already agreed to pay a $2 billion expansion fee<\/a> to bring a team to either Houston or Austin, pending the ability to build an arena in one of those markets and secure final approval from the NHL\u2019s Board of Governors.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re moving forward in Texas,\u201d Daly said in an interview at the NHL\u2019s European Media Tour. \u201cI expect ultimately we\u2019ll be in a position to bring something to the board to get their view on it. So, that\u2019s proceeding at a pace. We\u2019ll probably get together with the group again in September and kind of see where they are in the process and what they want us to do to help, to the extent they need anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we finalize that and the board approves it, then (at the) end of this calendar year we\u2019ll have an announcement that we\u2019re expanding to either Houston or Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Houston is the fourth-largest market in the United States and was the original focus when the NHL first started exploring expansion with Friedkin. It remains the most likely landing spot for the team, although Austin held enough appeal as an emerging, unique city that the parties agreed to further explore that market as well.<\/p>\n
Daly told The Athletic the NHL is also actively engaged in talks with groups hoping to land the league\u2019s 34th team. Those conversations aren\u2019t nearly as advanced as dealings with Friedkin\u2019s group, which hopes to debut its Texas team within three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re projecting the ability to start play in 2029-30,\u201d Daly said. \u201cSo we will have one down and potentially one to go. We have ongoing discussions both with people in the Phoenix marketplace, but also Atlanta, and then we\u2019ll see what comes of those discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Daly, the NHL doesn\u2019t feel the need to line up the timing of its next two expansion teams, a view partly informed by the league\u2019s experience expanding to 31 teams with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017 before returning to a balanced number of 32 with the Seattle Kraken in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the commissioner\u2019s always asked about, \u2018Well, that\u2019s only one (expansion) team, what about the second team?\u201d\u2018 Daly noted. \u201cCertainly if it happened that two could come in the same year that might be more convenient, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a barrier if they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interestingly, the NHL\u2019s favorable experience with Vegas has bolstered consideration for Austin. While it can\u2019t match Houston\u2019s population or corporate base, it has added appeal with only one top-tier pro sports franchise: Austin FC of MLS. The NHL hit a home run in Las Vegas by establishing its presence in the market ahead of the NFL and MLB. The Golden Knights have been wildly successful, becoming one of the league\u2019s higher revenue teams from Day 1.<\/p>\n
Asked how the league weighs the chance to go to a bigger market (Houston) or gain a foothold in a growing one (Austin), Daly said: \u201cProbably different people weigh it differently, and would look at it differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI view Austin to be similar to our decision to move into Las Vegas at a time where the other leagues weren\u2019t considering it in part because of the size of the market and mid-size nature of it,\u201d he added. \u201cWe needed to satisfy ourselves that there was kind of a sufficient fanbase there that would embrace the club locally. We probably got lucky along the way, but as it\u2019s turned out, the city is in love with that franchise. I would even distinguish it from at least football, with respect to whether the (Raiders) fanbase really exists in Las Vegas or whether it\u2019s a tourist fanbase.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think (the Golden Knights) have clearly proven that the locals, the people who live in and around Vegas, are supporting that franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the NHL enters another growth phase, other changes will follow.<\/p>\n
Daly said there\u2019s been no formal discussion yet about what would happen to the playoff format with the introduction of a 33rd team. However, he did allow that the league likely wouldn\u2019t want to keep the existing setup and create a circumstance in which more teams miss out (17) than qualify (16) each season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think certainly an argument can be made that once you\u2019re over 32 franchises you\u2019re looking at maybe an expanded playoffs of some sort,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sitting in Europe, where the NHL is currently ramping up efforts to grow its brand and business<\/a>, the deputy commissioner expressed confidence that the quality of play won\u2019t suffer when the league adds two more teams.<\/p>\nThe NHL believes there are enough high-quality players to fill out those rosters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have enough boots on the ground and experience to know kind of where hockey skill is today and the players who can play and have proved they can play in the National Hockey League,\u201d Daly said. \u201cThe source and supply of players is not a concern. The dilution of talent as an argument against expansion I don\u2019t think holds any water today. Does it support four-team expansion? That would be a question for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly, a two-team expansion doesn\u2019t raise any concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MUNICH \u2014 The NHL is on track to award its 33rd franchise to Texas as soon as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,2484,2256],"class_list":["post-414229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-nhl","tag-sports-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414229","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=414229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}