By Ca’ren Franklin
Las Vegas is the hottest sports town in the country. Since 2017, Sin City has gone from having no major professional sports teams to having a team in the NHL, NFL and WNBA and hosting the Stanley Cup Final (twice), Super Bowl and WNBA Finals (twice). Over the next five years, they are expected to add an MLB, NBA and MLS team, making it one of the only cities with a team in all six major professional sports leagues in America.
This week The Sporting Tribune will look at where Las Vegas stands with all six leagues. Today we look at the NHL.
WHAT IS THE LATEST ON THE NHL IN LAS VEGAS?
Bill Foley, owner of the Vegas Golden Knights, brought NHL hockey to Las Vegas without asking the public to foot the bill. Unlike other Vegas pro franchise owners like Mark Davis and the Raiders, who secured $750 million in taxpayer money through hotel room taxes to fund Allegiant Stadium, Foley took the more cost-efficient route. T-Mobile Arena was built without public dollars and he personally covered the NHL’s $500 million expansion fee. In doing so, Foley not only brought hockey to the desert, he made the Golden Knights the first professional sports team to officially call Las Vegas home.
“I just believed there were better ways to use public funds,” Foley said in an interview on Vegas Hockey Hotline. “Things like supporting schools, public safety, and essential services. That’s why we didn’t rely on taxpayer money to build this team. We wanted to do it the right way.”
At the time, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval had just signed off on a hotel tax increase to help fund the Raiders’ stadium project. In total, taxpayers would be covering roughly 39 percent of the $1.9 billion build. But while the Raiders were still years away from calling Las Vegas home, the Golden Knights were already embedded. Their inaugural season began in 2017 and the team quickly became a part of the city’s identity, something that can’t be bought with a bigger stadium or a more popular league.
The Golden Knights are the second youngest team in the NHL. In their first season, they made it to the Stanley Cup Final. By 2023, they had already won it. No other team in NHL history has captured a championship faster. It wasn’t just that Vegas got a team first, they got a winner, one that broke records and redefined what an expansion franchise could be.
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE NHL IN LAS VEGAS?
Fan engagement in Las Vegas has been real from the beginning. Anytime a city gets its first pro team, there’s a different type of connection that forms. A sense of pride that runs deeper than just wins and losses. With the Golden Knights, it wasn’t about fitting into an existing sports culture. It was about creating one from scratch. Unlike cities that already have NBA, NFL, or MLB teams, Las Vegas had no major professional franchises until the Knights arrived. That gave Nevada residents a reason to rally behind a team that felt like theirs from day one.
The Golden Knights didn’t just introduce hockey to the city, they introduced it to an entirely new audience. A great deal of people in Las Vegas hadn’t watched hockey until the Knights came. That changed fast. Their games consistently bring strong attendance and they’ve proven their impact in viewership as well. When the Golden Knights faced the Bruins, it became the most-watched NHL broadcast of the season, peaking at 2.1 million viewers according to @ESPNPR. That kind of national attention doesn’t happen without a real connection between a team and its fans.
Looking at the long-term potential of this franchise, the win-now mindset is clear and has been since day one. ESPN ranked the Golden Knights fourth in its NHL preseason power rankings and the team continues to position itself as a consistent contender. But with that comes the cost of staying competitive. According to PuckPedia, Vegas has the sixth oldest roster in the league by age average with a projected cap hit of $103.14 million. They’re tied for the most contracts in the league at 48 out of a maximum 50 and they currently have the least amount of cap space in the NHL, sitting at negative 7.64 million.
A huge chunk of that—$62 million—is committed to their forwards, ranking them second in the NHL in forward spending. That speaks to a clear strategy: lean into offensive firepower and chase Cups with veteran talent. Long-term, that likely means a retooling phase is coming. It won’t be a rebuild—they’ve set the bar too high for that—but it may involve moving on from hefty contracts and finding ways to retool the roster while still keeping the franchise in contention. It’s a balance between maintaining relevance and preparing for the next core. And based on how aggressive this front office has been so far, there’s no sign they’ll settle for anything less than staying in the championship conversation.
WHAT ARE THEY SAYING ABOUT THE NHL IN LAS VEGAS?
While early doubts existed about hockey thriving in the desert, the team’s rapid success has quieted those concerns.
“There’s no question it has worked. It has worked better than anyone could have ever dreamed,” said ESPN Radio’s Adam Hill, a lifelong Vegas resident.
Still, Hill acknowledged future tests: “How will this town react when the Knights are finally not good? It happens to everyone. Sports are cyclical…”
From the front office, Darren Eliot—VP of hockey programming and facility operations—has spoken highly of the local energy. “I’ve seen an extreme and extremely rare love affair between the fan base and the hockey team,” Eliot told ESPN.
He also noted the unique way fans responded early on: “I don’t know anything about hockey, but I’m gearing up with my VGK attire and I’m learning about the sport."
Even the bar culture reflects this bond. “The bars, they play the games with the sound on… it’s the focal point,” Eliot said.
These quotes highlight what’s been felt throughout the city: hockey didn’t just arrive in Las Vegas—it was embraced.
WHAT ARE THE ODDS THE NHL THRIVES IN LAS VEGAS?
Based on what the Golden Knights have accomplished in just under a decade, the odds of the NHL continuing to thrive in Las Vegas are extremely high. The team didn’t just succeed—they redefined what success for an expansion franchise could look like. From ownership’s financial independence to fan buy-in to early championships, the infrastructure for long-term relevance is firmly in place.
Las Vegas was once seen as a risky market for any sport, let alone hockey. But the city has proved to be hungry, loyal, and fully capable of supporting a major franchise. As long as the Golden Knights remain competitive—and they have shown every intention of doing so—there’s no reason to expect a drop-off in interest.
There will be challenges. The roster will age, other sports (NFL, NBA, MLB) will compete for eyeballs, and the salary cap crunch will eventually force some hard decisions. But the team’s strong culture, loyal fan base, and consistent success give them a head start in weathering any storm.
Vegas is no longer asking if hockey can survive here. It’s asking how many banners can go up in the rafters before other teams catch up.