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NHL has met with Dan Friedkin several times about bringing NHL to Houston

There are a lot of hoops to get through which is why I’ve felt Atlanta has had the more realistic shot in the near future - but I do feel like Houston has always been inevitable.

If it happens, bring back the classic Aeros look please!
 
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Summer Rose said:
Will be interesting how they try to work it. What I know about the situation in Houston is that Tilman Fertitta owns the Rockets and that the city of Houston has a no-compete clause so they can’t build a new arena in city limits. Plenty of suburbs for one though. Fertitta has supposedly been approached before about the NHL and was interested, but balked at the price of acquiring an expansion team or even buying a team for relocation. He’s off serving as the US ambassador to Italy now, but I’m not sure if that makes a difference.

A team playing at the Toyota Center as a tenant, if Fertitta even allows that to happen, I don’t think would do very well. It would be like the awful time (financially speaking) that the Coyotes were having in downtown Phoenix at the Suns’ arena. Fertitta would have to be the team owner for that to work. An arena in one of the suburbs, well, I don’t know how well that would do since I don’t actually know the Houston area well. It would suck if it became another situation like the Coyotes in Glendale.

Only reason I know even that much about Houston is because I got this kind of league business shoved down my throat for well over a decade as a Coyotes fan.
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The only way I see it working is if Fertitta signs off as a minority owner, since I don't think he is all that interested in the NHL per se, especially at inflated franchise values, but I saw an interview where he stated his sons are in to hockey, so maybe he gives them a little money to play with.

The NHL going to suburban rinks again seems like a dangerous road. We all know Florida would have went under if not for county subsidies, and a winning team.

It's a big gamble right now to expand into the suburbs when the league is doing well in markets it didn't always do well in. And it would definitely delay the expansion timeline for a city with no arena to play in. I do think Bettman would like to get Atlanta a franchise back before he retires. And we know Jacobs, who leads the BoG, is keen on Houston.
 
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voyageur said:
The only way I see it working is if Fertitta signs off as a minority owner, since I don't think he is all the interested in the NHL per se, especially at inflated franchise values, but I saw an interview where he stated his sons are in to hockey, so maybe he gives them a little money to play with.

The NHL going to suburban rinks again seems like a dangerous road. We all know Florida would have went under if not for county subsidies, and a winning team.

It's a big gamble right now to expand into the suburbs when the league is doing well in markets it didn't always do well in. And it would definitely delay the expansion timeline for a city with no arena to play in. I do think Bettman would like to get Atlanta a franchise back before he retires. And we know Jacobs, who leads the BoG, is keen on Houston.
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I think ultimately it's a market by market thing, there are some markets the arena 100% needs to be downtown, listening to the Atlanta locals it sounds like the suburbs is the right place. I think the same would probably have been true with the Phoenix market, the problem is they went the wrong way going to Glendale (among many many many many many many other things)
 
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MMC said:
I have no idea would anyone think or try to argue that the NHL shouldn’t go to Houston if they have someone willing to write the necessary checks.
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Here's a couple of question to you: Why would anyone pay money to be a fan of a NHL team if there are more and more teams in the league and you get farther and farther from seeing your team win a Stanley Cup? Who in their right mind would pay for a season ticket in a league with 36 teams and you'll have to wait an entire lifetime for your team to even make the playoffs?

What selling point other than "hope" of seeing your team win is there in sports? For each team that is added, that hope decreases.
 
ItWasJustified said:
Here's a couple of question to you: Why would anyone pay money to be a fan of a NHL team if there are more and more teams in the league and you get farther and farther from seeing your team win a Stanley Cup? Who in their right mind would pay for a season ticket in a league with 36 teams and you'll have to wait an entire lifetime for your team to even make the playoffs?

What selling point other than "hope" of seeing your team win is there in sports? For each team that is added, that hope decreases.
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It's not implausible that a fan of hockey enjoys hockey. Professional sports as parasocial wish fulfillment is a big market, but it's not the only niche.
 
AvroArrow said:
The smallest of the 4 major leagues will have the most teams, interesting. I know, 7 Canadian teams, but feels like there's already a LOT of teams.
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Despite being the smallest in revenue, the NHL has more viable markets than any other league.

ItWasJustified said:
Here's a couple of question to you: Why would anyone pay money to be a fan of a NHL team if there are more and more teams in the league and you get farther and farther from seeing your team win a Stanley Cup? Who in their right mind would pay for a season ticket in a league with 36 teams and you'll have to wait an entire lifetime for your team to even make the playoffs?

What selling point other than "hope" of seeing your team win is there in sports? For each team that is added, that hope decreases.
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There's not a lot of difference in what you're saying between 30 teams and 36. The seal was broken, if you will, on this topic in the late-90s.

The main selling sports are entertainment and a sense of belonging/sense of local identity. Hoping to win is an outgrowth of the latter... it isn't a selling point by itself.
 
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hangman005 said:
I think ultimately it's a market by market thing, there are some markets the arena 100% needs to be downtown, listening to the Atlanta locals it sounds like the suburbs is the right place. I think the same would probably have been true with the Phoenix market, the problem is they went the wrong way going to Glendale (among many many many many many many other things)
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Pretty much. The Coyotes drew fairly well at the downtown arena that they shared with the Suns. The novelty factor combined with the team being halfway decent during that time helped a lot. Could be a large contingent of away fans depending on the opponent, but that wasn’t unique to the Coyotes in the Phoenix sports market, nor is it unique to the Coyotes in the NHL in general. However, it was a financial situation they had to get away from and was always meant to be temporary.

Somewhere on the east side of the metro area probably would have done okay too, for similar reasons to why the proposals on the arena location for the potential Atlanta team are where they are: it’s where the fans generally live. Not too far east though. The proposed Tempe location would have been fine. Going somewhere like Gilbert or eastern Mesa (western Mesa would have been okay - Mesa is pretty large in terms of geographical footprint) would likely have been as bad as Glendale was.

Scottsdale (which would have been an okay location) had a proposal that the city seemed in favor of, but they wanted to look into the financial books of the ownership group headed by Moyes and Ellman. When they balked, the city backed out and then Glendale threw a lucrative offer at them instead. That’s an oversimplification of how things happened in the early 2000s that ignores some of the details and nuance, but should give you a basic idea.

Anyway, I digress since this thread is about Houston.
 
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Nothing more entertaining than more fringe AHL/NHLers in the league, with elite and mid tier talent spread even more thin.

That said, other than Quebec City, Houston is a place where I think an NHL team would work fabulously.
 
I’ve been a big fan of Houston getting a franchise since before Vegas/Seattle got their teams.

I also have a few gripes with it. Only the NFL has reached 32 teams, and I don’t understand why the NHL wants to add even more than them(outside of greed). The product will be diluted even more, and we don’t need that.

My other gripe is the fact that the Friedman group is the newest rumored buyer. He just bought the soccer team I root for (Everton), and I would prefer he fix that club before investing $1B+ into another franchise.
 
Sol said:
I hate how stupid this league is. Just pure greed at this point at cost of the product.
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Every league has more teams than talent. But as long as fans keep showing up, it only proves the league owners right. But I also think that the ratio of fans who want to be entertained versus fans who invest in their team's success is something like 5 to 1. Folks here on HF are part of a small minority of fans, regardless of what twitter or reddit says.
 
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