May 8, 1964 - National Hockey League expansion plans with a 1966 target date were confirmed today after the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club president, Stafford Smythe (pictured), announced in Seattle a plan to build a Vancouver Coliseum.
Smythe, attending a Western Hockey League meeting, said the Leafs have offered to build a 20,000-seat coliseum for $8 million in downtown Vancouver, providing the city donates the property.
Plans now being worked out by the Leafs call for an additional three or four clubs for the major hockey circuit.
Harold Ballard, the Leafs vice president, said in Toronto he was surprised the information broke so soon. “We’ve been working on this some time,” he said. “Expansion has to come. We have people with money interested both here and in Vancouver.”
He said the Toronto club would build the rink and would not worry about who has the franchise. “If the deal goes through, the rink will be ready for the 1966-67 season. And that would enable the league to absorb Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and possibly St. Louis.”
Smythe, who is representing the interests of the Maple Leaf-owned Denver franchise, said the plan presupposes eventual NHL status for Vancouver. “There could be no other reason for putting up a building that size,” he said.
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