The National Hockey League is looking toward expanding again \u2014 this time with its sights set on Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nothing official has been voted on yet, but according to an article by Dan Rosen on the league\u2019s official website, the NHL has reportedly identified Austin and Houston as potential candidates. While starting another NHL team in Texas, particularly in a city like Austin without an established professional team of this scale, may seem daunting, the belief that a hockey team could thrive in Austin is not unfounded.<\/p>\n
The University of Texas hockey club has performed well over the past three years, winning the club\u2019s first league title, as well as reaching its first regional and national competitions within the last three seasons. The recent successes have helped lead to a boost in fan recognition, although the club is not affiliated with the NCAA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look at pretty much every game we\u2019ve played last year, and I don\u2019t think there was a single one that wasn\u2019t sold out,\u201d senior defenseman Lucas Robins said. \u201cThen I look at the (Texas) A&M game, for example, and we\u2019ve had fans travel to College Station. We always have a massive waiting list for that game; it\u2019s usually around 600-700 people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The support from the community isn\u2019t limited to in-person attendance, as the team\u2019s online following has grown in recent years as well. The team account now has over 24,000 followers, multiplying by roughly seven times over the past three years, according to Robins.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to be able to spread the game,\u201d Robins said. \u201cOn the East Coast, club hockey isn\u2019t a big deal. Down here, when we don\u2019t have a D1 or D3 hockey team, it becomes a much bigger deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even outside of collegiate sports, hockey still has established roots in Austin. The H-E-B Center, located in Austin\u2019s suburb of Cedar Park, is home to the Dallas Stars\u2019 minor league affiliate, the Texas Stars. Since joining the American Hockey League in the 2009-10 season, the Texas Stars have won a Calder\u2019s Cup, produced a pair of AHL MVPs and had a recent uptick in fan interest.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur average attendance has gone up each of the last four years, but \u2026 we have double-digit sellouts each of the last few years as well,\u201d\u00a0 said John Peterson, director of broadcasting and media relations for the Texas Stars. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a testament to not only hockey\u2019s growth in Texas, \u2026 but also our ability to relate to our fans with different draws.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Texas Stars organization has also earned multiple awards for its fan relations, including 2024 awards for its fan experience and marketing department as well as an award this year for its merchandising department. The club\u2019s Instagram account, covering the team and its dog, Deke, now sits near 60,000 followers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Stars organization not only markets the team as a developmental site for its NHL parent club, but also to provide a source of entertainment for the casual family, interested in hockey or not, Peterson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really a wide-ranging marketing effort. \u2026 That\u2019s something we\u2019re really proud of,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cOur fans have stepped up and supported the team in so many different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Hockey League is looking toward expanding again \u2014 this time with its sights set on Texas.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-388738","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\/388738","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=388738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}