The Chron takes a long look at future NHL owner Dan Friedkin and the “Houston or Austin” question that must be answered.
The man who could bring Houston the city’s long-awaited NHL franchise is staying mum for the moment.
But as billionaire Dan Friedkin decides between Houston and Austin for the location of the NHL’s 33rd franchise, it’s becoming clear this effort is much further along than previous endeavors in the city’s decades-long quest for a team in hockey’s top league.
A contentious brew of arena issues, ownership — or more accurately, the lack of it — and politics has helped keep Houston the largest city in the U.S. or Canada without an NHL team. Friedkin, the chairman and CEO of the Houston-based Friedkin Group — whose holdings include Gulf States Toyota and European soccer franchises AS Roma of Italy’s Serie A and Everton of the English Premier League — has exclusive rights to bring a second NHL team to Texas, with Houston and Austin being vetted for a franchise and the decision expected to come in December.
A spokesman for Pursuit Sports, Friedkin’s company dedicated to the family’s sports properties, politely declined comment when asked how things are progressing nearly two months since NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced the exploration of expansion in Texas. But deputy commissioner Bill Daly, the longtime right-hand man for Bettman, said Friedkin has brought a different dynamic than previous suitors. It certainly helps that his net worth is $11.9 billion, per Forbes.
“I think there’s always a variety of kind of environmental factors that can play into any particular situation, either positive or negative,” Daly told the Houston Chronicle. “In Houston’s case in particular, (it’s) whether there’s a suitable venue in which the hockey team can play. And so one of the things that I think the Friedkin Group brings and probably could be the first group to bring to this equation is a willingness to find and establish a suitable facility for a hockey team.
“There’s a number of things there that indicate their readiness and willingness to be a first-tier professional sports league owner. Having said that, there were a number of interested parties in Houston in particular as an expansion market. And I would say the Friedkins were probably more persistent in terms of pursuing their approach than others were. And we certainly had a comfort level with respect to what they were proposing and their commitment to it.”
Bettman has said the total cost will be $3.5 billion between the expansion fee and the cost of a new arena. Daly, without offering specifics, said “there are ideas with respect to arena sites,” and that “in a perfect world,” an expansion team would begin play in the 2029-30 season. A “further substantive briefing” from the Friedkins is expected next month, but Daly said a presentation at the Board of Governors meeting in late September would be premature.
As for the NHL’s role in the vetting of Houston and Austin, Daly called it “a little more active” than advise and consent, albeit without boots on the ground in either city.
“I don’t think either of these markets that have been publicized are foreign markets to us,” Daly said. “Certainly league personnel have been in both markets at various points in time over a number of years, so I don’t think any of these markets are alien or non-familiar to us.”
However, there remain plenty of questions with four months until a decision is reached.
See here for the background. It’s an interesting question where a new arena might be if the team is located in “Houston”. I put that in quotes because it’s not at all farfetched to me that we could get that arena in, say, Sugar Land or the Woodlands, or just somewhere in outer Harris County that isn’t Houston except as far as the postal address goes. Downtown seems like a no-go because of the I-45 construction, but maybe somewhere east of downtown? There’s the space for it, but getting there would be a challenge. Not my problem, we’ll all find out together. The article suggests Houston is the favorite and it gets into NHL expansion history and a lot more. It’s a gift link, so go read the rest.