Dismissing a competitor’s promise to fight their efforts, the chairmen of southeastern Connecticut’s casino-owning Indian tribes said Thursday they could open a satellite facility north of Hartford by the end of next year, certainly by the end of 2017.

That would help Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun stem an anticipated flow of Connecticut gamblers to Springfield, Mass., where MGM Resorts International's $800 million resort casino project is behind schedule.

“Our ultimate goal is to go back to the legislature in February having completed an RFP and having nominated a host community,” said Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket Pequot chairman whose tribe owns Foxwoods Resort Casino. “We could be up and running six to nine months after approval.”

Such a timetable would have to involve “retrofitting” an existing structure, Butler said, while building something from scratch would take longer — up to a year or more.

In that case, a north central Connecticut casino could still debut in 2017 — months ahead of MGM Springfield’s projected September 2018 opening.

“We’re not going to go peacefully,” William Hornbuckle, MGM’s president, told Bloomberg News Wednesday, without elaborating.

”No one should be surprised by this,” said Kevin Brown, chairman of the Mohegan Tribe, which owns Mohegan Sun. “MGM’s been describing their venture as an attempt to attack our revenues from the beginning. This threat’s vague, leading to speculation about whether it’s legal approaches, or subterfuge, or continuing their lobbying efforts.”

The tribal chairmen, in a conference call with The Day, noted that MGM aggressively lobbied Connecticut legislators who ended up approving a bill this spring that authorized the tribes to jointly pursue a plan for a third Connecticut casino.

The bill, signed into law by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, still requires the legislature to approve what would be the first commercial casino in the state.

“It guarantees nothing,” Malloy has said.

The tribal chairmen said they are satisfied with the law — a watered-down version of an earlier proposal that would have authorized three satellite casinos — despite hurdles that could yet stand in the way of a third casino.

Other casino operators are expected to challenge the idea that the tribes’ exclusive right to provide gaming in the state extends to a casino on nontribal land.

Brown said the tribes have been meeting with the state attorney general’s office to address such issues.

“I don’t see that the flags that have been raised will prevent this from happening,” Brown said.

Butler said passage of the two-part legislative process heightened interest among north central Connecticut towns willing to host a casino.

Enfield, for example, whose interest was in doubt at one point, has more recently expressed serious interest, according to Butler.

East Hartford, East Windsor, Windsor and Windsor Locks, home to Bradley International Airport, are all expected to be in the running.

Butler said the tribe has also spoken to Sportech, the company that operates the state’s off-track-betting facilities, including the Bradley Teletheater at the airport.

“There are pros and cons associated with every site,” Butler said.

The chairmen said they were close to announcing the formation of “a new joint venture company” that will manage the requests-for-proposal, or RFP, process.

“We are on the verge of incorporating,” Brown said.

The effort comes amid signs that the local gaming market, long in decline, is stabilizing.

On Wednesday, both Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun reported year-over-year gains in their June slots revenues, a rare occurrence in recent years.

The numbers enabled the state, which gets 25 percent of the casinos’ slots winnings, to close its books on the 2015 fiscal year.

During the year, the casinos’ payments to the state totaled $268.0 million, exceeding a projection the state adopted in April by $2.5 million, according to Gian-Carl Casa, undersecretary for legislative affairs in the Office of Policy and Management.

The state’s recent projections foresaw declines in upcoming years, from $258.8 million in fiscal 2016 to $252.4 million in fiscal 2017 to $189.1 million in fiscal 2018. The slot payments peaked at $430.5 million in fiscal 2007.

An improvement in the casinos’ performance could cast the tribes’ efforts to develop a third casino in a different light, Brown said, altering the image of gaming as a declining industry.

“A stabilizing market will soften the blow, but doesn’t make it (a third casino) any less critical,” Butler added.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck