Houston Aeros relocating?

Just an FYI, tomorrow night's game is the last home game of the season, which is to say possibly the last Houston Aeros home game ever.

 

Or would the move happen before next season? I guess I should have asked before the last post.

 

I think they have at least one playoff game left?

 

I guess that's true.

 

I don't keep up with the standings so I really have no clue. I just assume they are in.

 

Currently in the sixth spot with 84 points, the 5th seed also has 84 points. 8th and 9th seed has 81 points. the fourth seed has 87 points.

Two teams have clinched playoff spots.

This is all in the west.

 

Over 13,000 fans at the Aeros game tonight...in a league where average attendance is around 3,500

 

Great crowd! There is no doubt in my mind that Houston will support a hockey team. The Aeros moving has nothing to do with support. It is yet another situation where the guys with the money and power cannot make a deal happen.

 

Just got back from the Aeros game. Great atmosphere. Here's to hoping the Aeros put together a nice long playoff run and that hockey finds its way back to Houston some time soon.

 

As predicted, the Aeros are gone. Understand this: Minor league hockey will return to Toyota Center if and when Les Alexander purchases and relocates a team in the AHL, ECHL, or CHL. The main reason that he forced the Aeros/Wild out of town is that he was NEVER content with not receiving 100% of potential revenue from games. He was NOT losing money as the Aeros landlord, he just despised the fact that the Aeros got to actually keep some of the money that they generated. Thus his stated intention to triple the Aeros rent, knowing that this would force the team to move, as they would immediately become unprofitable if they signed.

As an AHL or ECHL owner (not a landlord), he would get it all, while having an NHL team take care of player and coaching staff payroll, and pay him for the privilege. The Central League has a salary cap of $11,000 a week for an 18 player roster, which he can afford easily. All of these leagues would be perfectly willing to talk to him, since there are already a number of teams in the AHL that are owned by NBA teams that control their own arena (The Spurs own the San Antonio Rampage, for example, which is why they wear Spurs colors. Charlotte, OKC and Milwaukee all have similar arrangements). These leagues would also be thrilled to have a franchise in such a huge market and an owner with extraordinary wealth.

Les is on record as saying that he was losing concert revenue by having to guarantee the Aeros 40 home dates a year, having to turn down specific requested dates by the likes of Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, Justin Bieber, and others, particularly on weekends, and either offering those acts weekday nights, or lose the shows to the Woodlands or another, smaller venue around town. Being an owner would be the only way he could self-justify "allowing" hockey at "his" arena (never mind the fact that it's owned by the city; he calls the shots, a right he demanded, and got, in exchange for signing a long-term lease and not moving the Rockets to Louisville).

I wouldn't hold our collective breaths that this would happen in time for next season. In the meantime, the closest team of any kind is the Texas Stars, who play in Cedar Park, north of Austin, 175 miles from downtown H-town.

Those of you who believe the loss of the Aeros "clears the way" for an NHL team to move to Houston fail to understand that the presence of a minor league team in any market, in any sport, has NEVER once EVER prevented a major league team from moving there. If there had been a minor league baseball team playing in Washington DC in 2005, do you really think MLB couldn't have moved the Expos there? Really?

In other words, the "way" has already been cleared since the folding of the WHA Aeros back in 1978. The impediment is...well, please read my post again. Gary Bettman is as interested in dealing with a potential hard-ass owner with a reputation for hating compromise about as much as he wants to negotiate with Kim Jong-Un for an expansion team in Pyongyang.
See you guys in Austin, EH?

 

I doubt the losing concert revenue because they played the woodlands instead. The woodlands doesn't have concerts during hockey season so that's a crock of ****.

This beef goes back to the summit days and I will never believe otherwise. Les has had a beef with Aeros ownership ever since he dropped the ball and didn't control the lease at the last arena.

 

Word. Great game.

Poor Superman. What's he gonna do now?

 

What in the sweet chocolate Christ is a "repoire?"

 

Don't buy the concert argument at all. There is ONE arena in town. There are arena shows...and then there are summer concerts. The Woodlands schedule for concerts does not conflict with the AHL season.

I too anticipate that Les will try to buy a minor league hockey team, thought it might take 5 or more years to bring a team back to town. I wonder who will retain the rights to the Aeros name/colors/logo etc....I'm assuming it will follow the team that moves out of town, no matter what they rename themselves.

Whatever you effing do...do NOT make Houston the minor league team affiliated with the Dallas Stars. I will vomit.

 

The Dallas Stars own the Texas Stars and the arena in Cedar Park, which is why the arena was built outside of the city limits of Austin and the team is not named the Austin Stars. They're not moving anywhere, ever.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Sources confirm, pending approval of the American Hockey League tomorrow, the Houston Aeros will move to Des Moines to become the Iowa Wild.</p>&mdash; Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/324699425052192768">April 18, 2013</a></blockquote>
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