NHL’s Bill Daly says expansion team in Houston or Austin could play by 2029-30
By Chris Johnston
Aug. 22, 2026 Updated 12:30 pm CDT
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7531325/2026/08/22/nhl-expansion-houston-austin-bill-daly/
MUNICH — The NHL is on track to award its 33rd franchise to Texas as soon as the end of the year, deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Athletic.
Daly said he’s expecting the league to get an update on the process from the group working with Houston billionaire Dan Friedkin in the coming weeks. Friedkin’s Pursuit Sports has already agreed to pay a $2 billion expansion fee to bring a team to either Houston or Austin, pending the ability to build an arena in one of those markets and secure final approval from the NHL’s Board of Governors.
“We’re moving forward in Texas,” Daly said in an interview at the NHL’s European Media Tour. “I expect ultimately we’ll be in a position to bring something to the board to get their view on it. So, that’s proceeding at a pace. We’ll 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.
“If we finalize that and the board approves it, then (at the) end of this calendar year we’ll have an announcement that we’re expanding to either Houston or Austin.”
Houston is the fourth-largest market in the United States and was the original focus when the NHL first started exploring expansion with Friedkin. It remains the most likely landing spot for the team, although Austin held enough appeal as an emerging, unique city that the parties agreed to further explore that market as well.
Daly told The Athletic the NHL is also actively engaged in talks with groups hoping to land the league’s 34th team. Those conversations aren’t nearly as advanced as dealings with Friedkin’s group, which hopes to debut its Texas team within three years.
“They’re projecting the ability to start play in 2029-30,” Daly said. “So 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’ll see what comes of those discussions.”
According to Daly, the NHL doesn’t feel the need to line up the timing of its next two expansion teams, a view partly informed by the league’s experience expanding to 31 teams with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017 before returning to a balanced number of 32 with the Seattle Kraken in 2021.
“I think the commissioner’s always asked about, ‘Well, that’s only one (expansion) team, what about the second team?”‘ Daly noted. “Certainly if it happened that two could come in the same year that might be more convenient, but I don’t think it’s a barrier if they don’t.”
Interestingly, the NHL’s favorable experience with Vegas has bolstered consideration for Austin. While it can’t match Houston’s population or corporate base, it has added appeal with only one top-tier pro sports franchise: Austin FC of MLS. The NHL hit a home run in Las Vegas by establishing its presence in the market ahead of the NFL and MLB. The Golden Knights have been wildly successful, becoming one of the league’s higher revenue teams from Day 1.
Asked how the league weighs the chance to go to a bigger market (Houston) or gain a foothold in a growing one (Austin), Daly said: “Probably different people weigh it differently, and would look at it differently.”
“I view Austin to be similar to our decision to move into Las Vegas at a time where the other leagues weren’t considering it in part because of the size of the market and mid-size nature of it,” he added. “We needed to satisfy ourselves that there was kind of a sufficient fanbase there that would embrace the club locally. We probably got lucky along the way, but as it’s turned out, the city is in love with that franchise. I would even distinguish it from at least football, with respect to whether the (Raiders) fanbase really exists in Las Vegas or whether it’s a tourist fanbase.
“I think (the Golden Knights) have clearly proven that the locals, the people who live in and around Vegas, are supporting that franchise.”
As the NHL enters another growth phase, other changes will follow.
Daly said there’s been no formal discussion yet about what would happen to the playoff format with the introduction of a 33rd team. However, he did allow that the league likely wouldn’t want to keep the existing setup and create a circumstance in which more teams miss out (17) than qualify (16) each season.
“I think certainly an argument can be made that once you’re over 32 franchises you’re looking at maybe an expanded playoffs of some sort,” he said.
Sitting in Europe, where the NHL is currently ramping up efforts to grow its brand and business, the deputy commissioner expressed confidence that the quality of play won’t suffer when the league adds two more teams.
The NHL believes there are enough high-quality players to fill out those rosters.
“I think we have enough boots on the ground and experience to know kind of where hockey skill is today and the players who can play and have proved they can play in the National Hockey League,” Daly said. “The source and supply of players is not a concern. The dilution of talent as an argument against expansion I don’t think holds any water today. Does it support four-team expansion? That would be a question for me.
“Certainly, a two-team expansion doesn’t raise any concerns.”
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