press release <\/a>by the National Hockey League, Commissioner Bettman named the Friedkin family, led by Dan Friedkin, CEO of The Friedkin Group, as the prospective owner of a potential 33rd NHL team, and they have since agreed to explore this opportunity. The family\u2019s investment is approximately priced at $3.5 billion, which includes the cost of building a new arena and an expansion fee to the NHL. During this exploration phase, it\u2019ll be decided whether the new team will call Houston or Austin its new home.<\/p>\n\u201cWe have been in discussions for the better part of two years with the Friedkin family, principally for the last two years, about Houston as an expansion opportunity,\u201d Commissioner Bettman said in a press release. \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. But we are going to work together under the terms, a term sheet that we were able to agree upon, in terms of a framework to consider what makes the most sense moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, if we\u2019re able to jointly reach a conclusion, at that time it would be subject to a vote of the Board of Governors,\u201d Commissioner Bettman said. \u201cThat\u2019s something that will unfold over the next six months, give or take.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Friedkin family, which also owns Italian soccer club AS Roma and English Premier League club Everton, released a statement saying the NHL agreement gives them \u201cexclusive rights to bring an expansion team to Texas,\u201d specifically in either Houston or Austin.<\/p>\n
Through Pursuit Sports, the Friedkins\u2019 \u201cglobal sports ownership and operating platform,\u201d the family released a statement saying the agreement with the NHL gives it exclusive rights to bring an expansion team to Texas, with a focus on Austin or Houston.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach city brings unique attributes that would make a new team a huge success,\u201d the Friedkin family\u2019s statement read. \u201cBoth have the infrastructure, passionate fan bases, and economic strength needed to support a championship-caliber franchise for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the Dallas Stars, who became a team in 1993 when the Minnesota North Stars franchise relocated to the city, Commissioner Bettman asserted that they don\u2019t have exclusive rights to be the only Texas NHL squad. In fact, Bettman believes the Stars organization will \u201cthink it\u2019s good for hockey in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The head of the NHL also added that this expansion into either the Houston or Austin market doesn\u2019t automatically rule out a potential expansion into Atlanta or Arizona.<\/p>\n
The NHL last expanded the league to 32 teams for the 2021-22 season, welcoming the Seattle Kraken to the ice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo by Bruce Bennett\/Getty Images) The NHL is looking into putting a second team in Texas. NHL Commissioner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-351709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351709","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=351709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"LOS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2222484298.jpg\")
(Photo by Bruce Bennett\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n