Bettman tells BoG league is officially opening expansion process for Houston or Austin to be owned by Friedkin family

[johnnybbadd]

I hope it’s Houston. Long overdue. Please call them the Aeros.

 

[foxyou727]

I think if the NHL is gonna expand one of the requirements for these owners has to be what Utah owner did with putting ice rinks in every municipality/county along with programs to make hockey cheaper

 

[SI90]

Too many teams, but if they add, they need to add two more, not one.

This is kind of ridiculous

 

[f7bennyboner]

The talent pool is thin enough. I'm not sure it's wise to infuse the league with another 100mil in cap space.

28 is likely the right number of teams given the talent we are watching currently. Many teams forced to ice AHL plugs for large chunks of the year and many teams without legit superstars let alone two or three of them

 

[farscape1]

At this point talent will be so diluted that we will see lots of 40yr old players still playing. Oh hello Penguins.

 

[zar]

Oh good… more state tax free teams.

They should make one division of…

Florida
Tampa
Nashville
Vegas
Seattle
Dallas
Houston
Columbus
Buffalo
Montreal
Toronto
Ottawa
Winnipeg
Edmonton
Calgary
Vancouver

Only the top 8 teams make the playoffs.

 

[Summer Rose]

If I’m reading this right, they’re choosing between the two cities?

Seems like it would be far better as a both-and scenario. First of all because they’re probably the #1 and #2 markets without a team right now (and yes I’m including Atlanta in that ranking as the #3) and also because you could set them up as direct expansion rivals from Day One. That can have a surprising amount of long-term engagement power.

That's the way I gather it, yes, in that it's the same group bidding, and that they prefer Houston if it's workable but Austin is their "plan B" if it's not.

 

[Rebels57]

No amount of $ will ever be enough to satiate these greedy scumbag owners

 

[Oddbob]

Oh good! Lets water down just a little more.

 

[Summer Rose]

No amount of $ will ever be enough to satiate these greedy scumbag owners

One man's "not enough" is another man's "enough," a third man's "too much," and for a fourth man there's no such thing.

 

[Lunatik]

Did you just use Vegas as an example of less competition in entertainment? Lol.

Yes, but let's not pretend like Sports isn't a specific kind of entertainment. The crossover between the NHL and Celine Dion/Circe de Solei is likely much smaller than that of a crossover with the NFL/NBA.

 

[milksteak]

So which Texas city would be easier to leverage for a new arena? Houston has the arena, but they have to bypass that Fertitta has a a say in the tenant of the arena.

Austin building a 2nd arena in 5 years? Is the money there?

I don't believe the city of Austin had much to do with that arena, it was private company + the university. Plus Austin is probably a big enough city to be able to support two arenas worth of events.

 

[Lunatik]

American markets with an NFL team - 32
American markets with an MLB team - 29
American markets with an NBA team - 29
American markets with an NHL team - 25

Would prefer a situation where there’s 8 teams in Canada and 28 teams in the US. But the NHL knows there’s huge markets in the US they can still dig into and establish a foothold in.

I never thought about it that way before and this is a good way to look at it because cities like Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa are not traditional sports markets due to their size, but because the NHL plays just a few days a week and the Canadian culture aspect they can actual draw as well as larger US cities.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Yes, but let's not pretend like Sports isn't a specific kind of entertainment. The crossover between the NHL and Celine Dion/Circe de Solei is likely much smaller than that of a crossover with the NFL/NBA.

Vegas has the NFL, is about to have the MLB, and is the home base for the UFC...

... That's on top of all the other entertainment they have to offer.

 

[uncleben]

Idk, I for one am all for more hockey

Every number was at some point "too many teams".

Players are more talented than ever, and it's fun if scoring goes up for a little bit, anyway.

 

[Canovin]

If Austin gets a team, it should be called the Austin Matthews

Darn people beat me to it lol

 

[Power Surge]

Players are more talented than ever,

No it's not. You can't even ice decent 3rd lines like you could in the 90s.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

More watering down.

Yawn

This

As the number of teams has gone up, my overall interest in this joke of a league has gone down.

The on-ice product is trash 80% of the time but yeah let’s just add “moar teams”

 

[VivaLasVegas]

No amount of $ will ever be enough to satiate these greedy scumbag owners

 

[SPIDER1]

Some things never change. I remember how back in 1918, HFBoards was alight about how the league couldn't support more than 3 teams. Everyone here posted that the inability of the Wanderers to return was proof that the talent pool was too thin to justify a 4th team. People were further inflamed when Quebec came in as the 4th team and then laughed as they had to move to Hamilton after just 1 season. After more than a century, the demeanor and arguments of HFBoards' userbase hasn't changed one bit with the addition of each new team since.

 

[StreetHawk]

Oh good! Lets water down just a little more.

When a good number of the middle of the pack teams lack top 4 D and 2C it's pretty darn thin for talent at the top end. Can fill the bottom half of the roster but the top half?

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Add 1 more team and rise cap to 120M, we're gonna see like 1/3 of the league just hit the cap floor, if not more. You can ice an okay hockey team with 88M (would be floor under current CBA) especially if you have capable young players on ELC's like you should. Spending a lot more than that is pointless if there are no big money players to sign and/or if you have zero chance of contending for the cup.

You may say there's talent in the AHL or whatever, but even if you give more guys opportunities they aren't making any money, so veterans at the tail end of their careers will just linger around for a while longer.

Spending to the cap will be a privilege rather than the goal.

And they went to 84 games with one of the reasons being it balances the amount of games in a 32 team league.

Sigh. I don't like this direction. The cap exploding, going to 84 games. At the very least they could've seen how things unfold.

We may have been in an era over the last number of years where the young guns and old stars who have had good longevity co-existed and it made it feel like there's a lot of talent to go around. But if I just go back 10 years, I remember thinking a lot of teams lacked talent and that was in a 30 team league. These things go in cycles. If it goes the other direction in a 33 team league, there's gonna be so many irrelevant teams and games.

 

[Miami Wice]

Spending to the cap will be a privilege rather than the goal.

imo this is good thing if it result in NHL having superteams.
Superteams bring in more attention and resonate more on social media with young generations.

 

[Kimota]

Officially will become the Sun Bult Hockey League sooner than enough.

Quebec keeps getting f***ed.

 

[PhysicalGraffiti]

Absolutely love the typical, and newer phenomenon, of people losing their minds because a state has low taxes. Just hilarious.

But both of those cities suck. Go to Amarillo. I don't care about market size, population, or anything relevant, I'm only basing it on the city I like most in Texas and the ones I don't care for. Take that for what you will.

Definitely surprised this happened before Atlanta though, I really thought they'd be next in line to get another chance.

I hate 33 teams though, so I hope they bring in 2 when it happens. The odd number bothers my OCD.