The NHL is Eyeing Austin Texas instead of Houston - Oak View agrees to Build New Arena!!!

[Centrum Hockey]

It actually does look like it was designed with hockey in mind. The curving horizontal guardrail in the center front of the picture separates the more steeply banked bowl from the shallower slope up front.

Renderings are more about the artist's impression than anything else though. Get some plans and seating charts and it will be settled.

Even if they could fit a rink in there it looks like it would seat less than some ahl arenas.

 

[robertocarlos]

It's not Auston Texas?

 

[Djp]

Houston should be NHL redar. It is 4th largets city in USA without NHL franchise.

Its hard to understand that they dont have a team. I think that they will get one in the future. Maybe 2-5 years...

easy...not a winter site of hockey, not a heavy winter area transplant area where folks grew up hockey fans. Austin has a better shot in this.

I just can't see KC being in play for the foreseeable future. I know that there are people with money (Lamar Hunt, Jr. among them) who would love to have a franchise there, but the expansion price tag has always been a non-starter. The city seems much more interested in keeping T-Mobile Center available for big concerts and college basketball (KC is not a college town, but it is a college basketball mecca). If the old rule of thumb about having 1 million metro population for every Big 4 franchise, plus 500,000 for an MLS franchise still holds true, then KC is more than capped out (approx. 2.15 million metro to support the Chiefs, Royals, and Sporting KC). Even if you stretch it out to the Combined Statistical Area, which covers a much broader swath of territory, that only gets them to just above 2.4 million. Maybe if Sporting wasn't there, you could possibly get away with having enough local support for an NHL franchise, but KC is also a massive regional hotbed for soccer. They aren't going anywhere.

data on larger approx 90 min drive from KC is wrong. There is much more people.

thst concept of peop,e in sre doesn’t factor in seasons. KC doesn’t have a winter sport. If say a market had summer baseball and winter basketball the pooulation comment might hold something. It doesn’t.


I’m not saying KC should or shouldn’t get a team. Can the market support it based on data...yes.

 

[sh724]

easy...not a winter site of hockey, not a heavy winter area transplant area where folks grew up hockey fans. Austin has a better shot in this.



data on larger approx 90 min drive from KC is wrong. There is much more people.

thst concept of peop,e in sre doesn’t factor in seasons. KC doesn’t have a winter sport. If say a market had summer baseball and winter basketball the pooulation comment might hold something. It doesn’t.


I’m not saying KC should or shouldn’t get a team. Can the market support it based on data...yes.

KC may be able to support a team in theory, but at this time there is no arena and no owner.

Lamar Hunt has shown interest in changing his ECHL team to an AHL to be the Blues affiliate, but that fell apart. He has shown nothing more than passive interest in owning an NHL team.

Yes, KC does have an arena, but the city has said the arena is more profitable without an anchor tenant and at this time has no interest in bringing in a sports team, regardless of the league. If the league was able to put a team in the Sprint Center (or whatever the current name is) the building will be close to 20 years old when the team started playing. As we know, for an NHL team to be successfully they need to also managed the arena, so the NHL would most likely want to wait until the current contract was up and the NHL team owner taking over management.

 

[tornadowarning33]

easy...not a winter site of hockey, not a heavy winter area transplant area where folks grew up hockey fans. Austin has a better shot in this.



data on larger approx 90 min drive from KC is wrong. There is much more people.

thst concept of peop,e in sre doesn’t factor in seasons. KC doesn’t have a winter sport. If say a market had summer baseball and winter basketball the pooulation comment might hold something. It doesn’t.


I’m not saying KC should or shouldn’t get a team. Can the market support it based on data...yes.

Of course there's more people if you go as far out as a 90 minute drive. Those people don't live in the metro or the CSA and thus they aren't local, so I don't see how they're relevant to the point. I don't know of many people who live 90 minutes away on either side of the state line that would be making that drive with any kind of regularity to watch hockey.

Almost all of the CSA population lives within an hour of the Power and Light District, and most live even closer. That's where your core ticket-buying fanbase is coming from.

As it stands, any winter sport that wants to play at T-Mobile has to contend with a full slate of concerts and other shows that the city cares more about than hockey or pro basketball. Its difficult to schedule 41 home games a year in that situation.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

As it stands, any winter sport that wants to play at T-Mobile has to contend with a full slate of concerts and other shows that the city cares more about than hockey or pro basketball. Its difficult to schedule 41 home games a year in that situation.

I don't know how buys T-Mobile was before the pandemic, but at best I still doubt they had a concert every other day.

 

[Bostonzamboni]

But Austin has an MLS team starting this year and in a new soccer field/ stadium. Likely not much more support or interest for an NHL team or funding another sports venue?

Ideally, NHL should've landed in Austin first before MLS, but now it may be moot forever, despite its growing and wealthy population? Who says MLS is not competition for the NHL?

 

[CanadianCoyote]

easy...not a winter site of hockey, not a heavy winter area transplant area where folks grew up hockey fans. Austin has a better shot in this.

The USHL Skippers/Huskies, CHL Apollos, WHA and IHL/AHL Aeros all say differently. Houston has had hockey for a long time, so it can clearly support the sport pretty well.

Austin doesn't have a better shot than Houston unless you think one CHL team beats all of the aforementioned in terms of scale. The market's less than a third the size of Houston; what possible reason would they have to chose Austin over Houston?

 

[GindyDraws]

The USHL Skippers/Huskies, CHL Apollos, WHA and IHL/AHL Aeros all say differently. Houston has had hockey for a long time, so it can clearly support the sport pretty well.

Austin doesn't have a better shot than Houston unless you think one CHL team beats all of the aforementioned in terms of scale.

Yeah, it can support hockey, but the main barrier is Tillman "How do you spell 'linesman'?" Fertitta. I thought the path to the NHL was clear-cut once Les Alexander was gone.

And then Tillman opened up his mouth.

 

[Djp]

The USHL Skippers/Huskies, CHL Apollos, WHA and IHL/AHL Aeros all say differently. Houston has had hockey for a long time, so it can clearly support the sport pretty well.

Austin doesn't have a better shot than Houston unless you think one CHL team beats all of the aforementioned in terms of scale. The market's less than a third the size of Houston; what possible reason would they have to chose Austin over Houston?

as a percentage the population of Austin has more north transplants than Houston because of a better tech industry like Raleigh.

it also has NO pro sports teams, this not much competition.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

as a percentage the population of Austin has more north transplants than Houston because of a better tech industry like Raleigh.

it also has NO pro sports teams, this not much competition.

UH Dallas Stars have claimed the market as has San Antonio

 

[CanadianCoyote]

as a percentage the population of Austin has more north transplants than Houston because of a better tech industry like Raleigh.

it also has NO pro sports teams, this not much competition.

MLS isn't a professional sports league now? Not to mention there's already a professional hockey franchise occupying the Austin market in the Texas Stars (minor-pro is still professional hockey)...

Houston has no pre-existing minor league teams to jostle for space with, as well as being a larger market and including Austin in it's TV market. There's not really any reason to chose Austin over Houston.

Raleigh, Nashville and Vegas are state teams as much as city teams because they're the only teams in their region. Texas already has a nearly 30-year old team in Dallas who's built a lot of love in Austin with their AHL affiliate being 12 years old.

Houston, by contrast, is a natural rival to Dallas and a huge media market in it's own right that has proven plenty capable of supporting hockey at multiple professional levels (WHA being major-pro, IHL and AHL being minor-pro).

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Austin is too small for an NHL team that does not have a similar ownership structure to the Green Bay Packers. The NHL will need to permit such an arrangement for an Austin team to work (it's about time these ownership structures get permitted across all the big 4 leagues, as a means of preventing relocation; it could have done the Atlanta Thrashers a lot of good in 2011).

 

[JMCx4]

... KC doesn’t have a winter sport. ...

What are the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs - chopped liver?

 

[HisIceness]

Austin is too small for an NHL team that does not have a similar ownership structure to the Green Bay Packers. The NHL will need to permit such an arrangement for an Austin team to work (it's about time these ownership structures get permitted across all the big 4 leagues, as a means of preventing relocation; it could have done the Atlanta Thrashers a lot of good in 2011).

I'm confused by this statement that Austin is "too small". The city itself is getting close to passing the 1Million mark, and the city itself is already larger than the entire Winnipeg metro (the smallest market in the league). They don't need a Green Bay ownership structure to work, they'd just need a Texas billionaire who loves Hockey to get the ball rolling. They've already got potential corporate partners too (Dell, Whole Foods, HEB, Keller Williams, etc.)

The market would probably be a hit among players, it is routinely ranked among best cities to live, work, be single, weather, etc.

 

[CanadianCoyote]

Austin's problem isn't size, it's that there's Houston standing in the way of it and we know the NHL is chomping at the bit to get a team in Houston. That combined with the Stars having their AHL team there might make the appetite for it lower in the BoG compared to the larger, uncovered Houston market.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

I'm confused by this statement that Austin is "too small". The city itself is getting close to passing the 1Million mark, and the city itself is already larger than the entire Winnipeg metro (the smallest market in the league). They don't need a Green Bay ownership structure to work, they'd just need a Texas billionaire who loves Hockey to get the ball rolling. They've already got potential corporate partners too (Dell, Whole Foods, HEB, Keller Williams, etc.)

The market would probably be a hit among players, it is routinely ranked among best cities to live, work, be single, weather, etc.

The market is too small

 

[HisIceness]

The market is too small

Austin and surrounding is about the same size and/or bigger than Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Vancouver, Nashville, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Raleigh, Columbus, and Buffalo. I fail to see why you say the market is "too small".

 

[Barclay Donaldson]

it also has NO pro sports teams, this not much competition.

MLS is pretty major competition. And Texas Longhorns athletics takes the place of at least 2 other Top 4 sports teams in terms of media attention, customer dollars, market interest. Heck, Longhorns football at least takes the market share of a NFL team. Their attendance is higher than every single NFL team. They almost generate NFL-level revenue. Take the rest of their athletics department and that is the equivalent of at least one other Top 4 sports team.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

After further investigation, Austin is ranked #38 in the TV market rankings.

I guess it's not too small after all.

 

[cutchemist42]

MLS is pretty major competition. And Texas Longhorns athletics takes the place of at least 2 other Top 4 sports teams in terms of media attention, customer dollars, market interest. Heck, Longhorns football at least takes the market share of a NFL team. Their attendance is higher than every single NFL team. They almost generate NFL-level revenue. Take the rest of their athletics department and that is the equivalent of at least one other Top 4 sports team.

Everyone seems to forget they host an F1 race, where annual expenses for those things are almost 40-50% of an NHL teams salaries for 1 weekend.

That has to be factored in too as that race sucks up money locally too.

Hosting that popular probably does more for the city's brand than an NHL team would anyway.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

Everyone seems to forget they host an F1 race, where annual expenses for those things are almost 40-50% of an NHL teams salaries for 1 weekend.

That has to be factored in too as that race sucks up money locally too.

Hosting that popular probably does more for the city's brand than an NHL team would anyway.

One day event is going to prevent Austin from being an NHL city? What?

 

[cutchemist42]

One day event is going to prevent Austin from being an NHL city? What?

I never said that.

I was just adding what the major sport options already are in Austin as no one was seeming to include it.

An F1 race is about a $40-50 million dollar weekend. That's not something that should be ignored.

MLS+UT+F1 might be enough for a city of Austin's size.

I think it was either MLS or NHL. I dont think it's big enough for 2mthe 2 of them plus UT and F1.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

I never said that.

I was just adding what the major sport options already are in Austin as no one was seeming to include it.

An F1 race is about a $40-50 million dollar weekend. That's not something that should be ignored.

MLS+UT+F1 might be enough for a city of Austin's size.

I think it was either MLS or NHL. I dont think it's big enough for 2mthe 2 of them plus UT and F1.

wrong:

F1 is no longer at COTA

 

[BKIslandersFan]

I never said that.

I was just adding what the major sport options already are in Austin as no one was seeming to include it.

An F1 race is about a $40-50 million dollar weekend. That's not something that should be ignored.

MLS+UT+F1 might be enough for a city of Austin's size.

I think it was either MLS or NHL. I dont think it's big enough for 2mthe 2 of them plus UT and F1.

One day sporting event isn't going to compete with NHL, stop it.