By Heather Galindo , David Barron and Chron.com staff
The NHL season starts on Saturday after the lockout, but the future of the Aeros and the AHL in Houston are now in question.
The Aeros lease at Toyota Center expires at the end of this season, and if the team can’t work out a deal with their landlord the Rockets, then pro hockey in Houston could be at a crossroads after 19 years in the IHL and AHL.
Rockets CEO Tad Brown said of the Aeros, “We’re still in discussions – the preliminary stage. Nothing to report.”
When the Aeros previous lease expired in 2008, a new one wasn’t agreed on until days after the regular season ended, so there is time. The Aeros season ends in April (unless they make the playoffs.) But if there is no lease with Toyota Center, options for other venues in Houston are limited.
“We’re still talking,” said Jim Mill, general manager of the Aeros.
Reliant Arena had been discussed briefly but doesn’t appear to be an option.
Mark Miller, general manager of Reliant Park, said discussions with the Aeros “weren’t very advanced at all,” in part because Reliant Arena does not have an ice surface and providing one would have cost about $3 million and in part because the ceiling is only 38 feet above the floor. Also, the long-term master plan for Reliant Park calls for the arena to be replaced when funding is available; that building, he said, would have ice-making capabilities.
“To retrofit a building with ice is expensive, and it is not a good business decision to do at this time,” he said. He added that putting in a scoreboard “doesn’t make a lot of sense” because of the low ceiling.
Miller said cooling towers and some other ice making equipment could be salvaged for a new building if it were installed in the old arena but that “it’s hard to justify the investment” in a new arena floor for the old building.
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