The $500 million that Bill Foley and the Maloofs paid the NHL to bring hockey to Las Vegas was quite the chunk of change at the time.
Not that a half-billion dollars should be slighted, but the value of the dollar — and the landscape of sports expansion — changed when the Vegas Golden Knights arrived.
Foley paid more than six times the amount the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild had to pay ($80 million each) during the NHL’s last round of expansion in 2000.
If you thought that $500 million was a lot of money, wait until the sticker shock from the NBA. The cost for Las Vegas and Seattle to enter the NBA could reach between $7 billion and $10 billion.
