As major cities in the United States go, Houston has as close to a perfect sports scene as you could hope for. We currently have baseball, basketball and football teams that are, at the very least, competitive. Our college sports scene is pretty decent, especially if you expand out to the alumni bases for Texas schools outside of Houston. Finally, very few big cities do big events as well as we do, as we are learning during this World Cup.
The only thing really missing from the Houston sports scene is a professional hockey team. However, if the smoke signals coming from the National Hockey League offices are any indication, that could change very soon. According to multiple reports, the NHL has signed an agreement with Houston billionaire Dan Friedkin to explore an expansion NHL team in either Houston or Austin.
Houston has brushed up against the possibility of the NHL coming here at other times in recent years, with the Fertitta family looking at possible relocations of teams that never came to fruition. This latest news about Friedkin and the NHL seems to be the first concerted effort to give Houston its own team, not another city’s hand me down.
Reportedly, the total investment from Friedkin, whose family fortune stems from their exclusive, five state Toyota distributorship, Gulf States Toyota, would be $3.5 billion, which includes funding for a new hockey arena. The Friedkin empire already includes two professional soccer teams, AS Roma and Everton, so this would not be their first foray into professional sports.
The city’s appetite for professional hockey is somewhat of a question mark. The last time we had hockey in Houston was the minor league Houston Aeros, who moved to Iowa in 2011. This we know — if it’s a winner, Houston will back it, and I’d have to believe that, based on market size alone, Houston has the upper hand over Austin.
Either way, it would appear Friedkin will be the owner, so here are three other things you should know about Houston’s prospective owner:
3. Friedkin is kind of a quiet “mystery” man
Apparently, if you had “Dan Friedkin interview” listed as a scavenger hunt item, you’d have an awful time checking that box. Quite simply, Friedkin doesn’t do much media. By all accounts, he stays out of the limelight. In fact, he has a reputation, with his European soccer clubs, of “parachuting in” (figuratively, of course), spending time watching a match or practice, and then leaving quietly without telling anyone or talking to the media. In Houston sports owner terms, he is the anti-Fertitta, as Tilman Fertitta never met a microphone he didn’t like. Speaking of which….
2. Friedkin tried to buy the Rockets back in 2017, when….
…..it wound up in the hands of Tilman Fertitta and his family! In other words, this isn’t the first time Friedkin has tried to own a team on the Houston landscape. What gets interesting is the new arena that would seemingly be part fo this deal. Having two hockey/basketball sized arenas in town would mean major competition for the OTHER events that take place at those sized venues — concerts, WWE, Disney on Ice, etc. Nothing like seeing billionaires battle over live events!
1. Friedkin is a licensed pilot with some related film credits
Indeed, Friedkin is an aviation enthusiast, with a passion for flying and restoring old military airplanes. He performed aerial stunt-diving in the movie “Dunkirk” and received a producer credit. Additionally, he is a World War II history buff. As an aside, his father Thomas, who founded Gulf States Toyota and started the company’s business empire, has some acting credits, as well, most famously with a role in the 1958 adaptation of “Old Yeller.”
