The Houston Chronicle's Jeffrey Martin, seeing the success of the Aeros and the moving of the Atlanta Thrashers taking place in the same news cycle, wonders if the city of Houston still has NHL aspirations. I tend to think, well, no. On account of the fact that the last thing the NHL needs is another warm-weather city with an oversaturated sports market. But lets see what happened in the story:
↵↵↵"We love having the Aeros," Janis Schmees said. "They're a great team. But if we're able to bring in a NHL team, we're going to jump at that opportunity."
↵Schmees is the executive director of the Harris County Houston Sports Authority. That organization would be one of the driving forces behind any such venture. At the moment, she said there is no such movement afoot.
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I would say that the city absolutely should look to bring an NHL team to town. It's one of the biggest markets in America, and becoming a true five-sport town would push it over the top.
↵However, it's really hard to see the NHL looking in Houston's direction with the poor attendance in the South and the lack of success the league has had with it's recent forays into big cities. It would be a move straight out of the early 2000's, when Houston lost out on it's NHL bid. Competent ownership goes a long way for a sports franchise, and certainly Les Alexander would've done better than Atlanta's group, but would the situation really be much different if the NHL had awarded the city to Houston?
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