HOUSTON | Sports Teams/Events/Venues Thread

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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/...Pos=0#cxrecs_s

Tilman Fertitta, others continue to eye Houston's NHL prospects after Arizona Coyotes deal

By Chandler France – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
Apr 15, 2024

The Arizona Coyotes' pending move to Utah could mean that if Houston were to score an NHL team, it’s more likely to come via league expansion than relocation.

According to multiple reports, the Coyotes will be sold to Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, move to Salt Lake City and be renamed. The team had been playing at Arizona State University’s 5,000-seat Mullet Arena the past two seasons after Tempe, Arizona, voters rejected three propositions that would have allowed the Coyotes to build a new $2.3 billion arena and entertainment district — prompting some to speculate yet again that the franchise could move to Houston.

Now, the team’s players and coaches are expected to play in Utah beginning next season, but Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo will keep the Coyotes name and work toward a new arena for an expansion team, per the reports. Meruelo reportedly will have five years to build a new NHL arena with the league promising to award Phoenix an expansion franchise if he is able to do so.

While Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has been vocal about his intentions to bring an NHL franchise to Houston, he said in a statement to the Houston Business Journal that he was unable to bid for the Coyotes organization as "the NHL views Houston as expansion target, removing the ability for us to purchase and relocate an existing team."

Fertitta touted Toyota Center, the Rockets' downtown arena, which previously hosted the American Hockey League's Houston Aeros, as an ideal location for a potential team, adding that Houston has a passionate and loyal hockey fan base.

"I remain committed to exploring all opportunities to bring professional hockey to Houston in partnership with Ira Mitzner," Fertitta wrote in the statement.

Mitzner is the CEO of Houston-based Rida Development Corp., which developed the Marriott Marquis hotel across Discovery Green from Toyota Center.

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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2024/04/23/houston-texans-new-uniforms-2024.html

Texans 'fearlessly evolve' with new uniforms (PHOTOS)

By Chandler France – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
Apr 23, 2024

The Houston Texans have unveiled new uniforms for the first time in the organization’s more than two-decade history.

The Texans unveiled four new uniforms on April 23, featuring Deep Steel Blue as the team's primary color on its home jersey and Liberty White on its away jerseys. Houston also revealed alternate and Color Rush uniforms. The alternate uniforms features Battle Red — like in year's past — while the Color Rush jersey features accents of H-Town Blue and a brand new logo.

The team undertook the process of crafting new uniforms at the urging of Cal and Hannah McNair, Texans principal owner and vice president of the Houston Texans Foundation, respectively. The McNair family challenged the organization to “fearlessly evolve” and to “think differently” about how it presents its brand in the Houston market, including with its uniform, said team President Greg Grissom. While the Texans logo remains the same, the color and design of its uniforms are certainly an evolution from what the team wore previously.

“You can call it an evolution, you can call it a rebrand; it is a different representation of your Houston Texans,” Grissom told the Houston Business Journal. “Whether it’s a rebrand or an evolution, I guess everyone else will have to decide.”

The uniforms are the result of feedback the team received from about 50 focus groups, 10,000 surveys, hundreds of thousands of social media comments, current and former players and staff, Grissom said. The team first started gathering that feedback in 2022. Incorporating input directly from fans was one of the foundational pieces of the process.

“A lot of teams don’t talk about uniforms. It’s all of a sudden one day, here’s a new set of uniforms,” Grissom said. “We intentionally went the opposite direction, and we really wanted to have the most transparent and most inclusive process of any team in the NFL.”

One of the most heated topics of debate during the fan feedback process was the incorporation of the H-Town Blue into the new uniforms, Grissom said. The Texans are unable to use the color as the primary or secondary color in the design since it belongs to the Tennessee Titans, which took the Houston Oilers logos and team history with it when owner Bud Adams moved the organization in 1995.

Grissom said it’s important for the NFL that every team is easily recognizable, especially with the mix of colors the teams use. While the Texans weren’t able to feature the H-Town Blue more prominently because of the conflict with the Titans, the organization was able to work with the league to use the color as an accent.

“It’s important to represent that color because it’s a color of the city of Houston,” Grissom said, referencing the light blues used in the city’s flag and blue tile street signs. “It’s not really a color of any team.”

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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opi...s-19422636.php

Houston Comets coach Van Chancellor, Cynthia Cooper, Tammy Jackson, and Sheryl Swoops hold up four trophies representing their four straight WNBA championships during a rally after a parade in downtown Houston, 8/29/00. (Buster Dean/Chronicle)

Buster Dean, Staff / Houston Chronicle

The Comets put the WNBA on the map. Houston needs a new team. | Editorial

By The Editorial Board

April 30, 2024

The greatest basketball team ever assembled in the city of Houston exists only on grainy YouTube footage.

For hoops junkies, sifting through old clips of the Houston Comets, the WNBA’s first-ever championship team, is like unearthing buried treasure.

Years before “super teams” — the concept of several big-name stars teaming up to try and win a title — took over the NBA, the Comets could credibly lay claim to being one of the first. Their Hall of Fame Big 3 – guard Cynthia Cooper and forwards Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson — ran roughshod over the WNBA, winning four consecutive championships from 1997-2000, a dynastic feat no American professional sports team has matched since.

The few videos documenting those Comets — even with poor picture quality — are thrilling. There’s Cooper, a whirling dervish with a lightning-quick first step carving up opposing defenses with deft ball-handling and finishing at the rim with a feathery touch. Swoopes, one of the greatest women’s basketball players ever, is a deadly mid-range shooter, able to take over a game with her scoring while also locking down the opponent’s best player on defense. And Thompson is all swagger and grit — a loquacious power forward happy to do the dirty work, barreling to the basket for layups and rebounds, then rubbing it in with a healthy dose of trash talk.

So why are we reminiscing about this defunct team from a bygone era? Well, because we want them back.

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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/tex...s-19432315.php

University of Houston plans to buck NFL, add alternate blue uniform for all sports
By Joseph Duarte,
Staff writer
May 1, 2024

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The University of Houston has informed the NFL that it will proceed with plans to add an alternate blue uniform.

The about-face comes six months after the NFL’s merchandising and licensing division sent a cease-and-desist letter to UH, threatening legal action if the school did not halt what was described as UH’s “blatant copying” of the Houston Oilers-themed uniforms.

“We literally have a story we can show the city uses it,” athletic director Chris Pezman told the Houston Chronicle at the Big 12’s spring meetings. “This isn’t a reach. This is a layup. We’ve got a very defensible position.”

UH wore the blue uniforms for the football season opener against UTSA and during the women’s soccer and golf seasons. School officials weighed legal options and changed course with a letter sent in mid-April that notified the NFL of the school’s plans.

“We’re doing it,” Pezman said. “We’ve reviewed everything and come to the conclusion that we are going to proceed.”

UH had not received a response from the NFL as of late Tuesday. The NFL was not immediately available for comment.

“We’re giving them two or three weeks to respond,” Pezman said. “We’re waiting on a response to see if we get one.”