for the better part of two years<\/a> with the Friedkin family, principally about Houston as an expansion opportunity,\u201d Bettman said. \u201cBut as we continued to focus with them, particularly on the need for a new arena in Houston, the discussions morphed into also a discussion about Austin, which would also need a new building.\u201d <\/p>\nBettman added, \u201cBoth cities will require a new arena. It may be more feasible in one place than the other, and as we dig a little deeper and do the due diligence, we\u2019ll figure out which makes the most sense.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Friedkin family issued a statement, saying in part, \u201cEach city brings unique attributes that would make a new team a huge success \u2014 both have the infrastructure, passionate fan bases and economic strength needed to support a championship-caliber franchise for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friedkin\u2019s sports holdings under the Pursuit Sports umbrella include Italian soccer club A.S. Roma (Serie A), Everton F.C. (English Premier League) and A.S. Cannes (French Championnat National 2). Forbes estimates his net worth at $11.5B.<\/p>\n
A Houston or Austin franchise would be the NHL\u2019s second in Texas, joining the Dallas Stars in the country\u2019s second-most populous state. Bettman said the Stars would not be entitled to compensation in exchange for the addition of another team in Texas, saying franchises\u2019 territorial rights \u201cdon\u2019t extend that far.\u201d Both cities are around 200 miles south of Dallas. <\/p>\n
The two markets offer different value propositions for the NHL and Friedkin. The Houston\u2013Pasadena\u2013The Woodlands region is the country\u2019s fifth largest metropolitan area in the U.S. by population with 7.9 million people, while Austin\u2013Round Rock\u2013San Marcos ranks 25th with 2.6 million residents. The NHL, however, would be the last of the \u201cBig Four\u201d sports leagues to arrive in Houston, whereas it would be the first to land in Austin (joining MLS\u2019 Austin FC). <\/p>\n
Bettman noted the NHL has been successful before by being a first mover into smaller markets, pointing to the success of the Golden Knights in Las Vegas. <\/p>\n
The NHL would become the largest of the \u201cBig Four\u201d by expanding beyond 32 teams, but unlike the others, seven of the NHL\u2019s clubs are based in Canada. Bettman has consistently said that NHL has room to grow in the U.S. given that it only has 25 teams in the country. The league\u2019s most recent additions through expansion are the Golden Knights in 2017 for $500 million and the Kraken in 2021 for $650 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 The NHL has signed a term sheet with Houston-based billionaire Dan Friedkin that grants him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1116,56,58,57,2484],"class_list":["post-348217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-hockey","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-nhl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}