Tilman Fertitta, others continue to eye Houston’s NHL prospects after Arizona Coyotes deal – Houston Business Journal

The Arizona Coyotes’ pending move to Utah could mean that if Houston were to score an NHL team, it’s more likely to come via league expansion than relocation.

According to multiple reports, the Coyotes will be sold to Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, move to Salt Lake City and be renamed. The team had been playing at Arizona State University’s 5,000-seat Mullet Arena the past two seasons after Tempe, Arizona, voters rejected three propositions that would have allowed the Coyotes to build a new $2.3 billion arena and entertainment district — prompting some to speculate yet again that the franchise could move to Houston.

Now, the team’s players and coaches are expected to play in Utah beginning next season, but Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo will keep the Coyotes name and work toward a new arena for an expansion team, per the reports. Meruelo reportedly will have five years to build a new NHL arena with the league promising to award Phoenix an expansion franchise if he is able to do so.

While Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has been vocal about his intentions to bring an NHL franchise to Houston, he said in a statement to the Houston Business Journal that he was unable to bid for the Coyotes organization as “the NHL views Houston as expansion target, removing the ability for us to purchase and relocate an existing team.”

Fertitta touted Toyota Center, the Rockets’ downtown arena, which previously hosted the American Hockey League’s Houston Aeros, as an ideal location for a potential team, adding that Houston has a passionate and loyal hockey fan base.

“I remain committed to exploring all opportunities to bring professional hockey to Houston in partnership with Ira Mitzner,” Fertitta wrote in the statement.

Mitzner is the CEO of Houston-based Rida Development Corp., which developed the Marriott Marquis hotel across Discovery Green from Toyota Center.

Are expansions in NHL’s future?

With the Coyotes’ embattled three-decade tenure in Arizona now over and the franchise’s imminent relocation to Utah, it appears that the most likely avenue the NHL would come to Houston is via expansion, said Tom Stallings, a Rice University sports management professor and former executive with the Houston Aeros. Stallings said “something had to be done sooner rather than later” about the Arizona franchise, calling the situation a “black eye” for hockey. 

While the relocation solves that issue, Stallings said he thinks the league would much rather add new teams than relocate existing franchises to new markets. An expansion fee is much more lucrative than a sale and relocation, and that fee is split among the NHL’s other owners. The Coyotes’ deal is reportedly for just north of $1 billion, while the next expansion fee could reach as high as $2.5 billion for the next team, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman previously said.

Bettman — who’s made multiple comments about cities interested in an NHL team but made clear that the league is “not in expansion mode” — has a tricky balancing act to play, Stallings said. As in other professional sports leagues, it can be beneficial for a team to threaten to relocate in order to shore up public support to fund infrastructure projects. By eliciting interest in expansion while limiting the league’s intention to do so, Bettman could reap the benefits of threats to relocate, Stallings said.

“Bettman works for the owners, and he’s always going to do whatever’s best for them,” Stallings said. “If people think that there’s all these expansion opportunities out there, they’re not going to be looking to relocate a team, and therefore teams won’t have the leverage to get the deals they want and the public support.”

With an NHL team expected to come to Salt Lake City — which was one of the most vocal parts of the U.S. openly petitioning for professional hockey — Houston’s serious competition for the next expansion location is down to just Atlanta. The NHL’s reported promise of a Phoenix expansion franchise complicates Houston’s outlook but also indicates that the league will be ready to expand within five years if not sooner.

It makes a lot of sense for Houston to be the home of the next NHL expansion team given the region’s population and corporate presence, Stallings said. Additionally, the city has the infrastructure needed for a team, with Toyota Center undergoing previous renovations to be “hockey ready.” However, Stallings added that it would still need to make sense financially for the league and the city.

“It does make sense that if the NHL is going anywhere that it would come to Houston, but it doesn’t mean it’s an absolute slam dunk,” Stallings said. “The only person that could own a team and make it make sense financially would be Tilman Fertitta.”

Houston leaders voice support for hockey

Fertitta has certainly made his intentions to own an NHL team known. In February, the Rockets owner said conversations with the league had intensified and that he viewed professional hockey as a way to revitalize downtown Houston. He followed up those comments by telling CNBC on April 10, “We would like to work to get an NHL team in Houston — I’m working on it.”

While Ferttita has been the most vocal local leader in the efforts to bring professional hockey to Houston, others have now joined the chorus. 

During the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s April 12 luncheon, Mayor John Whitmire touted a plan for a $3 billion, 30-year investment into downtown — a reference to Senate Bill 1057, which will allow the city and Houston First Corp. to use a portion of hotel-occupancy taxes to renovate George R. Brown Convention Center and allow for new development within 3 miles of it. Whitmire said that plan includes “(getting) Toyota Center ready for hockey.”

The Houston Business Journal has reached out to the city to get more details about Whitmire’s specific plans for Toyota Center as it relates to hockey. The city did not provide additional details prior to publication.

Following HBJ’s previous coverage of the potential for a professional hockey team in the local market, Harris County Houston Sports Authority CEO Janis Burke released a statement expressing her enthusiasm for the possibility of an NHL team in Houston. Burke, a Detroit native and ice hockey fan, previously said the HCHSA has not had a seat at the table in the conversations to bring an NHL team to Houston, but that the organization is ready and willing to do so if asked.

“Houston deserves a team and it would be hugely successful here,” Burke said in the April 5 statement.

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