A prospective NHL team in Las Vegas should generate at least $450 million in expansion fees for the league, two NHL owners told TSN. “It’s going to be between $450 million and $500 million. I bet it comes in at about $475 million,” one owner told TSN, requesting anonymity because the league does not like owners to speak publicly about such issues. A second NHL owner subsequently agreed with the prediction. The estimate, if it bears out, highlights the NHL’s growth over the past decade, a stretch during which the NHL has effectively doubled overall revenue to $3.7 billion. The last teams to pay expansion fees, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild, paid the league $80 million apiece. Don Logan, president and chief operating officer of the Las Vegas 51s minor-league baseball team, said every major sports league has eyed Las Vegas. “From the 1980s until the downturn in 2008, this was the fastest-growing area in the country,” Logan said in an interview. “In terms of media-market size, Las Vegas is the biggest metro market in the U.S. that doesn’t have a major-league sports franchise. Every major league has done quiet analysis on the market. Logan said Las Vegas has evolved as a market. “Back in the old days, you never saw a clock or windows in a casino,” he said. “They fill you up with free drinks and you sit at the machines for hours on end, making your donations. But the market here has evolved. It has the amenities people want. We have the best dining anywhere. Every major celebrity chef has one or more locations up and down the strip. We have the most unbelievable shopping anywhere in the world. “It’s an unbelievable golf destination,” Logan continued. “There was a time when casinos wouldn’t work with restaurants, retailers or golf clubs. Now they know it’s something you have to do.” Logan said all of the local casino operators – Caesars, Wynn, Sands Corp. and others – would need to work together for a Las Vegas team to succeed. “These are properties with deep-rooted, sophisticated networks,” Logan said. “They know who the fans are, who has the disposable income and the ability to come to Las Vegas. It’s the most well equipped marketing industry in the world.” Las Vegas welcomes 40 million visitors per year. Toronto, by contrast, reports 14 million. Bill Foley, who has the NHL’s approval to gauge the interest in Las Vegas for season tickets, is asking consumers to commit $150 to $900 for a season ticket deposit. Foley is beginning his ticket drive on February 10 and hopes to attract 10,000 customers. Foley told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he has already reached lease agreements with MGM Resorts and Anschutz Entertainment Group for the $375 million, 20,000-seat arena they are building. The arena is scheduled to be completed in April 2016. Foley would share ownership of the team with the Maloof family, the newspaper reported. Foley told USA Today that his groups marketing research indicates there are 130,000 hockey fans who make $55,000 or more living within 35 miles of downtown Las Vegas. One NHL owner told TSN he’s unsure whether Las Vegas is a market that can sustain a team. But he said the Las Vegas market may have more potential than Miami or Phoenix. “I think both the Panthers and Coyotes are going to have to move, I just don’t see it working out long term in either market,” the owner said. TSN pointed out that the Panthers would seem to be locked into a long-term lease in southern Florida. “So you negotiate a break fee,” he said. “It happens all the time. 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Last July, F1 teams held in-season testing sessions at Silverstone to assess new tires provided by Pirelli after several blowouts on the same circuit at the British Grand Prix in June prompted a furious response from drivers and even a boycott threat the following week.RENTON, Wash. - It was not a simple season for Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider, from the preseason holdout of Marshawn Lynch to the midseason trade of Percy Harvin.Even celebrating the Seahawks second straight NFC championship didnt come at a time when Schneider could fully appreciate it with the Seahawks preparing for free agency and the draft.Right after the game was pretty exciting in the locker room knowing that we were going back, Schneider said, and had done something no one else had done in 10 years is pretty special and a true testament to everybody in the football operations, especially the players and the coaches.Seattles typically quiet general manager spoke with local writers for the first time since last Mays draft on Friday. It was Schneiders first comments since Seattle made the surprising midseason trade of Harvin to the New York Jets.Schneider had been in conversations with a number of teams about moving Harvin. The Jets lost at New England in a Thursday night game and almost immediately began aggressively pursuing a deal that was finalized the next day.We took a shot for a highly explosive player. For a number of different reasons, it didnt work out and we knew that we had to resolve that situation as quickly as we could so that we could just move forward as a football team, as an organization, Schneider said of Harvin. It was a very hard decision, one that we didnt make overnight.While the trade caught the team by surprise, Schneider felt it was handled well by the staff and he didnt believe that was the cause of Seattle losing at St. Louis that weekend.I thought everybody handled it as well as it could possibly be, especially that weekend, he said. As far as it affecting thhat game, I cant tell you if it did or not.dddddddddddd. Thats always been a very tough place for us to play. The previous year, we won on a goal-line stand down there, so I think its always been a very tough play for us, so Im not sure if that had an effect on that specific game, but I know that after that, we were really able to kind of get our feet back under us.Before the season started, Schneider had to deal with the brief holdout of Lynch during the first week of training camp before his contract was restructured. There have been various reports that Seattle is ready to move on from Lynch, but Schneider only had praise for his star running back.Hes under contract next year. Hes a warrior. Goes out there every weekend and lays it on the line, he said. I think youd be hard-pressed to find a better running back in the National Football League.Once the Super Bowl ends, Schneider can turn his attention to trying to keep the Seahawks together. Seattle has already locked up linebacker K.J. Wright and defensive end Cliff Avril with new deals and can extend quarterback Russell Wilson this off-season.We dont have a timetable, Schneider said of Wilson. At the appropriate time, we are able to speak to his representatives and well do that.Seattle doesnt have many unrestricted free agents, but the one expected to draw the most interest is cornerback Byron Maxwell.That, quite frankly, is one of our first priorities is to talk to (Maxwell), Schneider said. Now I think he, like a lot of our other unrestricted guys, I think he is going to be highly sought after and he should be. 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