Badly need an NHL team in Houston to take the heat off of the Rockets, Texans, and eventually Astros. Lmao
Billionaire Dan Friedkin has emerged as a strong ownership option to bring NHL to Houston should the league expand. The Friedkin Group has met with NHL on a number of occasions. https://www.espn.com/contributor/emily-kaplan/819ede2b93d60
So, someone refresh my memory...could Friedkin bring hockey to Toyota Center, or would he need a new arena?
The Friedkin Group/Pursuit Sports it is... hope they pick Houston over Austin. Should set up an interesting negotiation around stadium location, I think that's why Austin is a serious contender given the restrictions that the Rockets have (had?) around being landlords at Toyota Center. #NSNO #UTFT
here’s what I’ve gathered from everything I’ve read 1. Friedkin has already bought land in NW Harris County which would sure seem to signal a desire for it to be Houston. Saw this in the same tweet from the publication talking about the ECHL franchise coming to The Woodlands but didn’t see the land purchase referenced in the article so maybe take it with a grain of salt. 2. The NHL prefers teams to be in an arena they own. This would seemingly line up with the part of the announcement saying they want a new arena regardless of which city they choose. 3. Rockets/Tillman have language built into contracts keeping a new arena from being built within a certain distance of the Toyota Center, seemingly lining up with the idea that a Houston arena would be in the suburbs. Also lining up with the reports of Friedkin having land in NW Harris County. Houston feels like the logical choice. #6 media market compared to #34 media market. Austin would be the second smallest market in the NHL only ahead of Colombus. Austin doesn’t have the capability to support a team until an arena is built, likely no earlier than 2030. Houston could theoretically have a team as early as 2028-2029 if they could play in Toyota Center until a new arena is complete. There isn’t a place in any Houston suburb with worse traffic/ease of access than anywhere in/around Austin. Yes, Austin is the trendy young city but it would be foolish to believe that will continue to grow as rapidly given the cost of living difference compared to cities like Houston or DFW. Houston is the steadier city. Houston has better infrastructure, proven pro franchises, and more potential corporate sponsors. The only way this thing goes to Austin, IMO, is if the arena aspect totally falls apart in Houston and is smoother in Austin, much like LA losing to Houston with NFL expansion.
Austin threat is a complete power grab for a new stadium. Could Houston use multiple venues of that size? - Absolutely But is Toyota Center perfectly capable of housing an NHL team? - YES I think a stadium/venue in the Galleria area could be both logistically feasible and make a lot of sense money wise. For the size of the city, I’ll fully admit there are not adequate or quality venues for the stature of the city. Side note - building anything in the deep suburbs would be a colossal mistake. Those projects age soooo poorly and embarrass the city (I will never support a team located near The Woodlands…that’s practically Dallas)
I don't see a team based in the suburbs being successful. I could be wrong, but if you place an arena in the northwestern suburbs you're signaling to a large portion of the city that the team isn't for them due to logistics alone. Maybe they'll be successful out of the gate like Las Vegas or maybe they'll be terrible for decades like Columbus. If it's the latter then it'll always be a niche sport in a warm city that cares about NFL, NCAA football, MLB, and NBA in that order.
I believe there are restrictions in place keeping them from building an arena that close to Toyota Center
Over the last couple of months they have been demolishing the building (including two neighboring properties) and clearing the site. The whole bullet train thing is still in development hell, so if the owners are spending money now to clear the site, I would suspect they are priming it to sell to whoever wants it once the bullet train fantasy officially dies.
I don't think the bullet train has to die I think land can be set aside for future train expansion but there's plenty of land there for another and additional development.
