re: NHL expansion to Texas??

Texas has thriving club hockey programs via the ACHA.

In the state of texas alone you have colllege club teams that are funded by alumni.

UT, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, U Houston, DBU, North Texas, SMU, East Texas Baptist, Rice and UTSA.

Houston's a no-brainer with their minor league hockey and WHA history and being the fifth-largest metro population in the country. Austin surprised me but then it has a larger metro population than Columbus and Pittsburgh which have NHL franchises.

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I liken it to the MLB expanding in the 90’s and not taking into account the amount of transplants were in cities like Tampa. People moved there already being life long fans of the Yankees or Mets. There’s a ton of people from Louisiana here but no ones switching to the Texans from the Saints just because they’re local.

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The idea is their kids will make that switch…

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Raleigh and Columbus have proven the model can be successful. Why compete with the Big 3 sports for attention when you can have Austin to yourself from January to June?

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You can expand this, as well, to smaller markets without a basketball team. Nashville, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, St Louis, San Jose. All have been very successful at the gate.

When the NHL shares an NBA building, with the NBA tenant being a different owner, is when they come into conflict. Salt Lake has NHL and NBA, but one guy owns both, and it's kind of the exception that proves the rule.

Austin makes a lot of sense. The NHL has been successful being the first to market .

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The point being is to get kids playing so they become invested in the local NHL team.

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They have the Aeros travel team for the kids already. They could easily build that up if a NHL team came to town

Houston has been in the conversation for years. Austin only being mentioned within the past couple of days.

Conventional wisdom tells me Austin is being used as leverage to get as much as possible from the Houston people.

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Jets had respectable attendance despite being out of the playoff picture all year.

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They did. But they also have the smallest arena in the NHL, that cannot be expanded.

Population growth and corporate support isn't on Winnipeg's side. It's a metro the size of Knoxville, and doesn't have a Pilot/Flying J as a major corporate engine. It's also a largely blue collar town, so it's going to be hit by recessions harder than, say, Vancouver or Toronto. And Canada, as a country, is in bad shape from a longterm economic outlook.

I'm not saying Winnipeg is in danger of relocation. They have a deep-pocketed owner. But the town itself is a difficult spot to support a Big 4 sports franchise long-term.

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Edmonton also seems like a smaller market like Winnipeg

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It is, but Alberta as a province is wealthy, and resource-rich. Edmonton was also in danger of relocation for years until their new arena was built, and McJesus was gifted to them. Edmonton also has the same issue that WPG does in that it cannot attract free agents. Chris Pronger famously did all in his power to bail out after one great year.


Manitoba has all of these problems, but it's significantly poorer than Alberta. With no McJesus and no tradition of winning.

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The Jets owner doesn't need the Jets to make money. He's the richest guy in Canada. I am curious about the overall economic feasibility of the Jets, however. Winnipeg is tiny, easily the smallest market in a major 4 sports league, with very little corporate presence. It has the smallest arena in the NHL- a notoriously gate- driven league. To your point, it's not likely to be competitive for a championship, as free agents do not sign there.

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As you alluded, I think Winnipeg is being propped up a bit by a minority owner who doesn’t really care if he loses money on the Jets. I do think they’re in danger if David Thomson / his family end up choosing they want out at some point, although I think the league would really like to try to avoid another Winnipeg relocation, if at all possible.

I think the other 31 franchises in the league are in a healthy-enough position at this point in time, although Ottawa probably does need to get downtown relatively quickly.

You're talking about The Summit, aka Compaq Center, and now Lakewood Church. I used to go to a lot of Aeros games back then and there were plenty of games with a full house. I also remember going up there with some of my HS teammates to watch the Rockets and get there near halftime and we could sit wherever we wanted.

I lived in Sugar Land and Southwest Freeway wasnt that bad. Problem with the Aeros was that we were in the WHA and not NHL. When the merger happened, our owner said if we sold a certain amount of season tickets, he would move us to NHL. Houston fans bought more than that number, but that owner changed his mind and that burnt a lot of the fans back then.