On New Year’s Day they played an ice hockey game in Dallas in the Cotton Bowl. That’s right, in the Cotton Bowl. The Dallas Stars defeated the Nashville Predators 4-2 before a crowd of 85,630 hockey fans.
The Dallas Stars of the NHL have played in Dallas since 1993 when the Minnesota North Stars franchise was relocated there. In 1999, the team won the coveted Stanley Cup on a controversial goal by Brett Hull in the 3rd overtime period.
Houston has had a long history with professional hockey, starting in 1946 with a United States Hockey League team. After 16 seasons without hockey, the Houston Apollos arrived in 1965. The Apollos were in the Central Hockey League as a farm club of the NHL’s Montreal Canadians.
The Apollos played in the Sam Houston Coliseum before the advent of glass to protect the fans from flying pucks. Chain link fencing was used instead of glass and left an impression on a player checked into the fencing.
The Apollos lasted until 1969 when the Canadians moved the team to Montreal mainly to save the travel costs of shuffling players back and forth between Houston and Montreal.
In 1972, the World Hockey Association was formed to rival the NHL. One of the WHA teams was the Houston Aeros. Hockey legend Gordie Howe and his sons Mark and Marty were among the players on the team.
As an aside, my dear departed wife was the assistant to Bobby Kincaid, the Aeros equipment manager. She may have been the first woman in this country allowed inside a professional sport team’s locker room. At the end of each home game, my wife would enter the locker room to gather up all the team jerseys. Gordie Howe liked to swat her on the ass with his towel.
What most Houstonians probably don’t know is that today’s Lakewood Church building was originally built to house the Aeros. Of those who remember The Summit, many believe it was built for the Houston Rockets but that is not true because at the time the Rockets didn’t draw flies.
The Aeros lasted until 1979 when they were left out in the cold by a merger of the NHL and the WHA.
The Houston Apollos of the Central Hockey League were revived fin 1979, but they suffered from poor attendance and folded after only a season and a half.
Houston was without hockey until the arrival of the Houston Aeros of the International Hockey League in 1994. When the IHL folded in 2001, the Aeros remained in Houston as an American Hockey League team. The new Aeros played in The Summit until the opening of the Les Alexander controlled Toyota Center.
When Alexander failed to get an NHL franchise, he in effect kicked the Aeros out of the Toyota Center by raising the rent to a level he knew the Aeros could not afford. A greedy Alexander wanted the 40 hockey dates for concerts which would bring in much more money than the Aeros. Because he was a Florida resident, the absentee landlord didn’t really give a damn about the city of Houston.
So, in 2013 the Aeros up and moved to Des Moines, Iowa, leaving Houston the largest city by population without a professional hockey team in the United States and Canada.
After Tilman Fertitta became the owner of the Houston Rockets, he attempted without success to obtain an NHL franchise.
The NHL currently has 31 teams, 24 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The league is committed to leave all Canadian teams in that country. Tilman’s only chance to get a hockey team is to purchase one of the American teams and move it to Houston. Unfortunately, there have been no American teams for sale or willing to relocate to Houston. And Seattle has been granted an NHL franchise and will start play in 2021. Except for rain and snow, what does Seattle have that Houston doesn’t have much more of?
It would have made good sense for the NHL to grant Tilman a franchise because with an odd number of teams, a playoff schedule is more difficult to make than one for an even number of teams. I suspect the NHL refused to add a Houston team because it was pissed off at Leslie Alexander. The Dallas Stars have drawn good crowds, so there is no reason to doubt that Houston would do the same with an NHL team.
Here’s hoping that Tilman Fertitta continues to seek an NHL team for our city. Houston deserves a team in the National Hockey League and it’s a damn shame that we don’t have one.
DanMan says
DanMa’am worked for the second version of the Aeros for over 10 years. Chuck Watson owned them and he is a very fun guy but was not liked by Les Alexander. Chuck had the lease on the Summit and it burned Les to have to pay him for its use. In their last years they were affiliated with the Minnesota Wild. In her last season the Wild hosted Aeros management for the last game of the year in Minneapolis.
Them folks in Minnesota are extremely serious about their hockey and the Wild’s stadium makes Toyota Center look like a cheap garage in comparison. And they don’t let basketball in there either. The game at that level is very fast.
My father in law had season tickets during the Howe era in the 70s and one of the dominant players back then was an enforcer named Terry Ruskowski. He came back in the 90s to coach the IHL version and had Gordy around quite a bit. I liked Gordy Howe because he was also a very fun guy to hang with.
Our kids loved running around the Summit and getting to go out on the ice during breaks in the game.
When the Oilers moved to Tennessee the office manager initially refused to go with them and took the same job with the Aeros. I think she may have ended up back with the Titans eventually.
Lakewood practically stole the Summit after it flooded. Annise Parker let it go really cheap but the city had no use for it once Alexander moved his team downtown. All of that occurred to bolster Alexander’s bid to own an NHL team and control the stadium that housed it. I would love to have the pictures that depicted several dozen of the shows and concerts that were hung on the walls of the superstructure below the stands.
Tom in Lazybrook says
You guys want higher internet/cable bills? A sweetheart deal at taxpayers expense at the Toyota Center? Higher taxes? Sports Authority subsidies for Fertitta? Lower bond capacity? Profit sharing based upon nebulous ‘economic impact’ studies? All of these are possible if the NHL comes to town with Fertitta.
Im a Harris County resident. If you arent then please ask them to locate and pay for the team in your county.
Howie Katz says
Tom, thank you for your the sky will fall in comment.
The fact is that bringing in an NHL team will not come at the expense of the taxpayers. The team would play at the existing Toyota Center which was built at taxpayers expense to keep Les Alexander from moving the Rockets elsewhere.
Not only was the Toyota Center built at taxpayer expense, but so were the Texans’ NRG stadium, the Astros’ Minute Maid Park stadium and the Dynamos’ BBVA stadium. And the taxpayers are still paying for that huge white elephant, the Astrodome.
I am sure that Tilman Fertitta has the capability and willingness to pay for any expenses resulting from bringing an NHL team to Houston.
By the way Tom, I have been a Houston (Harris County) resident since 1970.
Tom in Lazybrook says
Lol. I remain highly skeptical that Fertitta isnt going to stick us with the bill.
By the way, the biggest involuntary subsidy in sports may be cable/internet fees. These are frequently bundled into packages, and may be impossible to avoid. These fees may be largely paid for by persons that dont care for the team, and they may be as high as 400 bucks per year per household. To give you an idea of how much these ‘must take’ contracts may be worth, note that the San Diego Chargers left its entire fanbase for a town that will never support them (tickets available on groupon for some games) to play in a half filled stadium simply because half the ‘must take’ revenue from non fans from metro LA was more valuable than any other revenue stream, including ticket sales. Mandating cable/internet increases for a team that has (and will continue to have) close to zero support from around 85 percent of Harris County taxpayers or cable/internet consumers is just plain wrong.
There is a solution, which is a local internet utility that is barred from bundling or mandating sports costs, and is barred from sellimg its own content. In places where public internet utilities exist, costs are dramatically lower. But in Texas, the legislature has banned municipal internet utilities.
Fat Albert says
I’m perfectly fine with having a hockey team in Houston! It sounds like a great idea, if. . . . .
If not one single solitary cent of taxpayer money is used to support it.
If no public funds are used to plan, construct, operate or maintain a venue for such a team.
If there are no special tax benefits for the owners, the team organization, or associated corporations, beyond those available to any other entity doing business in Harris County.
And, by the way, I think those same strictures and requirements should apply to the Texans, the Astros, the Rockets, and all of the other professional sports teams in Houston.
Jennifer says
Hopefully Tilman will make it happen
Trey Rusk says
Didn’t the voters in Harris County elect to demolish the Astrodome? What happened to the will of the people? I’m against any sports franchise that is subsidized in any way by tax payers. I don’t live in Harris County and my insurance and taxes reflect that. Urban crime, Bond reform, and a Democrat controlled City and County. Good Luck, ya’ll.
Howie Katz says
Outstanding comment!
The Astrodome would have been demolished as it should have been, but one man stood in the way. Former County Judge Ed Emmett was determined to preserve that white elephant.
Emmett came up with several grandiose plans to convert the dome into a fancy entertainment center, a shopping mall, and even a huge parking garage. No financing ever developed for his preservation plans. With a new County Judge, maybe, just maybe, they’ll finally tear the damn hulk down.
DanMan says
I can relate to this sentiment.
DanMan says
actually that was for Trey’s sentiment but it works for your’s too Howie.