Foley may ask for June vote on NHL Las Vegas team

Prospective National Hockey League team owner Bill Foley plans to meet with the NHL Board of Governors at its June meeting if his Las Vegas hockey initiative can generate 10,000 season ticket deposits.

Foley said the Board of Governors, the league’s ruling body, “could” vote on a franchise for Las Vegas, but he declined to elaborate. NHL officials were not immediately available for comment.

Foley said he is buoyed by the 7,000 season ticket commitments he has collected so far in Las Vegas. He and his partners, the Maloof brothers, aim for a 10,000 deposit goal.

Foley-Maloof launched the ticket deposit campaign on Feb. 10 at a high-profile announcement at MGM Grand. His partners, Joe, Gavin, George and Phil Maloof, owned the Sacramento Kings from 1998-2013. Foley is chairman of Fidelity National Financial, a mortgage company based in Jacksonville, Fla., and owns 14 wineries in the Western U.S. and a golf development and cattle ranch in Montana.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman attended the announcement two weeks ago, saying he endorsed the ticket drive as an effort to measure the Las Vegas market’s interest in hosting a major-league hockey club.

Bettman said his endorsement of the ticket campaign is based on Foley’s vast business background and his capability as a prospective managing partner plus the privately financed $375 million arena under construction on the Strip behind New York-New York.

The partnership of MGM Resorts International and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) is building the venue, which will offer 17,500 seats for hockey after it opens in April 2016. AEG owns the NHL Los Angeles Kings, and AEG CEO Dan Beckerman has said Las Vegas can support an NHL club.

Foley also said he met Gov. Brian Sandoval and House and Senate leaders in Carson City last week, but only asked for their support for his team bid with no public dollars attached. In a video shown at ticket drive events, Sandoval backs a NHL team.

Foley spoke to hockey fans at the Southern Highlands Country Club on Monday night urging them to sign up for season ticket deposits, which range from $150 to $900 based on the seat. Deposits, which represent 10 percent of the season ticket, will be refunded if Las Vegas is not awarded a franchise.

Foley told the group the team name will be selected through a contest, but he’s already ruled out any names related to gambling.

Fans can purchase as many as 20 tickets per person. But Foley-Maloof has not accepted bulk ticket deals from Strip properties or casino-hotel owners because the NHL wants to see if the local community backs the team and does not want casino companies to buy blocks of tickets, which could be used as comps as part of hotel promotional deals.

“We have to demonstrate we have community support for this team,” Foley said.

To spark more ticket commitments, sales manager Todd Pollock sent an email Tuesday to people who signed up for the Vegas Wants Hockey website that said they would receive a free replica team jersey if they buy at least two season ticket deposits and if Foley-Maloof is awarded a team.

The www.vegaswantshockey.com web site has about 10,000 names, with about 15 percent of the people signing up for ticket deposits.

Foley and the Maloofs are splitting the costs of nearly $2 million for the ticket drive media campaign, which includes billboards, social media and advertisements in newspapers and on Facebook and TV.

“We have a chance to make history here in Vegas,” Joe Maloof said.

Contact Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Find him on Twitter: @BicycleManSnel