Kings Again to Play Here; Expansion Effort Begun

Wayne Gretzky and the Kings will return to the San Diego Sports Arena for a National Hockey League exhibition Oct. 1 and, if Sports Arena President Vince Ciruzzi has his way, an NHL expansion team will be playing regular season games here in the future.

Ciruzzi is president of San Diego National Hockey League Franchise Corp., an organization unveiled Thursday at the Sports Arena during the announcement of the Kings-Winnipeg exhibition (the fourth such game in four years in San Diego).

The new organization will push to bring an expansion franchise to San Diego.

“If you’re a betting man, everything is in position for expansion,” Ciruzzi said. “And everybody close to the inside of the league feels the same way. The NHL hasn’t expanded in at least 10 years, and there are threats of a new league. There are a lot of things to consider.”

The NHL last expanded for the 1979-80 season, when Edmonton, Hartford, Quebec and Winnipeg were absorbed from the old World Hockey Assn.

Ciruzzi said he has been working “behind the scenes”--talking with NHL President John Ziegler and attending NHL meetings--for about 3 1/2 years. The annual NHL Board of Governors’ meeting is scheduled for December in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Ciruzzi predicted that expansion will be high on the agenda.

“We anticipate that the subject of expansion will be, if not the key focus of the meetings, a high priority,” Ciruzzi said.

Bruce McNall, owner of the Kings, is on the expansion committee and, Ciruzzi said, might be a key player in San Diego’s expansion hopes. McNall has said that another NHL team in Southern California would be advantageous for a number of reasons, including reduced travel costs.

“He has a lot of positive things to say about San Diego,” Ciruzzi said.

According to Ciruzzi, the corporation has sent a letter to the NHL indicating interest in an expansion franchise, but it hasn’t sent the non-refundable $100,000 application fee because the NHL is not yet accepting applications.

Ciruzzi and Harry Cooper, the La Jolla entrepreneur who owns the lease for the Sports Arena and is proposing to build a new state-of-the-art arena here, are leading the effort.

Unlike the San Diego Back in the NBA organization, Ciruzzi’s group is not yet selling season tickets.

“When we feel it is appropriate to come out and ask for season tickets, we will,” he said.