Mayor Confident Houston Will Be Hockey Winner

HOUSTON – (By Ivy McLemore for Realty News Report) – Houston Mayor John Whitmire said Tuesday he is “very optimistic” that the National Hockey League will select Houston over Austin as the league’s next expansion team.

Houston billionaire Dan Friedkin and his Pursuit Sports company have an exclusive six-month agreement with the NHL hockey organization to evaluate Houston and Austin as the next professional hockey franchise location.

“Of course, I’m biased,” Whitmire said. “But they (Dan Friedkin and Pursuit Sports) have a number of smart, capable people working on it.”

Asked if he thought the restriction on building an NHL arena within 30 miles of downtown Houston’s Toyota Center was problematic, Whitmire said he was not aware of that covenant, drafted and agreed upon in 2000. Since then, the Houston metro area has increased in population from 4.7 million to 7.9 million. That’s more growth than the current Austin metro population.

“I don’t see that (the arena’s location) to be an issue,” said Mayor Whitmire, who was instrumental in the creation of the Harris County Houston Sports Authority in 1997, was in attendance for the HCHSA’s Board of Directors meeting. Before being elected as mayor, Whitmire worked for decades crafting legislation as a Texas Senator and a member of the Texas House of Representatives.

Leadership at Friedkin’s Pursuit Sports

David Beeston, the CEO of Pursuit Sports, was hired to his current post in 2025. Conversations between Friedkin and the NHL were already in progress.

Beeston was alternate governor for the NHL Pittsburgh Penguins while the team was owned by Fenway Sports. Beeston has significant experience working with the NHL hierarchy.

Beeston was Chief Strategy Officer for the Boston Red Sox and helped oversee the Fenway Sports Group’s (FSG’s) acquisition of the Penguins in 2021 for $900 million. He is the son of longtime former MLB and Toronto Blue Jays executive Paul Beeston.

Based in Boston, Beeston traveled in the same circles as Jeremy Jacobs, Chair of the NHL’s Board of Governors. Jacobs has been owner of the Boston Bruins since 1975 and has favored NHL expansion.

Fenway Sports sold the Penguins for an estimated $1.7 billion to the Hoffman Family of Companies earlier this year an 89% increase in franchise valuation in five years, another reason the NHL and Friedkin/Pursuit Sports are courting each other for a $2 billion expansion fee and $1.5 billion in costs for a new arena.

The 102-acre former AstroWorld property, owned by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has been mentioned as a possible site. The AstroWorld property, connected by a bridge over Loop 610 to the 350-acre Reliant Park and NFL Stadium, is located between Kirby Drive and Fannin.

The Rodeo announced plans in 2018 to build on the AstroWorld parcel. But the Rodeo recently called an audible and revealed plans to build a $300 million facility near Highway 288, a couple of miles from Reliant Park the day after the NHL formally announced it had entered the six-month agreement with Friedkin to bring an expansion franchise to Texas.

Other observers have suggested a West Houston location or Downtown Houston could be considered as a location for the rebirth of hockey in Houston.

Construction of the hockey arena – expected to have about 18,000 seats and a number of luxury suites – should take two years from the groundbreaking, meaning the new arena could be ready for the 2029-30 season.

Houston is expected to hear the news about the selection of the NHL’s next hockey franchise between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

Many observers believe Houston’s huge television market gives Space City a big advantage over Austin, which is reportedly ranked by Nielsen as only the 34^th largest TV market in the nation.

The final expansion vote will be taken by the NHL Board of Governors in early December at a meeting in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Ivy McLemore covered the WHA Houston Aeros for The Associated Press 1976-78. He has been a reporter, editor, and an investment management communications executive. He is author of Finding Satoshi – The Real Story Behind Mysterious Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto.