According to Darren Dreger, the Flames are receiving revenue sharing, which now puts the number of Canadian teams on assistance at 3... at least. It would be a no-brainer for the Calgary owner to explore relocation to a market like Houston if a deal for a new building can't be made.
Flames just can't pick up and leave town.
I believe the rules within the league requires to flames owners to try to sell the team to another party that would keep the team in Calgary. If they can't find one, then they can with the approval of the league go and find another city to play in.
However, you also have to look at the cities that are available and ask if the flames are going to be better off in that city. Assuming that the flames not for sale, its a move with the Calgary owners.
Seattle, a group is willing to spend $650 million to redo key arena. They aren't going to be handing over the keys to the revenue streams to a hockey team. Plus they want an NBA team.
Portland, Houston have NBA teams where the NBA team owner controls the revenues of the building. So, the flames will be a tenant.
KC, they operate profitably without a pro team. So it has to make sense for them to let the flames in.
It's a different story if the flams are for sale and the rockets new owner wants to buy them. Paul Allen, don't think he is interested as he has not bid for an expansion team in the past 2 rounds.