While the Lone Star State has had a lone NHL franchise since the Minnesota North Stars arrived in Dallas in 1993, the league is now moving towards adding a 33rd franchise by adding another team in Texas, either in Houston or Austin.
The two cities were mentioned as possibilities for a new team by ESPN and numerous outlets, and the league has essentially selected the Friedkin family to spearhead an effort to build a new NHL arena in one of the two markets.
Certainly, Houston seems to be the preferred destination for a new team, as the city is the sixth-largest TV market in the United States according to Nielsen, and the is currently the largest without an NHL franchise. The city has a long history with hockey, dating back to the World Hockey Association, and is the only city to claim titles in the Avco Cup (WHA), Turner Cup (International Hockey League), and Calder Cup (American Hockey League).
For its own part, Austin has had the AHL’s Texas Stars in suburban Cedar Park since 1999, winning a Calder Cup title of their own in 2014. Austin is a fast-growing market, currently ranked 34th in U.S. TV markets, and seen as a city with a rising appetite for professional sports, not dissimilar to when the league arrived in Las Vegas in 2017.
In essence, the league has selected the Friedkin family to move forward with the process of adding an expansion franchise in Texas, with the goal of getting a new building built in one of the two markets to create a rivalry with Dallas and further expand the league’s southern footprint. Houston seems to be the favorite to land the team if an arena can get built, while Austin is seen more as the fallback and would virtually assure the league of a second Texas team in the near future.
The announcement confirms a six-month window for the Friedkin family, who owns Gulf States Toyota, as well as Everton F.C. in the English Premier League and A.S. Roma in Italy’s Serie A under the Pursuit Sports umbrella.
“Pursuit Sports, our family’s global sports ownership and operating platform, has reached an agreement with the NHL that provides us with the exclusive rights to bring an expansion NHL team to the State of Texas, with a primary focus on both Austin and Houston as potential markets,” the Friedkin family said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle.
“Each city brings unique attributes that would make a new team a huge success — both have the infrastructure, passionate fan bases, and economic strength needed to support a championship-caliber franchise for years to come.
“We have wanted for some time to bring an NHL team to Texas, and we are excited that the process has now begun. Selecting a new market for an NHL franchise is a special and important responsibility, and we are grateful to the league for their faith in us and their support. Working with Commissioner Bettman and the NHL, we will undertake a principled, disciplined, and methodical process to ensure we find the right long-term home for this new franchise.”
Despite the announcement, the biggest obstacle would seem to be getting a new arena built, as the league indicated a new one would need to be built to house a team. Houston’s Toyota Center is owned by Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, who also pursued an NHL franchise to go along with his NBA team, and seemingly, the arena would be a long shot to be a temporary host of a new NHL team under different ownership.
H-E-B Center in suburban Cedar Park only seats 6,800 for hockey, too small even for a temporary home for an NHL franchise. While the league’s Arizona Coyotes did have a smaller capacity in suburban Tempe, that was more due to necessity than wanting the games in a small venue, and a new team would want to maximize its revenue during the honeymoon period rather than have expensive tickets available to a few.
So, likely the arrival of any new Texas team would be upon completion of a new building rather than a temporary venue. And, with a hefty price tag, a new building would be required to help defray the cost of a new franchise.
As for their potential neighbors to the north, Commissioner Gary Bettman said a new team wouldn’t interfere with the Stars’ territory, saying “my guess is they’ll think it’s good for hockey in Texas,” according to ESPN. Dallas’ American Airlines Center sits over 240 miles from downtown Houston, and 190 miles from Austin, and certainly the two new teams would create an instant rivalry for a Stars team that really has no natural rival, with the nearest NHL city being over 630 miles away in St. Louis.
An expansion franchise is likely to cost Pursuit Sports $2 billion, with a new arena in the range of $1.5 billion, but with the NHL selecting Pursuit Sports as the group to get a new arena built, it seems to be just a matter of which city they can get a building built.
As for other potential expansion cities, the two Bettman named were Atlanta and Phoenix, as both former NHL cities have interest from groups looking to place teams in those markets. However, according to Bettman, the two aren’t as far along in the process of moving towards fruition as the Texas bid.
“There was an update on Atlanta, there was an update on Arizona, and there was an update on South Texas,” Bettman told ESPN. “But neither Arizona nor Atlanta are quite as far along in the process as the Friedkin opportunities.”In
Atlanta, there are still competing bids for arena projects north of the city, while in Phoenix, the likely hinges on the NBA’s Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia trying to get a new arena built to house a potential team – something that caused the Coyotes to move to Utah.
Either way, Houston or Austin seems poised to join the league in the next few years, although the timeline will be slower than the last two, which already had arena projects built or nearing completion when the teams were announced.
So the league, which has expanded by a single team since the four-team expansion involving Nashville, Atlanta, Columbus, and Minnesota at the turn of the century, by adding Las Vegas in 2017 and Seattle in 2021, seems like there will be a new team in Texas around the end of the decade, either in Houston or Austin.
