MUNICH (AP) 鈥� The NHL is hoping to award an expansion franchise to Texas as soon as the end of this year, deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Athletic this week.
In an interview at the NHL鈥檚 European media tour in Munich on Friday, that he鈥檚 expecting the league to get an update from a group working with Houston billionaire Dan Friedkin within the next few weeks. Friedkin’s group has already agreed to pay the $2 billion expansion fee to bring a team to Houston or Austin, dependent on the ability to build an arena in one of those cities and get final approval from the NHL鈥檚 Board of Governors for the league to add a 33rd team.
鈥淲e鈥檙e moving forward in Texas,鈥� Daly said. 鈥淚 expect ultimately we鈥檒l be in a position to bring something to the board to get their view on it. So, that鈥檚 proceeding at a pace. We鈥檒l probably get together with the group again in September and kind of see where they are in the process and what they want us to do to help, to the extent they need anything.
鈥淚f we finalize that and the board approves it, then (at the) end of this calendar year we鈥檒l have an announcement that we鈥檙e expanding to either Houston or Austin,鈥� he continued.
Houston is the most likely location but Austin continues to be explored as an option.
The Texas team could debut within three years and Daly said the NHL is engaged in talks with ownership groups looking to land the league’s 34th team.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e projecting the ability to start play in 2029-30,鈥� Daly said. 鈥淪o, we will have one down and potentially one to go. We have ongoing discussions both with people in the Phoenix marketplace, but also Atlanta, and then we鈥檒l see what comes of those discussions.鈥�
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