LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 While the NHL may soon expand to Houston or Austin, Texas, the road to adding a 33rd team still has some obstacles to clear.<\/p>\n
With the league in the middle of a process of exploring possible expansion with billionaire Dan Friedkin and his family, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said Wednesday the Board of Governors still needs to be fully sold on the idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to get ahead of the board,” Daly said at the annual North American preseason player media tour. “I don\u2019t want to treat it like a done deal because it\u2019s not. It\u2019s not a done deal on the Friedkin side, and it\u2019s not a done deal on our side. And that\u2019s why it\u2019s kind of a nonbinding term sheet. We\u2019re both going to work hard to achieve that goal. But, at the end of the day, it might not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next board meeting is set for Sept. 22 in New York. The last meeting there in June was when Commissioner Gary Bettman unveiled the six-month agreement with the Friedkin family, which would require a total investment of $3.5 billion between the expansion fee and cost to build a new arena.<\/p>\n
Daly said at that meeting and in recent weeks, some teams expressed concern about going beyond the current number of 32.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have clear direction yet from our board that everybody wants to expand,\u201d Daly said. “We\u2019re certainly going to have that conversation with them at our upcoming meeting, kind of get direction from them as to kind of where they are on the subject. It\u2019s been my impression over the last two years that if we found the right place and the right owners and it would add to the league, that there would be support \u2014 board support \u2014 for expansion. But we\u2019ll make sure of that before we expand, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the determinations that needs to be made is Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city, or Austin, the state capital that would fit the mold of other places where hockey has thrived as the first or only of the four major North American professional sports leagues there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some benefit to coming first: It\u2019s an up-and-coming, growing city, young, affluent \u2014 it has a lot going for it,\u201d Daly said. \u201cBut Houston is enormous, and it is a major market that we\u2019re not in. We don\u2019t have the same footprint across the United States that the other major professional leagues do. So, to add a city of Houston\u2019s size and demographics to our league, there would be certainly benefits associated with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Either would need a new, state-of-the-art arena, Daly said, though having one ready for the 2029-30 season may be an aggressive timeline. The Friedkin family’s Pursuit Sports declined comment through a spokesperson.<\/p>\n
The NHL Players’ Association is monitoring the process, and Executive Director Marty Walsh has had some general conversations with Bettman about expansion over the past couple of years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have really no say in what happens, so obviously we\u2019re going to watch and see what happens,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cAnd if it happens, we\u2019ll represent the players and talk about a bunch of different things, and if it doesn\u2019t happen, we have a strong league right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
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