Yeah, that’s immediately a 10/10 uniform in the NHL. And the name certainly beats any of the ones Utah HC is considering.
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Atlanta? Again? I guess the 3rd time is the charm.
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Keep in mind that San Diego is also on the NHL radar screen.
SoCal already has enough teams.
Needs to be another Texas team to give the Stars a true rival.
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The 5 cities that I have heard are in consideration for 2 spots are, in no particular order-
Phoenix
Houston
Atlanta
Quebec City
Toronto
I don’t understand at all why Atlanta is under consideration, having failed twice before.
I also don’t understand Phoenix. Even before their arena fiasco, they were one of the bottom three teams every year in attendance.
I totally agree with the other 3
cities under consideration. Selfishly, I hope Tillman can work out something and get us a team. I have heard from someone in the.Rocket Organization that Tilman believes the expansion fee that the NHL wants is exorbitant. The NHL has needed to put a team back in Quebec City ever since their team was stolen from them and moved to Denver.
Toronto could easily support a second team in that market, and probably even a third, although that would never happen.
I can understand Quebec, I believe theyre the only major Canadian city outside of Sakastchewan that doesnt have an NHL franchise.
Toronto is the NYC of Canada, they definitely could support a 2nd team. I’m thinking the Maple Leafs may try to block it though
Phoenix just lost the Coyotes, don’t see why they should get another chance right now.
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I don’t understand why a person in Toronto would even consider supporting a second team. It feels like that’s begging for a Lakers/Clippers dynamic where one team’s name is basically emblematic of the city and the other one…is also a team that exists. They’d probably be profitable because there’s enough demand for NHL hockey in Toronto to make it so, but they’d be the backup option for Leafs fans.
QC seems like an obvious choice, to the extent that I think every other city on the list is playing for second.
I don’t know why the NHL would seriously consider Atlanta or Phoenix again; both cities not only failed, but failed hard. The only pro-Atlanta argument I can make is that the old Flames’ sweaters were cool as hell, but the Flames still exist in Calgary, so that brand isn’t coming back anyway. There are even fewer arguments in favor of Phoenix.
QC and Houston seem like the easiest call for me from that list. I don’t even think Houston’s a particularly good market for Hockey, but PHX and ATL should both be non-starters and you probably need a team in the West to balance out QC anyway.
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Here’s a more intriguing hypo.
Suppose Houston gets a franchise…BUT…the owner isn’t Fertitta.
Would the new owner possibly get his own arena built somewhere in the metro chiefly for hockey?
Or would Fertitta agree to let them to play in the Toyota Center for some reasonable amount of rent?
I can dig the color scheme but I like Apollos……Drillers just automatically takes my mind elsewhere.
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Apollos would be dope.
Aeros or Apollos, I say!
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Phoenix has an unfriendly city council….and everyone but Quebec City and Houston have had opportunities before….
Quebec City is beautiful BTW, not that it has anything to do with this….just a cool place.
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Actually Quebec did have an NHL team the Nordiques and they are now the Colorado Avalanche
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Thank you for correction……So Houston is the only one on the list that has not previously had an NHL team?
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Correct we had a WHA team that was in competition with NHL in 70’s but eventually folded and some teams were absorbed into NHL. Then we had a minor team in the AHL.
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Ya know, looking back…
The WHA Aeros folded in 1978. Had they been around in 1979, then they most likely would have been one of the WHA teams absorbed into the NHL after that season. After all, they had two championships, at least one additional finals appearance, and were often among that league’s attendance leaders. Surely they would have been picked up as one of the WHA’s most successful franchises.
Too bad they couldn’t have held on for just ONE more season. Had that happened, then we wouldn’t need to have this discussion, and Houston would have had a long standing NHL franchise.
That team had Gordie Howe and his sons playing for it!
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I was heartbroken as a kid when they folded. Started going to games with my Dad around 1976
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Keep an eye on this:
https://www.sandiego.gov/economic-development/real-estate/midway-rising/documents
Next update is for March/April…
Houston is the biggest city in North America that has never had an NHL team.
There are reasons they haven’t went back to Quebec City there are the lack of corporate dollars and the language barrier is problematic to some too.
Atlanta shouldn’t get another shot before some of the other cities but part of Bettman’s thinking is expanding the league in non traditional hockey markets gets kids interested in playing the sport that maybe wouldn’t have otherwise and therefore creates more chances to have talent coming from places other than Canada and Northern US cities.
Another issue with expanding is the league is already at 32 teams and there are scheduling issues if they had more because every team likes to have those teams come to their building at least once a year that sell tickets.
Tampa can’t draw flies to a wonderful MLB franchise but they draw 19k to their hockey games.
They’ve been around 35 years. When they got approval I thought they’d move in 8-10 years. You can play hockey in the south if you develop a great brand.
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When did the NHL set up shop in CDMX?
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