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

My only objection to Houston getting a team is that I feel like 32 teams is enough. That's probably be a function of my age. I was born in 1986, and started watching sports in the early 1990s. MLB had 28 teams at the time, and while I'm not 100% sure, I believe the NBA already had its 30 and the NFL had 31. MLB would expand to 30 starting in 1998 and the NFL to 32 starting in 2002. Only the NHL underwent a rapid and large expansion, but by the time I started watching hockey, it already had 30 teams. That led to my longtime feeling of being comfortable with all four leagues featuring approximately (or exactly) 30 teams. Fewer than that number and I'd feel like a professional league that spans the United States and Canada is doing itself a disservice. More than that and I start to feel like it begins to get a little out of hand when they're all competing for the same championship.

Of course, I'm sure people older than me had that exact same feeling about expansions that were before my time.
 
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Sabres are my guess. Pegula is selling a % of the Bills. I could easily see a surprise sale of the Sabres dependent on agreement to relocate Utah style.
 
Not getting into all this again. Do some basic cursory research on this site and others.

...research on what, the fact that it failed twice already??...I remember when the FLAMES moved from Atlanta...so I suppose the NEXT time Atlanta fails, Quebec City FINALLY gets a team back, since that seems to be the recipe here; fail there again and move to a Canadian city that can actually support it... :facepalm:
 
...research on what, the fact that it failed twice already??...I remember when the FLAMES moved from Atlanta...so I suppose the NEXT time Atlanta fails, Quebec City FINALLY gets a team back, since that seems to be the recipe here; fail there again and move to a Canadian city that can actually support it... :facepalm:
Yikes - youre being very stubborn
 
Houstonian here.

I'm not sure a suburban location is a good idea, though there are lots of options - Woodlands, Sugarland, Katy, etc.

The 'shed' concert venue is in the Woodlands, 30 miles from downtown. Concerts have no problems with attendance, even with not-ideal traffic and parking. But most most people attend a small number of concerts per year.

41 regular season games, for potential season ticket holders, is a tough sell.

As for the venue, the recent new arena plans in Philadelphia got me thinking. Toyota Center isn't much newer than Wells Fargo Center, which already has a date with the wrecking ball. When the Aeros played at Toyota Center as recently as 2013, the benches weren't big enough for the backup goalies.

Also, the Flyers and Sixers agreed to a new building, even with different owners, if memory serves.

So I think it is possible for an owner other than Fertitta.

The other issue is Houston doesn't have great public transportation, so suburbs aren't a great option. It's getting better, but the light rail goes to NRG Stadium, where the Texans play.

Maybe they could convert the adjacent, dilapidated Astrodome into a hockey rink? ;)
 
Houstonian here.

I'm not sure a suburban location is a good idea, though there are lots of options - Woodlands, Sugarland, Katy, etc.

The 'shed' concert venue is in the Woodlands, 30 miles from downtown. Concerts have no problems with attendance, even with not-ideal traffic and parking. But most most people attend a small number of concerts per year.

41 regular season games, for potential season ticket holders, is a tough sell.

As for the venue, the recent new arena plans in Philadelphia got me thinking. Toyota Center isn't much newer than Wells Fargo Center, which already has a date with the wrecking ball. When the Aeros played at Toyota Center as recently as 2013, the benches weren't big enough for the backup goalies.

Also, the Flyers and Sixers agreed to a new building, even with different owners, if memory serves.

So I think it is possible for an owner other than Fertitta.

The other issue is Houston doesn't have great public transportation, so suburbs aren't a great option. It's getting better, but the light rail goes to NRG Stadium, where the Texans play.

Maybe they could convert the adjacent, dilapidated Astrodome into a hockey rink? ;)
Always good to see a locals perspective... my only experience of Houston from the ground is American Truck Simulator :laugh: It doesn't translate terribly well to the real world.
 
theres not enough talent coming into the league for expansion. Every year we have 3-4 teams that are ridiculously bad. Why do we want to bump that number up to 5-6. Especially with the cap rising as fast as it is. Just going to have a more watered down product
 
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Always good to see a locals perspective... my only experience of Houston from the ground is American Truck Simulator :laugh: It doesn't translate terribly well to the real world.

My experience with Houston is being on a road trip that took me through it. Like many cities west of the Mississippi, it's more spread out than it is dense, at least so it seemed like to me. Got to drive on the "famous" stretch of I-10 that's 24 lanes wide (including service roads), stayed the night in Channelview after getting lost trying to get to where we were staying because of the "Texas U-turn" style of exits off I-10, and left the next day.

If it's as spread out as I perceived it to be, that could be an issue with a suburban arena location, like it was when the Coyotes played in Glendale, unless the Houston area has most of its current hockey fans concentrated in and around one of them and it's also an affluent area (that's why Scottsdale probably could have worked for the Coyotes, and why the Atlanta arena proposals are where they are).

@Aeroforce what do you think since you live in the area? Is there a location in the Houston area like that without being in Houston proper? Although, it's good to know that the Toyota Center is getting pretty old so the city might consider replacing it fairly soon. I did not know that about it.
 
...research on what, the fact that it failed twice already??...I remember when the FLAMES moved from Atlanta...so I suppose the NEXT time Atlanta fails, Quebec City FINALLY gets a team back, since that seems to be the recipe here; fail there again and move to a Canadian city that can actually support it... :facepalm:
Atlanta has over tripled in population since the time the Flames left.

See, like I said, simple cursory knowledge of the city is seriously lacking.

QC is 1/6th of the total population of ATL. Very funny talking about Winnipeg supporting a team, when they're one of the top teams in the west and have had very public statements about having trouble selling season tickets (in their smallest arena in the league). Atleast the thrashers were bad when they subpar attendance. I won't even tell you anything about ownership not wanting the team, or terrible arena location, because you're clearly set on remaining naive.
 
theres not enough talent coming into the league for expansion. Every year we have 3-4 teams that are ridiculously bad. Why do we want to bump that number up to 5-6. Especially with the cap rising as fast as it is. Just going to have a more watered down product
That's their choice. Every year we have guys playing in the AHL that should be in the NHL, too.
 
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.
Because you like hockey and want to have top level hockey closer to you?

The number of people who think the way you're describing could hold their annual convention at a Denny's.
 
Atlanta has over tripled in population since the time the Flames left.

See, like I said, simple cursory knowledge of the city is seriously lacking.

QC is 1/6th of the total population of ATL. Very funny talking about Winnipeg supporting a team, when they're one of the top teams in the west and have had very public statements about having trouble selling season tickets (in their smallest arena in the league). Atleast the thrashers were bad when they subpar attendance. I won't even tell you anything about ownership not wanting the team, or terrible arena location, because you're clearly set on remaining naive.

...naive about Atlanta not being a Hockey market...OK...
 
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