Golden Knights Buy AHL San Antonio Franchise, Plan To Move Minor League Hockey Team To Henderson
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Those player shuttles between the big league Vegas Golden Knights and their American Hockey League minor league team will be getting a lot shorter.
The Golden Knights said Thursday it has purchased the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL from Spurs Sports & Entertainment and will apply to relocate the franchise to Henderson and the Las Vegas area for the 2020-21 season. The purchase and relocation is subject to approval from the American Hockey League Board of Governors. The future AHL Las Vegas market team, currently a St. Louis Blues’ affiliate, would be headquartered at the new Lifeguard Arena in Henderson.
The Knights are already taking ticket deposits from fans to watch the AHL games in 2020-2021.
In a prepared statement, Knights majority owner Bill Foley said, “Since our initial season ticket drive began five years ago in February 2015, we have witnessed first-hand the incredible passion and enthusiasm our community has for hockey. By every relevant metric, the growth of the game here the last few years at all levels has been remarkable. We could not be more proud to bring a second professional hockey club to the valley to accelerate this growth even further.”
The purchase of the San Antonio franchise would end the Knights’ relationship with the AHL Chicago Wolves. The Golden Knights were constantly shuttling young players between Las Vegas and Chicago. That is expected to end when the new AHL team is based in Henderson.
Major league sports teams change their Triple A affiliations from time to time. Las Vegas, for example, has been the Triple A baseball affiliate for MLB’s Dodgers, Padres, Blue Jays, Mets and currently the Oakland Athletics through the years.
Interestingly enough, another San Antonio sports team was purchased by a Las Vegas-based company — MGM Resorts International bought the WNBA San Antonio Stars in 2017 and moved the team to the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
The Knights plan to reveal their minor league team’s new name at a later date. Other info such as logo, ticket pricing and home arena will also be revealed following approval of the purchase and relocation from the AHL Board of Governors. The Orleans Arena could serve as a nice interim home for VGK’s AHL team. The arena was the former home of the ECHL Wranglers and is considered one of the nicest mid-size sports venues in the country. Playing at Orleans Arena would buy time for the Golden Knights to build its own mid-size ice arena if it wants to accommodate 3,000-8,000 fans or so.
“It’s been a goal of the Vegas Golden Knights to have our AHL team located in our market since our team’s inception,” said George McPhee, VGK president of hockey operations.
“We are now closer to realizing this goal than we have ever been before. Last season, more than 87 percent of all NHL players were graduates of the AHL. Local fans will be able to track Golden Knights prospects as they progress through our system, advance to the AHL and look to reach their potential as NHL players. This move will effectively centralize our hockey operations and streamline our processes in terms of player development, scouting, transfers and staffing,” McPhee said in the press release.
One thing is for sure — the Triple A hockey game ticket prices will be less than those at T-Mobile Arena, where the big team plays on the Strip. Knights management said fans can start placing a season ticket deposit to attend the new AHL team’s games.
Fan will be able to place a $50 per seat season ticket deposit beginning now by visiting http://vgk.io/ahl-vegas. The season ticket deposits are refundable. Current Vegas Golden Knights season ticket members who place a deposit will receive priority access once seat selection begins for the AHL team. Details regarding seat selection and pricing will be announced at a later time.
“By bringing an AHL franchise to the desert, our fans will have more opportunities to experience the sport they love in the place we call home,” Bubolz said. “With our new community ice center under construction at Lifeguard Arena in Henderson, the club will have a world class practice facility as their team headquarters.”
Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter and Instagram. Like LVSportsBiz.com on Facebook.
