The NHL doesn't appear ready to finalize expansion plans to Texas just yet.
Jennifer Streeter of PuckPedia reports that, according to multiple sources "closely connected to expansion efforts," the NHL is expected to extend the evaluation process to determine whether it will award an expansion franchise to a group led by Texas billionaire Dan Friedkin.
The NHL and The Friedkin Group entered a six-month exploratory process in June that was designed to look into the viability of adding a 33rd franchise to Houston or Austin, Texas. That process was due to be completed before the end of the year and an update is expected at the NHL's next Board of Governors meeting in early December.
If awarded, the new Texas franchise would come with a $3.5 billion price tag. Of that, $1.5 billion would be earmarked to build a new arena and the other $2 billion paid to the NHL as an expansion fee.
Speaking at the last Board of Governors meetings in September, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the league was in no rush to expand and cautioned that any transaction of this size doesn't happen overnight.
“We're not under any time constraint,” Bettman said. “This isn't a situation where we said, 'We're going to expand by X date, get your applications in.’ We're dealing with unsolicited — but we're grateful to have them — expressions of interest. And it'll sort itself out on whatever timetable makes sense to everybody."
The NHL has twice expanded in the last decade — to Las Vegas in 2017 and Seattle in 2021 — and now has 32 franchises. The awarding of an expansion franchise requires a three-fourths majority of support in a vote of the league's 32 governors.
