SUNRISE, FLORIDA – JUNE 17: The Florida Panthers raise the Stanley Cup following the win over the Edmonton Oilers during Game Six of the 2025 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Amerant Bank Arena on June 17, 2025 in Sunrise, Florida. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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The NHL is planning to expand yet again, and could award a 33rd franchise to either Austin or Houston by the end of the year.
The Athletic's Chris Johnston reported the news after speaking with league deputy commissioner Bill Daly. It's a natural next step after the NHL secured an agreement from Daniel Friedkin's Pursuit Sports group in July to pay a $2 billion expansion fee for an Austin or Houston franchise.
While the fee is about three times what the Seattle Kraken paid ($650 million) when that franchise entered the league for the 2021-22 season, franchise values have also ballooned significantly in the time since.
Forbes' own NHL team valuation list from 2025 shows over half of the league's franchises are worth at least $2 billion. The Toronto Maple Leafs lead the way there at $4.4 billion, with the New York Rangers at $4 billion. In Dallas, the expansion team's would-be rival the Stars is estimated to be worth $2.3 billion.
So if anything, one could argue that $2 billion for a team set to play in Houston or Austin could be a steal of a price. Especially in Houston, where there's a significant billionaire class ready to throw capital at a hockey franchise, and the No. 6 U.S. media market to draw additional interest.
That media market sits at the center of this expansion idea for the NHL, which has been more aggressive in terms of adding teams this century than its peers in the NBA, NFL and MLB.
Hockey has added four franchises (Columbus, Minnesota, Las Vegas and Seattle) to its ranks since 2000, along with club relocations to Winnipeg and Salt Lake City. During the same stretch, the NFL and NBA added one team apiece, while MLB has stood pat.
A 33-team NHL would be North America's largest major sports league. And that's before the eventual expansion to 34. Daly's comments to The Athletic also make it clear those conversations are ongoing – again, with some of the largest available media markets.
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 7: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announces that the NHL 2027 Winter Classic Game will be held at the Rice-Eccles Stadium on January 7, 2026 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Hunter Dyke/NHLI via Getty Images)
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Increasingly Murky Media Landscape For Hockey
Hockey purists would likely prefer that if the NHL is going to return to an abandoned market, Quebec City would be first on the list.
Yet, given the success of the league's southern expansion in recent decades, it's hard to argue against continuing the strategy. Especially when there are still major U.S. TV markets without teams and the NHL is about to start negotiations for a new rights deal following the 2027-28 season.
The current 32-team membership makes about $625 million per year from Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery in the U.S. Estimates on the next media deal vary, but given traditional media cuts, increased TV rights across the board and larger industry consolidation, it's still unknown just how much this next NHL contract could net from broadcast and cable partners.
Pulling in streaming-exclusive partners could mean more media revenues, but also reduced attention (as MLS and Formula 1 are contending with on Apple TV to varying extents).
Since the powers-that-be in the NHL certainly know this and only have so much control over resources available to broadcast hockey games, they're pulling the only lever they have for immediate, guaranteed revenue growth: Expansion.
NHL Revisiting Major U.S. Cities
Specifically, expansion in top media markets that currently lack a team.
Fortunately or unfortunately for the NHL, that means not treading new ground in untapped markets, but revisiting cities where it didn't work out previously – sometimes multiple times.
Daly noted Phoenix and Atlanta, respectively No. 7 and No. 12 among U.S. TV markets, as the two cities in ongoing discussions for team No. 34.
The Phoenix area was home to the Coyotes from 1996 to 2024 after the team relocated from Winnipeg. But the team long struggled with financial and arena issues, and even played its final two seasons at Arizona State's Mullett Arena (seating capacity of 4,600). The team's assets were eventually moved to Utah to comprise the “expansion†Mammoth. But the Coyotes' history and marks remain in Arizona.
Atlanta, meanwhile, has been home to two separate franchises in the past.
The Atlanta Flames played in Downtown Atlanta from 1972 to 1980, before they relocated to Calgary. The city got a second NHL try in 1999 with the expansion Atlanta Thrashers, who also played downtown (splitting Philips Arena with the NBA's Hawks). However, that team would also find itself in Canada, when the Thrashers were purchased and moved to Winnipeg – to become the new Jets – in 2011.
Past failures in these markets don't necessarily indicate future issues. Hockey infrastructure in both metropolitan areas could be significantly improved, and arena locations (for Atlanta, nearby Alpharetta has approved an arena for a potential NHL team) could make a major difference as well.
But by the same token, some of the factors that made those cities difficult business propositions previously could also be the case once again. Regardless of how large those media markets may be.
The NHL, as a whole, could potentially see the benefit of adding major markets and expansion fees in the $2 billion range as outweighing the impact on competitiveness and overall roster talent. However, if adding teams that underperform makes the on-ice product worse as a result, it could potentially hurt the league's TV negotiations next time around.
Of course, there's also the potential that it doesn't.
In college sports, the Big Ten's additions of market-based schools outside of its footprint (particularly Rutgers, Maryland and UCLA) hasn't hampered the conference's ability to collect soaring media revenues or win on the field. Still, that's a collection of just 18 colleges, with an automatic mechanism of adding new fans every fall, via student enrollment.
The NHL doesn't have that, but also has more games to leverage for revenue. And as it explores expansion with TV markets as the primary lens, it also has to hope the games it's acquiring deliver both for at-home and in-arena audiences. Because if not, it's unlikely to get another try at adding teams in major (but non-traditional for hockey) U.S. media hubs.
