Exactly, and there is no reason that a city with the resources of Houston wouldn't be able to support a hockey team. I think it would be great for the city of Houston and the NHL.
By this logic, why does it even have to be up to Tillman? Some aggressive Houston investor should buy a team, spend their own money to build a Hockey-specific arena in the suburbs (where more houstonians who attend sporting events regularly live), keep all the arena revenue, compete for Toyota Center concerts, and ultimately profit... Can Houston support that? I mean, we're renovating the Astrodome space for more convention space that the city doesn't really need, but will have. I'm just dubious of what the numbers really suggest vis-a-vis Houston-specific NHL fan interest being volatile enough to sway or dissuade investors.
I think the point is it's far easier to do this from Tillman's position...with an extremely favorable lease in downtown Houston. That change of ownership in the Rockets is why we're talking about this now. I'm not sure building an arena in the suburbs is a great idea, but I haven't studied it closely. I would think you would want it as close as possible to the companies that will buying the luxury suites and tickets...the NHL is a costly ticket and a corporate game as much or more so than any other pro sport.
Aren't the Coyotes and Panthers examples of why you wouldn't want to build a standalone, hockey-specific arena in suburbia?
Obviously he's got a favorable lease... but if its truly a slam dunk business proposition due to Houston's ever-growing suburb population size (which by recent demographics still shows that Houston is expanding more outwards than inwards), along with new venues like Smart Financial center that have drawn significant amount of musical acts/showcase events away from downtown and the woodlands, you would think some eager entrepreneur would look into that. The downside of putting it all on Tillman is the same issue that came with Les. If it doesn't work out, or he gets spurned, that puts an end to it.... never thought it was wise to have owners in multiple sports leagues anyways. I want my owners focusing on just making one sports product great, not two.
But prior to that they were examples why having separately owned sports teams sharing an arena sometimes does not work for all parties.
Wait..I never said slam dunk...I said there's risk...there's risk in every business endeavor. I'm saying it's an attractive proposition to own an NHL team in Houston, Texas, if you happen to also own the NBA team there that controls the favorable lease in the same arena...in a market that is huge, prospering and continuing to grow.
I think Houston has more to offer the NHL than the other way around. I've been a hockey fan since I was a little kid and while hockey has grown in popularity in the time since then, it hasn't grown much. They need fans, and IMO putting a team in one of the largest cities in North America is a pretty good way of doing that. If you had an NHL team here, people who would otherwise not be exposed to hockey at all might get a chance to see it and enjoy it potentially adding tens of thousands of new fans to the league. Over time, possibly more.
You many not have said it... but plenty here are saying its a no brainer that the NHL would work here due to the huge market that is prospering and continuing to grow. To me, if the biggest limiting factor is that our basketball owner has to own the hockey team... that seems like a limiting factor that would only be present in smaller markets, or markets that maybe could not support multiple venues.
I think it has to do with the terms of the lease...particularly the restrictive covenants regarding building a competing arena anywhere in Harris County. That's why this entire conversation changed once Tillman took over ownership of the Rockets.
That seems like a really stifling/small-market type covenant... but I guess there has to be some sort of precedence for it in other cities. The main issue with Houston is the size of Harris county and/or the city limits... which is why I scoff at the built-in excuses about people complaining of having to travel for sporting events from the suburbs. Houston, and its residents, chose to live out there and expand that way... and that's how it ends up working out that people end up spending 2-3 hours a day commuting with traffic going as far outwards as any other major metropolitan city east of LA.
It's a super onerous covenant that makes that lease ridiculously attractive to the owner of the Houston Rockets, no matter who it is. I don't believe it's unprecedented..but it's crazy restrictive. In fact, it even restricted potential uses for the Compaq Center at the time.
That is why the Coyotes are in trouble in the first place. They play in Glendale (near the Cardinals). It is fine for football, but Hockey has at least 2 to 3 games a week. Hockey, baseball, and basketball is best to be IN the city they represent.
As has already been discussed... they used to be in the city, sharing an area with the Suns. They chose to move to their own place, to make more money. The Coyotes are in trouble because unsuprisingly, there's not a lot of diehard hockey fans in Phoenix. Will there be enough in Houston?
How awful would it be to travel to Katy for a 7 pm puck drop? Regular outbound traffic seems like it would discourage fans from other parts of the city to attend midweek games.
It's an embarrassment that the great city of Houston - 4th largest city in the country - still doesn't have an NHL team. Fertita make it happen!!!
