Owner Bill Foley and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced the Las Vegas expansion franchise’s official name and revealed its logo and colours Tuesday night at a gala ceremony for about 5,000 fans outside T-Mobile Arena, where the Golden Knights will begin play next season. Golden Knights owner Bill Foley made the announcement, alongside NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and team general manager George McPhee, in front of a raucous crowd outside the recently constructed T-Mobile Arena, the team's new home, located just off the Las Vegas Strip. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is in town for the announcement which comes exactly five months from the day he announced on June 22 that Las Vegas was joining the NHL as its 31st franchise effective 2017-18. The team checked a big item off its to-do list Tuesday night, unveiling its name, the Vegas Golden Knights, and its blue, black and gold logo in a ceremony outside the new T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip, where the team will play. “I liked the Knight but I thought it might have been better if they would have done something other than Knight because of the whole L.A. Kings thing,” said David Thummel, a 27-year-old local planning to purchase a hoodie. Foley was already the chairman of the board for Black Knight Financial Services and the lead investor in Black Knight Sports & Entertainment, the consortium he started along with the Maloof family, which owns the team. “I was trying to do consensus-building for a while; then I stopped.”

If people do not like the name, he added, “it’s going to be on me.”

Foley at least has some company in decision-making now. There’ll be music, entertainment from Cirque Du Soleil, a hockey rink with local youth players skating and former NHL players attending to lend their presence to the event. Golden Knights was on Foley’s list of finalists since this summer and remained the choice he fancied the most throughout. But as the NHL’s other 30 teams settle into the rhythms of a long season, the Las Vegas franchise, the NHL’s first expansion team since the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild were added in 2000, is building its staff and expanding its local footprint. But when 4,000 deposits were made on the first day of the drive, Foley said he thought, “Wow, people really want this.”

The team converted a strong majority of deposits into season tickets, selling about 13,800, Foley said. Fans no longer need to refer to Las Vegas’ impending first major professional sports team as, “the NHL expansion franchise.” They’re the Vegas Golden Knights.
In ice hockey, the identity of the Las Vegas team that will become the NHL's 31st franchise in the 2017–18 season is unveiled as the Vegas Golden Knights.