Investors looking to bring second NHL team to Toronto

Stan Temming
The proposed away jersey and logo for the Toronto Legacy Aces, the expansion NHL team investors hope to bring to the city in 2021. (YouTube//CityNews Toronto)
The proposed away jersey and logo for the Toronto Legacy Aces, the expansion NHL team investors hope to bring to the city in 2021. (YouTube//CityNews Toronto)

Discussions about bringing a second NHL team to Toronto over the past many years are about as common as the city’s residents complaining about traffic.

Ontario’s capital and its surrounding area easily supports the Toronto Maple Leafs, the second-most valuable organization in the league, according to Forbes’ 2018 report. (The team’s $1.45 billion price tag was just behind the $1.55 billion valuation slapped onto the New York Rangers.)

With that in mind, chatter amongst investors about bringing another team to the Greater Toronto Area is understandable. The latest to turn that chatter into some action is Toronto Legacy Sports & Entertainment.

According to a report by Lindsay Dunn of CityNews Toronto this week, the group wants to build the world’s largest hockey rink to host the city’s second NHL team in the near future.

Andrew Lopez of Toronto Legacy Sports & Entertainment announced on Friday that the group, which also pitched a similar idea in 2009, had secured a $5 billion private investment for the project. They plan to construct a mixed-use development near the Sheppard-Yonge stop of the city’s subway, less than 20 kilometres north of Scotiabank Arena.

And while this all sounds fantastic on paper, let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. The group has yet to directly contact NHL commissioner Gary Bettman as of Friday, according to Dunn. They haven’t met with the city either, but they plan to submit their proposal next week.

Regardless of how things shake out, Lopez said the project’s real estate development will take place. If they build the arena and get an expansion offer to become the league’s 33rd franchise approved by the NHL, Toronto Legacy Sports & Entertainment wants to name the team the Toronto Legacy Aces and launch in 2021.

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