{"id":1045748,"date":"2026-09-05T22:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T22:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1045748\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T22:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T22:29:12","slug":"atlanta-not-remotely-close-to-application-phase-for-expansion-team-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1045748\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta \u2018Not Remotely Close\u2019 To Application Phase For Expansion Team \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a 33rd NHL team based out of Texas being eyed<\/a> for 2029-30, talk has already started about which market might get the 34th team.\u00a0 A pair of former markets, Phoenix and Atlanta, have been bandied about as possibilities with groups looking to put plans in place in both areas.<\/p>\n

In Atlanta, one of the groups is Krause Sports and Entertainment, who has put plans together for The Gathering at South Forsyth.\u00a0 In an internal email provided to Christopher King of Fox 5 Atlanta<\/a>, it was noted that the project\u2019s final financing packet has been submitted to the NHL for review while the development project is being moved forward with \u201cpurpose, significant investment and a clear path to execution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naturally, that led to some speculation that an expansion team could be closer to being awarded than originally thought.\u00a0 However, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly has shot that down, telling The Athletic\u2019s Michael Russo (subscription link<\/a>) that Atlanta is \u201cnot even remotely close to an application phase\u201d at this time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that there is a second group in Atlanta looking to redevelop the North Point Mall in Alpharetta into an entertainment district with an NHL-caliber facility as part of that development.\u00a0 With two groups trying to effectively accomplish the same thing, it feels a bit like a race at this point to try to secure the preferred bid.<\/p>\n

Atlanta has been home to two teams in the past.\u00a0 The Flames were there for most of the 1970s, making the playoffs six times out of eight but they were relocated to Calgary back in 1980.\u00a0 Then, the Thrashers debuted in 1999 and while they didn\u2019t have as much playoff success (making the postseason once), they lasted 11 years before the team moved to Winnipeg.\u00a0 They\u2019re the only market to receive and lose two teams, a fact that has led some to wonder if the NHL might be better served looking elsewhere for a new team.\u00a0 But, with the seventh-largest media market in the United States, it\u2019s understandable why they appear to be open to another Atlanta-based application.<\/p>\n

Atlanta\u2019s prospective bid has a long way to go with a formal application process ultimately having to be conducted by the Board of Governors.\u00a0 At the moment, this will be on the back burner for them as their focus is on the next team in Texas, not the one eventually coming after that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a 33rd NHL team based out of Texas being eyed for 2029-30, talk has already started about…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1045749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[42],"tags":[5356,15980,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1045748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-atlanta","tag-expansion","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117220800407054876","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1045748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1045749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1045748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1045748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1045748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}