Adding Up NHL Expansion

Did you know that the NHL collected approximately $500 million in expansion revenues in the 1990s? This was part of their great Sunbelt Expansion plan. Nowadays, since the new CBA in 2005, NHL teams are paying out upwards of $100 million a year to weak market teams. That, by and large, means Sunbelt Expansion teams.

I'm certain the NHL has people with economics degrees who can defend this vehemently. But for a layman like me, getting your money back is a pretty good return on investment if you are the Sunbelt team, but not so good for the established NHL teams paying all the money back.