The NHL and Houston have never come together because of politics, arenas and ownership

For decades, the National Hockey League has been the white whale of Houston pro sports.

During the NHL’s modern era, its games have been played on stages as grand as New York’s Madison Square Garden, as offbeat as the inside of a Connecticut shopping mall, and as derided as Mullett Arena, the Arizona Coyotes’ temporary home with a 4,600-seat capacity.

But the nation’s fourth-largest city, a top-10 media market that boasts a hockey history going back to the 1940s and once saw the World Hockey Association’s Aeros, led by Hall of Famer Gordie Howe, outdraw the NBA’s Rockets? Houston remains iced out, and the freeze looks to continue with no definitive end in sight.

“I think it’s surprising that if you look at the growth of the NHL and you see that Atlanta and Houston aren’t represented, that is sort of shocking given the size of those markets,” said Neil Smith, former general manager of the New York Rangers.

“I think (Houston has) got everything, but it doesn’t have an owner. That’s the only thing. I think it has everything you want in a major market with a building that’s got the revenue sources you need to support a major league team. I think it would be a great place.”

ALSO SEE: A look at previous attempts to bring the NHL to Houston

In December 1990, then-Quebec Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut said “San Diego, Miami, Houston, Seattle, Atlanta. The NHL believes our future is in these cities.”

In the years since, 17 markets have gotten new teams via expansion or relocation. But not Houston.

“Other (Sun Belt) markets like Dallas, Tampa Bay, Florida and even Carolina, those teams are all good, and their markets are great, but they don’t honestly compare to Houston,” former Aeros and NHL enforcer John Scott told the Chronicle in 2017. “I don’t know why there hasn’t been discussion of a team in Houston, because it’s kind of a no-brainer. If Dallas can support a team, Houston can obviously support a team.”

While Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has expressed more interest of late in bringing an NHL team to Toyota Center, Houston has been passed by another market with the Arizona Coyotes' move to Salt Lake City for next season made official Thursday.

“I think it’s sad,” Jack Stanfield, a former WHA Aeros player and executive during the 1970s, said of seeing yet another city get a team before Houston.

Where’s the advocate?

Las Vegas has Bill Foley. Seattle has David Bonderman. Salt Lake City has Ryan Smith. All pursued hockey franchises with an aggression that paid off with new teams. But they don’t come cheap, with Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz, reportedly paying $1.3 billion for the Coyotes.

When he bought the Rockets in October 2017, Fertitta said he “would put an NHL team here tomorrow.” Last fall, Rockets president of business operations Gretchen Sheirr said making Toyota Center “hockey ready” was part of the building’s future renovations.

While he’s been open to adding an NHL team, Fertitta — who bid $5.5 billion for the NFL’s Washington Commanders last year —  has included caveats through the years such as “whatever we do has to make sense” and “it’s got to be good for both of us.”

This week, Fertitta told the Houston Business Journal that he was not allowed to bid for the Coyotes because “the NHL views Houston as an expansion target, removing the ability for us to purchase and relocate an existing team.” He added that he was still committed to bringing pro hockey to Houston in a partnership with real estate developer Ira Mitzner, the CEO of the Houston-based RIDA Development Corporation.

But given how quickly Smith moved to acquire an NHL franchise after buying the Jazz in December 2020, Fertitta’s interest in landing a team has been questioned by hockey insiders.

“Tilman Fertitta being interested in a hockey team, it’s almost passive aggressive, because does he really want a hockey team?” said John Shannon, a veteran Canadian analyst and sports television producer who also worked four seasons in the NHL office. “Maybe he does. He doesn’t want to pay what (commissioner Gary Bettman) wants him to pay, I’m sure, if it came to fruition. But he doesn’t want the competition for an arena, for sure.

“If Ryan Smith in Salt Lake City owned the Rockets, this might be a different discussion because he’s a huge hockey fan and wants a hockey team. … I don’t think there’s a huge advocate in Houston at this point other than Fertitta, who’s trying to probably make the best business move, as opposed to being a passionate hockey fan.”

Also complicating matters is the Toyota Center lease, which, starting with Fertitta’s predecessor Leslie Alexander, allowed Rockets ownership to control access to the building when it opened in 2003. That helped lead to the departure of the American Hockey League version of the Aeros in 2013, leaving Houston as the nation’s largest city without any form of pro hockey.

While different owners sharing an arena has worked in other NBA/NHL cities like Los Angeles, Boston and Philadelphia, the ideal situation for Houston would likely be one owner for both teams. In the 1990s, Houston’s basketball and hockey ownership groups were at odds, a factor in the NHL’s never coming. 

“When there was a minor league hockey club that was running the Compaq Center and made it a little hard on the Rockets from a revenue standpoint, it was a bit of a conflict,” Stanfield said. “That created some sour feelings about things.

“I understand the economic challenges for the Rockets and what that would mean with competition or not competition, but heck, if they were part of what helped bring a franchise here, it could be a win-win.”

While Houston might lack an outspoken in-market advocate, it does have an influential champion who has Bettman’s ear.

Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, longtime chairman of the NHL’s board of governors, said in October 2018 that “clearly the one area that is missing is Houston, because that’s a great city.”

“Oh, Mr. Jacobs carries a lot of juice, absolutely,” Shannon said. “He’s one of Gary Bettman’s closest confidants.”

Former NHL player Nick Kypreos, a longtime analyst and radio host for Canadian cable network Sportsnet, said Jacobs’ influence shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“I think he carries a lot of weight, and if he’s in the corner of Houston, it’s just another reason to take Houston seriously,” Kypreos said.

But Jacobs’ support goes only so far.

“Until there’s a building to play in, they’re not going to Houston,” Dallas Stars chairman Jim Lites said. “I think Houston would be absolutely the best expansion market in the United States, but until the guy who controls the building there wants to have an NHL team, it isn’t going to happen.

“I’ve had people come to me and ask me about (who) would be interested in acquiring an expansion team or transferring a franchise there, and I know Gary doesn’t stand in its way. But he won’t give a franchise away just to get one there, nor should he.”

Expanding footprint

When the 1990-91 season began, the NHL was a 21-team league with nearly a third of its franchises in Canada and those in the Sun Belt a rarity.

Fast forward to 2024, and the league’s 32-team geographic footprint in the U.S. stretches from Seattle to Sunrise, Fla. The NHL doesn’t bat an eye at putting teams in nontraditional markets like Nashville or Las Vegas.

“I’m still fascinated at Florida, Dallas and Arizona,” Kypreos said. “As someone who grew up in the heart of NHL hockey in Toronto, if I was a teenager all over again and you told me teams would be in Florida, Texas and Arizona, I would’ve probably told you fat chance.”

With Wayne Gretzky’s 1988 trade from Edmonton to Los Angeles cited as a catalyst, the NHL’s boom across the U.S. dovetailed with Bettman’s hire as commissioner in February 1993. Imported from the NBA, Bettman had a mandate to modernize and grow a game whose appeal largely was in regional U.S. strongholds.

That meant leaving locales like Minnesota, Quebec, Winnipeg and Hartford for greener pastures down south.

“(Those were) places where they didn’t feel they could make money. They didn’t have the building, population or whatever,” Smith said.

Was Houston eyed as a relocation spot then? 

“I don’t remember specifically anything (discussed) about Houston,” said Smith, who ran the Rangers from 1989 to 2000.

For the NHL, it was simply a case of follow the money.

“We were excited in the '90s to hear about Blockbuster (Video) coming in and buying Florida or Disney coming in and buying the (Anaheim) Ducks,” Kypreos said. “We were like, ‘Now we’re really on the map here, especially in the U.S.’ We knew that’s where the push for our salaries was going to come from. It wasn’t coming from Canada any longer.”

There were missteps along the way. The biggest might have come in 1994, when NHL owners locked out the players months after the Rangers, in the league’s biggest market, ended a 54-year Stanley Cup championship drought with a thrilling Game 7 win over Vancouver. Hockey was arguably never more visible than that spring, with a famous Sports Illustrated cover declaring “Why the NHL’s Hot and the NBA’s Not.”

Smith said “the lockout took the steam out of the upward movement the NHL was achieving,” but the league had no choice since a new collective bargaining agreement with players was needed. Rinks went dark until January 1995.

For Kypreos, a member of that Rangers squad, the what-ifs remain 30 years later.

“We’re in our fifties and sixties now, and we often ask ourselves (what happens) if we didn’t shut down and were able to carry the momentum,” Kypreos said. “I’m not sure if Michael Jordan back then was making more than Wayne Gretzky. I think they were very close to each other. 

“But hindsight’s 20/20, and now we’re knocking on the door of 34 teams in the NHL and a demand from billionaires to easily stroke checks for (10) figures.”

Neighbors helping neighbors

Aside from Houston hockey fans, maybe the biggest beneficiary of an NHL team here would be its presumptive biggest rival.

In the NHL, the Dallas Stars are on a figurative island. Thirty-one years into their existence, they still lack a natural geographic rival. 

Houston, obviously, would provide that, as well as ease the burden on a franchise that is among the leaders in travel miles logged.

“We, the Stars, are not standing in the way of there being a team in Houston,” Lites said. “We don’t have any problem with it. I don’t have any problem with a rivalry. The Rangers and Astros have a great rivalry, and they play in the same division.”

The Stars, who won the Stanley Cup in 1999, made the final twice more and are a top contender this season, have developed an avid following in the decades since their 1993 arrival. 

Stanfield said he’d put Houston on par with Dallas.

“I played in Dallas, and I know that community is a pretty good hockey community. But it’s not even close to the kind of magic and fan base you can create in this city,” he said.

Horizons new and old?

So what’s next for Houston’s perpetual NHL pursuit?

Bettman and the NHL have maintained the league is not in the expansion process but acknowledged interest from various cities other than Houston, including Atlanta, Cincinnati and Kansas City. The price for an expansion franchise is expected to top $1 billion.

Atlanta, which atypically lost two NHL teams to Canada (the Flames in 1980 to Calgary and Thrashers in 2011 to Winnipeg), has two groups interested in a third try at the NHL.

“Well, let’s remember all the noise is coming out of Atlanta. It’s not coming out of the (NHL’s) New York office,” Shannon said. “This is a bit of a dance that a couple of groups are doing in Atlanta.”

There’s also the Arizona factor. In a non-traditional transaction, the hockey assets of the Coyotes, who were dogged by relocation rumors for two-plus decades, were sold and moved to Utah. But the NHL also announced that owner Alex Meruelo will have the right to reactivate an expansion Coyotes franchise if a new arena “appropriate for an NHL team” is built within the next five years. Lites compared it to when the Minnesota North Stars left for Dallas in 1993 and the market received an expansion team seven years later in the Wild, who have been a box-office success in a new arena in St. Paul.

Relocation candidates, with the Coyotes off the board, are scant. Mark Chipman, executive chairman of the Winnipeg Jets, set off alarm bells recently when he sounded off about the team’s 27% decline in season ticket sales in three years, telling The Athletic, “This place we find ourselves in right now, it’s not going to work over the long haul. It just isn’t.”

Kypreos called Chipman’s remarks “a threat for the next few years if things don’t change.” But Bettman was quick to dismiss any relocation talk.

So Houston continues to play the waiting game, as it has for parts of six decades.

“Gary likes Houston. It’s around the politics, and it’s around the building,” Stanfield said. “I think it’s always been capable and a good, solid candidate. And I say that from pure experience. I know that a winning, quality hockey team will fill buildings in this city. We did it.

“This city should have an NHL franchise. There’s no question.”