Abortive NHL Franchise
On June 12, 1974, the NHL announced that a Seattle group headed by Vince Abbey had been awarded an expansion team to begin play in the 1976-77 season. A $180,000 deposit was due by the end of 1975 and the total franchise fee was $6 million—plus, Abbey had to repurchase the shares in the Totems held by the Vancouver Canucks, who were using the minor-league Totems as a farm club. The expansion announcement also included a franchise for Denver, and with the loss of two more of its major markets, the WHL announced on the same day that it was folding. The Totems joined the Central Hockey League for 1974-75.
After missing a number of deadlines while scrambling to secure financing, the NHL threatened to pull the franchise as there were a number of other suitors in the wings. Abbey allegedly passed on an opportunity to purchase a WHA team for $2 million during this period, and he missed an opportunity to acquire an existing franchise when the Pittsburgh Penguins were sold in a bankruptcy auction for $4.4 million in June 1975.
The Totems folded following the 1974-75 CHL season, and that summer the NHL pulled the expansion franchise from Seattle as well, leaving the city without hockey for the first time in two decades. Abbey filed suit against the NHL and the Canucks for anti-trust violations that he alleged prevented him from acquiring a team; it was finally settled in favor of the NHL in 1986.
Read more about this topic: Seattle Totems
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