next city to get NHL franchise (uniforms, Hurricanes, Ducks, Ravens)

[Spade]

Originally Posted by AlfredB1979

I'm not counting on great support for hockey here.

Houston is a BAD sports town, period, even for a sun belt town. Heck, the Aeros in the AHL are irrelevant--even for minor league hockey. The Texans are the only team (for whatever reason) that gets consistent support.

I feel the same way as you do regarding hockey in Houston. I do not believe it will work there. Dallas will probably remain the only city in the state with a hockey team. They are without a doubt the most successful and diehard fanbase in the sunbelt. Dallas has really embraced the Stars. In a struggling year, Dallas still averaged over 17,600 people per game and that was good to put them at 15th in the league. Higher than playoff teams of Boston, Anaheim, Pittsburgh, Carolina, and a few more. I do not believe Houston could do that. They still have a hard time going to Rocket games.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by Spade

They still have a hard time going to Rocket games.

Really? The Rockets have had near-league average attendance figures for the last two seasons despite Toyota Center having the fifth-smallest capacity among current NBA arenas.

And the Astros played a game just a couple blocks away from Toyota Center during Game 4 of this series with the Lakers and drew 30K fans. They drew 28K on Friday, the night of Game 3. This is for a baseball team with a losing record in May and they weren't even playing one of the big-draw teams like the Cubs, Cardinals or Braves (the Padres were in town).

For as bad a sports town Houston is supposed to be, a lot of franchises in a lot of other cities would like to be doing this well, including those that have NHL hockey.

[waltlantz]

I have trouble thinking Houston is a bad sports town. The Rockets and Astros seemed to have had decent support over the years. I can't speak on Texans support, apparently historically the Oilers had trouble with fan support but I hear that was cause of the team quality. I would assume it is the same with Texans.

People have yet to mention UH football/basketball and probably UT football, you NEVER discount college football in the south and breadbasket.

Hockey I just don't see in the cards, not with college and pro football/basketball dominating.

then again if you want to use the "it's not local culture" argument, how I come I still have the Caps in the DC area after all these years? After all DC is in the mid-atlantic and spared the brutal winters of the NE and Midwest

[jfre81]

College sports aren't really a factor in Houston. UH is a commuter school; Rice is a small private school, both are in a mid-major conference. People are just as likely to drive to Austin or College Station on Saturday for college football. Either way, I don't see how it would hurt hockey.

The Oilers had support too. Bud Adams killed it, by constantly holding the city hostage for a new stadium, even after we paid to renovate the Astrodome. The iconic scoreboard got taken down for more empty seats at Oilers games. It wasn't so much that Houston rejected football, but the owner.

[GTOlover]

Originally Posted by Head coach

Yeah the problem is, it was only 15,399!

GM place holds 18,630 and we have the highest ticket price in the whole league

[waltlantz]

Originally Posted by jfre81

College sports aren't really a factor in Houston. UH is a commuter school; Rice is a small private school, both are in a mid-major conference. People are just as likely to drive to Austin or College Station on Saturday for college football. Either way, I don't see how it would hurt hockey.

The Oilers had support too. Bud Adams killed it, by constantly holding the city hostage for a new stadium, even after we paid to renovate the Astrodome. The iconic scoreboard got taken down for more empty seats at Oilers games. It wasn't so much that Houston rejected football, but the owner.

Really, that's interesting. I hear it's still a big factor in Atlanta (college sports). Which of the big 3 teams do they like the most down there anyways?

I'm still skeptical about it being in houston, though. Unless they are able to match Dallas's savvy marketing, also it would help if, like Dallas they became succesfull early on in their relocation.


I say somewhere in the PNW would fit best, Seattle could use another team.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by waltlantz

Really, that's interesting. I hear it's still a big factor in Atlanta (college sports). Which of the big 3 teams do they like the most down there anyways?

It helps that Atlanta has a major conference school (Georgia Tech in the ACC). Atlanta has never struck me as a particularly good sports town though, even despite some success of their teams, though TBS has helped the Braves reach out for fans beyond Georgia. Though I suspect some of that is bandwagon effect, considering for years they were a team you could pretty much count on seeing in October.

In Houston, the Astros have drawn well since the new ballpark opened in 2000. Some postseason runs haven't hurt. Team is still drawing 30K-ish a game despite not being very good this year.

Texans - I don't really see why people would think Houston only supports the Texans. You have too many Cowboys fans in the mix. The stadium fills, but it's not that hard to fill an NFL stadium eight times a year. It's why the Packers work in Green Bay.

Rockets - a bit bandwagonish, but so is the nature of the NBA which isn't as popular as it once was nationally. Great support during this last playoff run, and in the 1990s.

I'm still skeptical about it being in houston, though. Unless they are able to match Dallas's savvy marketing, also it would help if, like Dallas they became succesfull early on in their relocation.

Marketing is everything. That's why the Aeros minor league team doesn't draw. Like I'd mentioned, it's run by the Minnesota Wild now and they're more focused on developing their players than developing a hockey fanbase in Houston.

A successful franchise is in Raleigh, NC of all places, basically in the epicenter of ACC college hoops country. So I don't see what the skepticism is over. It's not like this is 1979 and the WHA just folded. The game of hockey has branched out quite a bit since then, and so have hockey fans from the traditional hockey markets.

I say somewhere in the PNW would fit best, Seattle could use another team.

I'm wagering they'd rather have the Sonics back.

[AlfredB1979]

Originally Posted by waltlantz

I have trouble thinking Houston is a bad sports town. The Rockets and Astros seemed to have had decent support over the years. I can't speak on Texans support, apparently historically the Oilers had trouble with fan support but I hear that was cause of the team quality. I would assume it is the same with Texans.

People have yet to mention UH football/basketball and probably UT football, you NEVER discount college football in the south and breadbasket.

Hockey I just don't see in the cards, not with college and pro football/basketball dominating.

then again if you want to use the "it's not local culture" argument, how I come I still have the Caps in the DC area after all these years? After all DC is in the mid-atlantic and spared the brutal winters of the NE and Midwest

Houston is very front-runnerish.

The Rockets weren't getting any local talk show run until playoff time and the Astros aren't all that relevant as long as Uncle Drayton is all delusional about his patch-job teams being contenders every year. I'm sure that in an area of 5 million folks, some will want to blow money on $8 beers at the park. I wouldn't. I could find cheaper things to do for entertainment value.

The Texans get support because football is king. At elast I hope that is it, because a team that has won less than 40% of the time (IIRC) all-time won't get that support otherwise around here.

I go to a bit of UH and Rice games, even being a UH student, and it's too bad they are irrelevant. Maybe a few more bowl years by both teams will help a ton. It certainly would help is either basketball squads would accidentally make the big dance. There are steps in the right direction being taken, though.

If hockey on the big scale did land in H-town, I just see a Toyota Center full of corporate crowd, much like Rockets games. That is a pricey ticket, to boot.

[BigSwede]

They should send Phoenix back to Winnipeg and NHL needs to leave the south and bring back real hockey.

[jfre81]

Alfred, I don't see how you can think Houston doesn't support the Astros when the team has a losing record and they're still drawing 30K a game. And that's in spite of an owner that runs the team like he's in Kansas City or Milwaukee (small-market mentality) instead of the sixth-largest metro in the US.

All cities have frontrunner fans, and the sports media is inherently "frontrunnerish." It works the same way everywhere.