Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley says that a prerequisite for it to be a new NHL season is that the clubs can take in audiences to some extent.

- If we can not play in front of supporters, not many teams will be able to cope.

That includes us, he says and continues:

- I do not think Gary Bettman (NHL Commissioner) will have us fly around and play in empty arenas.

He also compares with the professional league in American football.

- The NFL has such a good TV deal that they can survive.

We do not have that type of agreement.

The NHL is a match day activity.

If we do not have match day income, we will not survive.

The most recent playoffs, won by the Tampa Bay Lightning in late September, were played in "bubbles" in Edmonton and Toronto.

Those who remained in the playoffs the longest were not allowed to meet their family for a couple of months.

- I know the commissioner really wants a season and handing out the Stanley Cup, but we can not play in bubbles.

It is impossible.

We can not afford it, says Foley in the radio show according to ESPN.

The owner is also worried about a too tight game schedule.

- If we are to play 56 matches in four months, there are very many matches.

We will not have a break.

It will often be a match two days in a row.

We have to play four games a week to get this season played, maybe even more.

CLIP: Here, the Tampa Bay Stanley Cup wins

Javascript is disabled

Javascript must be turned on to play video

Read more about browser support

The browser is not supported

SVT does not support playback in your browser.

We therefore recommend that you switch to another browser.

Read more about browser support

Here the Tampa Bay Stanley Cup wins - for the first time in 16 years Photo: TT News Agency