Gary Bettman's got his eye on Houston – the hometown of illustrious rapper Chamillionaire – according to The Athletic's Katie Strang.
While Bettman's Chamillionaire fandom is purely speculatory at this point, he did find time to meet with Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta about putting the NHL's 32nd team in H-Town. Fertitta is the perfect person for Bettman to chat up about this possibility: he just purchased the Rockets for a cool $2.2 billion and rocks a net worth of *rubs eyes* $3.5 billion.
Strang reports in her piece that this would not be a relocated team, rather, it would be an expansion team, following in the footsteps of the Vegas Golden Knights.
Fertitta certainly seems interested – he told a local news affiliate that he'd explore the possibility last month – plus he told the Houston Business Journal that he'd do it "tomorrow" if he could.
In addition to raising Chamillionaire, Houston is actually the country's fifth-largest metropolitan area – behind New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas – and home to 6.7 million people. That puts it far ahead of another frequently-mentioned NHL expansion destination, Seattle, which has 3.8 million, none of whom made 2005 hit single Ridin Dirty.
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