NHL Has No Plans to Contract Or Expand

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The National Hockey League is content with the number of teams in the league and has no plans to contract or expand or relocate teams to new cities, the commissioner of the U.S. sports league told Reuters on Tuesday.

"I believe that under the current system that all our markets can support their clubs. Contraction isn't something we have any interest in," Commissioner Gary Bettman said at the Reuters Media Summit in New York. He also said the league was not in any kind of expansion process.

During Bettman's tenure, the NHL has added six teams to bring its total to 30. It has also expanded into new regions, including the U.S. South and Southwest, and in 2005 established a new economic system that includes a cap on player salaries to ensure economic viability.

Three years after shutting down the league for the season in an effort to rein in player salaries, Bettman told Reuters he was pleased with the current collective bargaining agreement, though did not rule out tweaking it at some point in the future.

He also told Reuters the NHL's television network in the United States, launched in October, could be seen now in about 12 million homes. That number should double in the next year, he said. [Reuters.com]

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com