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

[CHRDANHUTCH]

There's always a price. If someone is willing to pay it, hard to argue it won't ever happen.

I think ATX could be a great market for the many reasons already suggested about demographics, market growth, etc.

Does that mean it will happen next year? No. But worth keeping an eye on.

Relocation is inevitable in any of the Big 5 (there, I've said it). That is the design of those leagues. Gonna happen eventually and Austin is likely to be in that conversation if it keeps trending the way it is.

the arena isn't happening.... no one is paying the fees required to move into Austin.... if it hasn't happened in Houston by now it's not happening

 

[Centrum Hockey]

Gaglardi would have a good amount of viable options to relocate the AHL Stars and money from a expansion/relocation fee. If the NHL ever entered the Austin market fee its a complete non issue.

 

[LetsGoIslanders]

Houston is like Atlanta. The commute downtown is awful, public transport is terrible, and most of the money and business is in the suburbs.

Austin looks a lot more promising.

I think Buffalo is looking very endangered these days.

Edit: What fees? Dallas is four hours away from Austin by car. It's not remotely in their catchment area.

 

[CanadianCoyote]

Dallas is four hours away from Austin by car. It's not remotely in their catchment area.

May not be in their catching area directly, but the fact is the BoG has been all over Houston for decades now, it's just never quite managed to get done despite getting very close a couple of times. I don't see them quitting that pursuit now in favor of Austin; BoG head Jeremy Jacobs is deadset on a team in Houston.

Oak View building an arena in Austin doesn't necessarily mean the NHL is going there unless you think Greenville, Lexington and Omaha are even potentially on the NHL's expansion radar as far as markets go. OVG builds and manages arenas in many sports, not all related to hockey; just because they're involved in building an arena does not make a market suddenly high-priority for an NHL team.

Houston is already much larger than Austin and also growing quite rapidly. It has a building ready for NHL-quality hockey. Only thing you could really say Austin has up on Houston is per-capita income, but we all know the NHL looks at market size over market capita income. Vegas is 84th in per-capita income, far worse than Houston's 68th.

And even if Buffalo moves (and that's an ENORMOUS "IF"), it's not going to be to Houston because then they need to force another West team East to keep things evened out. The league doesn't want another Winnipeg-in-the-Southeast on their hands if they have to move Buffalo to Houston and then have them playing Toronto, Montreal and Boston regularly.

If they move the Sabres, it's to a location that stays East, one with a known and tolerated ownership group and ideally stays in the Atlantic on top of that. Now what location fits those criteria...

 

[BKIslandersFan]

Oak View building an arena in Austin doesn't necessarily mean the NHL is going there/QUOTE]

They are not. Its too small and not compatible for hockey.

 

[MNNumbers]

..snip..

And even if Buffalo moves (and that's an ENORMOUS "IF"), it's not going to be to Houston because then they need to force another West team East to keep things evened out. The league doesn't want another Winnipeg-in-the-Southeast on their hands if they have to move Buffalo to Houston and then have them playing Toronto, Montreal and Boston regularly.

If they move the Sabres, it's to a location that stays East, one with a known and tolerated ownership group and ideally stays in the Atlantic on top of that. Now what location fits those criteria...

Just a fine point here. No Central Time Zone team would object in any way to playing in a division with Eastern Time Zone teams. Move Buffalo to Houston, and Minnesota and Chicago would BOTH love to take their spot in that division.

It's playing the other way which is problem.

Not that I think the Sabres are moving. They aren't.

 

[oknazevad]

Can an admin please change the title of this thread. The overly excited exclamation points are utterly misleading about the new college basketball arena that has zilch all to do with the NHL.

 

[Centrum Hockey]

The idea that any central team would reject switching to the Eastern Conference and having multiple 3-4 hour flights to the all the Northeast US and Canada teams + Washington/Carolina and choose to stay in the west where there is frequent 6+ hour flights to the west coast is silly.

 

[Bondurant]

Buffalo is small market but still one of the better US markets. Sabres are not moving.

 

[gstommylee]

I want to know why this thread is still even open...

 

[Major4Boarding]

I updated the link in the first post.

Are there any unknown markets that the NHL could expand to?

McKenzie: There's nothing on the immediate horizon for expansion. Obviously, the NHL is just doing Seattle now, so expansion can cool for a while. But, a lot of conventional wisdom has always been that Houston would be the next big spot. It's a great market and perfect for the footprint, but the sense seems to be that the government agency that controls the arena in Houston is not at all interested in the NHL, and therefore, Houston won't be on the NHL's radar anytime soon. But Austin, Texas, is an interesting market. Right now it's an AHL city with an 8,000-seat stadium, so they would obviously need to build another rink. There isn't an ownership group that has stepped forward and said that they want in on Austin, but it is an intriguing market for the NHL that could one day down the road be on the radar because it's a faster growing market and it is a unique niche.

 

[RVACapsFan]

The University of Texas tried for years to make a deal with the city to build a new arena in Austin; nothing ever came of it and UT eventually had to partner with a private equity group to build a much-needed new arena for the basketball program.

If anyone thinks Austin is footing the bill for a 17,000 seat NHL-caliber arena, they haven’t been paying attention. Ain’t happening.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

The University of Texas tried for years to make a deal with the city to build a new arena in Austin; nothing ever came of it and UT eventually had to partner with a private equity group to build a much-needed new arena for the basketball program.

If anyone thinks Austin is footing the bill for a 17,000 seat NHL-caliber arena, they haven’t been paying attention. Ain’t happening.

They should have jumped aboard earlier if they were interested in Austin. OVG, group working with U of Texas, also works with Seattle Kraken and New York Islanders so there is definitely NHL ties there.

Too late now though, U of Texas is getting basketball only arena.

 

[oknazevad]

But that's just it. They weren't interested in Austin. All we ever saw was an unsubstantiated rumor that was clearly based on a complete misinterpretation of OVG's involvement in the construction of a new home court for UT's basketball teams. As noted above, OVG builds and operates many arenas for many teams. Just because they're involved in the new Islanders arena and the reconstruction of the Seattle Center Arena doesn't mean that UT's new building in Austin has anything to do with the NHL. The entirety of this thread is mistaken, and the title is misleading. It should be closed.