Out of basically nowhere Tuesday afternoon, a press release from The Friedken Group, owners of Pursuit Sports, dropped stating that the NHL and Commissioner Gary Bettman has granted exclusive rights to the organization to bring an NHL expansion franchise to the state of Texas.
The question is, where?
According to the announcement, the choice is down to Houston and Austin.
“Each city brings unique attributes that would make a new team a huge success,” said the Friedken family via press release. “Both have the infrastructure, passionate fan bases, and economic strength needed to support a championship-caliber franchise for years to come.”
It’s a fascinating development in Houston’s long, frustrating journey to acquire an NHL team. Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Rockets, has said he would like to do the same, but Pursuit Sports seemed to grab the inside track over the last year. It would add an American sports franchise to their growing list of European soccer clubs.
Hockey fans, about as rabid as they come, have been pining away for a hockey team in Houston since the minor league Aeros folded their tents in 2013. This will no doubt come as exciting news to them, assuming Houston can beat out our now rival to the West.
For Austin, this would represent the first major pro sports franchise in the city. They have MLS franchise Austin FC, but hockey is part of the big four of football, baseball and basketball. It would also be the only other team in the state with the Dallas Stars.
Looking in from the outside, the decision seems almost painfully obvious. Houston is the largest city in the state, fourth largest in the country, and has every major pro sport except hockey. But, as we know it’s never that simple.
The biggest issue here is facilities. It has been pretty clear from discussions around NHL teams that, unless the team has control of the building, it becomes financially difficult to profit. Toyota Center is ready for hockey, but the Rockets control essentially puts them out of the running.
The lease agreement the Rockets inherited from former team owner Leslie Alexander includes a clause preventing any multi-use arena from being built within a relatively good distance of downtown, all but forcing any new building out into the suburbs. Sugar Land had been a possible rumored destination in one report last year.
The lone exception to this rule would be NRG Reliant Park. That entire swath of land is owned by the county and is exempt from the lease agreement the Rockets have with the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority. The county certainly has the space, but are they terribly interested in erecting another building on a property where they cannot decide what to do with the Astrodome and have a tenant in the Texans clamoring for upgrades?
Depending on the makeup of Commissioner’s Court (pending an election this fall), it’s difficult to say. Under Lina Hidalgo, they have been uninterested in investing anything more into the facility currently hosting the World Cup, so it is difficult to imagine them suddenly wanting to build a hockey facility.
In truth, the building conundrum might be why there is even a choice between Houston and Austin at all. If Houston were to lose out yet again on the NHL, this time to Austin, virtually guaranteeing no pro hockey team will ever play here, you might have to make a big penalty box to hold all the local hockey fans who would riot.
