- 2 days ago
Shaun Bijani & Patrick Creighton are joined by Greg Rajan of the Houston Chronicle as they talk NHL possibly coming to Houston... maybe?
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00:00Sports Radio 610 presents, live from the West Point Lincoln and West Point Lincoln of Sugarland Studios,
00:07here's Area 45 with Bashani and Creighton.
00:12Joining us right now on the Texas Mattress Makers Hotline.
00:16You see his work on the Houston Chronicle all the time.
00:20He's, in another year, he's their Mauricio Dubon.
00:25He does everything.
00:28And one of the things that he is doing better than, as well as anyone, maybe better than anyone,
00:33is coverage of the NHL's expansion opportunities right here in the city of Houston.
00:40He is Greg Rodgen.
00:41Greg, appreciate you taking some time with us, man.
00:45Look, NHL to Houston is really exciting, especially for me coming from, you know, north of the wall.
00:51But what's, I guess, what's the latest?
00:54You know, we all saw kind of what was going on last week about this six-month window between Houston
01:02and Austin.
01:03What does that really mean, and when does that window actually start?
01:07Well, I think it's already begun because Gary Bettman told the Board of Governors last week that they're basically vetting
01:14Houston and Austin for an expansion franchise.
01:17It doesn't mean expansion has been greenlit, but it's a very significant step in the process, Patrick.
01:23And after years of hearing speculation about relocation and possible expansion to Houston, this is kind of the first bit
01:32of actual, you know, smoke and fire that we've seen.
01:35So I think there is a reason for hockey fans here to be excited, but I would stress being cautious
01:42because I think there's still a long way to go to the finish line.
01:45You kind of put me on pause a little bit when you said expansion doesn't mean it's been greenlit.
01:51So does this, you know, exploratory six-month period between Houston and Austin just kind of, are we at least
01:59to take that as NHL want Texas?
02:04I mean, they're not talking about Atlanta right now or other cities.
02:08I know Atlanta's been in the conversation before, but, I mean, at least it's a good thing that the NHL
02:14is looking at Texas again.
02:16I've got to say, Houston over Austin, easy.
02:20How do you see it, looking at it objectively?
02:23I think I agree with you on that end.
02:25The NHL has wanted to be in Houston for a long time.
02:29Jeremy Jacobs, the owner of the Boston Bruins, he's the longtime chairman of the Board of Governors.
02:34He has been on record as saying there's a great market out there in Houston that they need to tap.
02:40And I think when you look at a lot of the variables, population, corporate base, size of the TV market,
02:49which is top 10,
02:50this is a city that the NHL has wanted to be in for a long time.
02:54There's been a lot of factors that have gotten in the way of a team getting here.
02:58If it's ownership, politics, arenas, finally there's, like, a path to getting it done.
03:07But the NHL, under Gary Bettman, they've been very careful about vetting owners.
03:12I'm not sure if you remember, but early in his tenure, they had some debacles with, you know, prospective owners
03:18coming in.
03:18There was a 30-for-30 about a guy who tried to buy the Islanders with no money.
03:22John Spano.
03:24Yes.
03:24John Spano.
03:26And there was a guy who tried to kick the tires on buying Edmonton who had no money.
03:32This was after Les Alexander tried to buy the team and move it here.
03:36So Gary Bettman is very careful about the kind of owners he brings in.
03:40And the fact that they've gone public and saying they're exploring expansion,
03:47I think that's pretty much a certainty that there's going to be a team.
03:51You just don't know where yet.
03:52But the NHL doesn't go down the road this far unless they're going to do something like this under Gary
03:58Bettman.
03:59Greg, I think it's very interesting how the change in the economics has happened, right?
04:04So, you know, like you said, the NHL has been interested in coming to Houston now for over a decade.
04:10And when Tillman Fertitta first bought the Rockets, he had mentioned, you know, I'd love to have a hockey team.
04:15I'd love to, you know, bring the NHL here into Houston.
04:17Everybody got excited and nothing happened.
04:20And two years ago, the reported price for a buy-in for an expansion team was a billion dollars.
04:27And the price that we're seeing reported for Dan Friedkin is three and a half billion, including the cost of
04:33a new arena.
04:34I would expect the cost of a new arena probably the neighborhood of a billion dollars.
04:38So you're talking about having gone from one billion to about two and a half billion in two years.
04:45That is an incredible light speed jump forward when you consider the prices of what Vegas paid to get in,
04:54which I think was about a half a B.
04:56And then Seattle, I think it was 650 million.
04:59And now you're going to two and a half billion dollars.
05:03If I'm going to pay two and a half billion dollars for a franchise, I sure as hell want it
05:09in a top 10 market.
05:11Yeah, you're right.
05:12Absolutely.
05:13And I think in the case of Houston, you don't want to be the tenant at Toyota Center because you
05:18want these valuable revenue streams that come with controlling the building.
05:23That's a big part of the NHL because it's still a gate-driven league.
05:28It doesn't have the TV contracts that the NFL, NBA, or even baseball do.
05:34So they really rely on ticket sales more than any other big four sports league.
05:39So I think having control of that arena is going to be big for any Houston NHL owner.
05:45Greg Rodgen, our guest on the Texas Mattress Makers Hotline.
05:49You can catch his work at the Houston Chronicle.
05:51Well, Greg, since we're talking about stadiums here, just a second, where in the city of Houston, let's just say
05:58the NHL decides, yep, Houston's it.
06:01Where in the city of Houston does it make the most sense to build a brand new hockey arena?
06:08You know, that's a good question.
06:10I'm thinking maybe that Bridgeland area where the Texans are going to put their practice facility somewhere out maybe near
06:19Katy.
06:20Or I'm not sure.
06:21I know there's talk of an East Coast League team, you know, going in Northwest Houston.
06:26So I'm really, I'm not sure.
06:29Or I'm sorry, I think that's the Woodlands for the East Coast team.
06:31Yeah.
06:32I'm not really sure.
06:33I think a suburban arena could work.
06:35I know I talked to, I talked to, I think it was Jim White.
06:39He was the chairman of the Dallas Stars years ago.
06:41And he had experience with when the Phoenix Coyotes, or I guess they were the Arizona Coyotes by that point,
06:48had put an arena in Glendale, which is like a horrible drive from like the city center of Phoenix where
06:55the population center is.
06:56And he said, you got to go with a downtown arena.
06:59I don't think that's an option.
07:00Obviously, it's not an option here from the team because, like I said, I don't think another Houston NHL owner
07:08would want to be a downtown.
07:10But I think Houston could make a suburban arena work.
07:13I just, I'm not sure where to peg that, though, as far as location just yet.
07:17Yeah.
07:18Well, if they would like to put it in Katy, that'd be great.
07:20I'm not moving.
07:21And if they'd like to put it up in Bridgeland, I've had to buy a house in Bridgeland before the
07:25property values explode.
07:27So, yeah, I'm going to put it right next.
07:28How cool would that be if you get a hockey arena in the Texas practice facility and the whole Toro
07:33district and it's all like right there together?
07:35That would be the most awesome place outside of the loop.
07:38And I would want to move there.
07:41I think anything would come, there'd be some kind of development around there because that's the big trend that you've
07:47seen with stadiums and arenas, especially like the Battery in Atlanta.
07:52That's just a sprawling complex with retail, mixed-use development.
07:56And I would expect something similar like that.
07:59I don't think it would just be a standalone arena.
08:01I think there would have to be some kind of retail and other developments around there.
08:07Greg, we were talking to a woman who covers hockey up in the New England area.
08:12She's based here but works for the Sporting News.
08:14Her name's Jennifer Streeter.
08:15She was on with us last week.
08:17And, you know, we were talking about the whole Houston versus Austin thing.
08:24And she brought up an interesting point, I think one that she'd actually heard in her investigating this,
08:32and that the idea that Austin is maybe being used as a leverage play to kind of, you know, force
08:39Houston into doing what's necessary to just beat everybody out, you know, say okay to the stadium, okay to this,
08:48that, the other thing.
08:48What are your thoughts on that idea?
08:50And is that something that's really necessary?
08:52Or do you look at Austin as a legitimate, viable option for the NHL?
09:00Are they really being taken seriously?
09:03I do think it's a legitimate option because if you look at the history of the NHL recently, they like
09:10to be the first team in a market.
09:12The Golden Knights were the first team in Las Vegas before the NFL came, before baseball's coming, before a possible
09:20NBA expansion team.
09:21I think they were in Nashville before the Titans because I think the Titans played, what, at the Liberty Bowl
09:27in Memphis the first couple years after they moved to Tennessee.
09:31So, I mean, it's part of the NHL playbook to try to be the first team in a market.
09:36And they went into Columbus in 2000, which is very similar to Austin in that you've got a Division I
09:44college powerhouse that you share the market with.
09:47You know, obviously, economic dynamics have changed in the quarter century where college sports is bigger than they ever have
09:53been.
09:54But I think Columbus and Austin are comparable in that way.
09:57So, I very much think Austin is a legitimate candidate.
10:01But what I think this means is Dan Friedkin really wants a team.
10:06So, he's going to get it somewhere.
10:08It's not like he would just look at Houston and if it didn't work in Houston, he wouldn't get a
10:12team.
10:12I think he wants a team.
10:15Austin is one of those markets that pro sports leagues have been looking at.
10:19You know, there's always been rumblings about baseball to Austin.
10:22I don't think that's going to happen to Austin.
10:24They said when he was too close, it's more like they share the Spurs.
10:28NFL, Jerry Jones and the McNairs aren't going to let that happen.
10:31But the NHL would be, like, kind of the perfect fit for the first pro sports team in Austin from
10:38a major Big Four league.
10:40I'm talking with Greg Rodgen from the Houston Chronicle on the NHL.
10:45Possibly coming to Houston on the Texas Mattress Makers hotline.
10:49Greg, look, I get what you're saying because it's worked out phenomenally for them in Vegas.
10:52They were the first team in Vegas.
10:54And Vegas embraced them with open arms.
10:57And, like, they were the kings of the town.
11:00You couldn't go into the airport in Vegas and not see Golden Knights stuff all over the place.
11:04I was out there to cover that first year Stanley Cup when they went to the Cup in their first
11:09season.
11:09And it was wild.
11:11I mean, Vegas Knights was everywhere.
11:14But at the same time, if you've got all those other owners in the NHL who are all looking.
11:19And, look, they want to expand because they want to recoup a lot of that money they lost during COVID.
11:23Nobody took more of a beating from COVID than the NHL did.
11:27You know, when you compare, like, Columbus and Cincinnati and Cleveland,
11:32their populations are all, you know, kind of the same.
11:36Their Metro GDP is all, yeah, kind of the same.
11:41Austin's a little bit above all three of those.
11:44And then Houston absolutely blows them out of the water.
11:47You know, like the varsity kid standing against a five-year-old.
11:49And all the other teams, like, if you were another team owner, do you want to, hey, Houston's coming to
11:57our building.
11:58You know, the idea of, hey, it's going to be Houston against Detroit or Houston against Chicago, Carolina,
12:04as opposed to Austin against those teams.
12:08I think every other owner in the league would say they want it to be Houston.
12:12It's funny you say that, Patrick, because Neal Smith, who is the general manager of the New York Rangers,
12:19he's got a podcast.
12:20And he actually said something very similar to that last week about Houston being a marquee city,
12:27having name recognition if a team came into your building, as opposed to Austin.
12:32And Houston's a top-10 TV market.
12:34I believe Austin is number 32.
12:36So there's no comparison there.
12:39But you're right.
12:40Houston is a team, a city that the other 31 owners probably want, you know, to have in the league
12:48because it would bring that cachet from as a major market, as a top-10 TV market,
12:56and really just a lot of things the NHL hasn't had.
12:59And it's the biggest city in North America, you know, not counting Mexico City,
13:03that doesn't have a hockey team.
13:05So there's a lot there that the NHL wants that Houston has.
13:09Hey, Neal Smith broke the Rangers' drought 54 years.
13:13And he did it by going out and getting as many of Mark Messier's former teammates from Edmonton as could.
13:19Yeah, that seems like a lifetime ago.
13:21If you ask Neal, I talked to him for a story a couple years ago,
13:24and he said he told me that people still come up to him and thank him for ending that drought.
13:29And people who saw the Knicks won after 53 years, the Rangers doing it in 1994 was very similar.
13:36Greg Rodgen, our guest on the Texas Mattress Makers Hotline, catches work at Houston Chronicle.
13:42Greg, really appreciate you, Spamble.
13:44Definitely catch up with you again down the road when the six-month thing is over and done with,
13:49and we kind of know our fate about the NHL in town or not.
13:52Great.
13:53Thanks for having me, guys.
13:54Appreciate it.
13:55Yes, sir.
13:55Appreciate you.
13:56Greg Rodgen, Houston Chronicle on the Texas Mattress Makers Hotline.
14:01Good stuff from him.
14:02The more and more we talk about, you know, this thing with these people,
14:05I'd be interested to check in with somebody in like two or three months.
14:08You know, because one thing that I wanted to ask him about was like polls.
14:12I haven't seen like fan polls, like interest polls and stuff like that.
14:16And granted, I hadn't really been looking for it, but I'd have to imagine that's something
14:20that's going to be done in both Austin and Houston ad nauseum over the course of the next six months.
14:26I can say there has been a big groundswell, and it has been really since I moved down here.
14:30Because when I first moved down here doing shows with our old buddy Barry Warner,
14:34we'd start talking about hockey.
14:36Yeah.
14:36And all of a sudden, you would not believe the number of texts and tweets and things that we'd get.
14:41People, man, I wish we had a hockey team.
14:43I wish we had a hockey team.
14:44And there is a big online social media push among a lot of fans.
14:49They want a hockey team here, man.
14:51I'm telling you, a hockey team would absolutely crush here.
14:53I would love it.
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