure his explanation would help you see the light. I just don't get if he was going to use one of the Army's names why not just go with his first choice instead of Golden Knights. IMO both names suck anyway... can't believe the team of people that worked on the naming of the team couldn't come up with ANYTHING better!!!

Any color of Knights is a suck name.

U.S. Patent Office denies NHL team trademark request.

http://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/1...-patent-office

There is still a chance for the Las Vegas Hookers & Blow.

Funny that they didn't check that before choosing the name. Derp.

No one from the team or the league seems worried. Foley released a statement saying that they can get the approval. Daly said the league is standing with the team. This is a hiccup and won't affect anything. But that's not the point.

The point is that this team has ****ed up nearly EVERYTHING since they announced they were coming into the league. Saying season ticket holders could vote on the name, then changing their minds. Sticking with the Knights even though no one in Vegas cares about that name. Giving seating priorities to people who bought through one of their "Celebrity 75" or whatever that group that included Negreanu was called. Videogate. Pro shop is about 1/10th the size it should be for an NHL team. And now this. So many missteps along the way, and it's becoming embarrassing and indefensible.

Vegas can support a 55k football crowd 8 times a year piece of cake - a full season of baseball, basketball or hockey is a little harder. Even a ****hole little place can support football.

The unfortunate quirk about football is it's played on Sunday afternoon. If they want to snag a lot of visitors, it would be better to attract them on a Saturday. But really, although the Raiders haven't done a lot lately, they still have enough of a following that ticket sales shouldn't be a problem. It's not like they're the Buccaneers or something.

But hackey? It has a fraction of the fans that the NFL has. I lived for 20 years less than 10 miles from the Sharks arena and never once even though about going to a game. The most interested in hackey I've ever been is the scene in She's Out Of My League.

i thought those ESPN charts showing populations and keen hockey interest were very interesting. thx for posting them.

i think in some places though the tables really underestimate the interest. i spend alot of time in san francisco and there's pretty good interest in the sharks. nothing like giants/49ers/warriors/etc. but i'm impressed as canadian.

does kingston/eastern ontario really have 700K+ population? a bit surprising to me.

NHL almost needs a english premiership demotion/promotion model for kingston to work..... kingston could have a team with a $10MM payroll and occasionally play in the top league

I'd agree on the Warriors, and on the Giants SINCE they won the Series a few years ago. Before that, attendance sucked. As for the 49ers, LOL. The Sharks were hot as soon as they got to San Jose. If there was a slugging percentage wrt attendance/capacity over the past 10 or 20 years, the Warriors would rule and the Sharks a close second.

I don't get the "NHL fan population". If those numbers can be believed, every night should be a sellout. Which tells me they can't be believed.

I find that chart very interesting and informative. I suppose there could be a column of some kind that relates attendance to fan population but your conclusion that there should always be sellouts based on the information presented is faulty. There are many reasons for avid fans not actually attending games or only attending games periodically. A very small percentage of fan population actually attend games in all sports and even if actual fan population is in 6 figures, attendance may very well be below a sellout.

I would love to see a team in Seattle but to me Quebec City is the most deserving of an NHL team based on many reasons and well supported by the chart.