Las Vegas is preparing to be one of the NHL's two hub cities for the 2020 playoffs, according to a report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday.
The Review-Journal reports that the potential hotels that would be used to accommodate 12 teams and support staff are Vdara, Delano, the Park MGM/NoMad Hotel and The Mirage, and that MGM Resorts will keep some of the hotels off the market to keep them available for NHL. Players would be quarantined in the hotels, and will be shuttled to the arena and practice facility.
The report states that the NHL's official announcement on its two hub cities will come on June 22, but a report from Sportsnet on Friday night said that the announcement could be expected even sooner.
In addition to Las Vegas, the NHL's shortlist of hub city candidates includes Pittsburgh, Columbus, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Vancouver.
If a Western Conference city like Vegas is chosen as one of the hub cities, it does not mean that the second city will be in the Eastern Conference.
“We’re not hung up on East/West,” Gary Bettman told a conference call on May 27. “For TV scheduling, it may be better if we’re in different time zones, but we’re going to go to the places that we think are safest and make the most sense, medically, at the time.”
The Canadian government currently requires a 14-day quarantine period for anyone re-entering Canada, which could present a problem for the three Canadian cities vying to be a hub city. Sportsnet reported on Thursday that the Canadian government could potentially loosen the quarantine restrictions for the NHL, however.
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