Dear Mr. Fertitta,

Houston wants hockey.

The fourth-largest (soon-to-be third-largest) city in the country may be ripe with opportunities to play pretty much any sport, but hockey has been downplayed and ultimately ignored since the departure of the AHL’s Houston Aeros after the 2013 campaign.

While the city of Houston has an ample amount of opportunities and initiatives to participate in a vast multitude of sports, hockey has unfortunately been kicked to the curb. While other cities not considered ‘traditional’ for hockey — ranging from Dallas to Las Vegas to San Diego — have professional teams and/or a comprehensive youth hockey scene, Houston trails far behind in that aspect. Houstonians are essentially encouraged to move to the west side of town in order to participate in loosely-organized and purely recreational leagues at one of four rinks (two of which are not fully available for hockey), while only having two options for competitive travel hockey and a high school league that is heavily volatile and far below the level of its Dallas counterpart.

There’s a reason why out of 65 Texan-born players who have participated in major league or minor league hockey from 1969 to the present day, 46 of them have come from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, while only 4 (yes, four) have come from the Greater Houston Area. The city of Houston may soon be the third-largest city in the United States, but is on par with a small city — such as Green Bay, WI — in terms of hockey infrastructure and opportunities for hockey.

The glaring absence of a professional hockey team is also a point of concern. How is Houston — a city that over 6 million people currently call home — not able to find a hockey team to host? I know it’s only been five years since the Aeros moved away (and only a year or so since Les Alexander effectively relinquished his iron-grip on the daily operations of Toyota Center), but that is a lot of time to recruit a professional hockey team to conduct operations in Houston. It’s a shame that Houstonians are forced to drive at least four hours round-trip in order to see even a semi-professional. It’s something that never should have been a problem in the first place, and has alienated the city from the world of hockey for the time being.

This is also why hockey currently is at the bottom of the pecking-order in terms of viewership and popularity within Houston; due to the lack of a team here, many people can’t be bothered to make the long drive (or simply don’t have the time to) to San Antonio, Austin, or Dallas in order to watch professional hockey. Also, it’s important to consider the fact that most Houstonians tend to express apathy or downright animosity to professional sports teams located in other Texas cities, and see them as being ‘inferior’ to Houston as a result. Hockey has a much smaller impact within Houston compared to baseball, basketball, football, and soccer, and it’s not due to geography and the hot weather; it’s due to the lack of a professional team to promote and actively grow the sport. Look at Dallas: a city that had almost zero exposure to any form of hockey before the Stars moved from Minnesota before the 1993–94 NHL season. Back then, people in Dallas regarded hockey with the same amount of apathy and hostility that many Houstonians regard the sport today. Now, however, the city is teeming with hockey players and fans, producing an exponentially greater amount of talent capable of playing professionally in North America or Europe. If there’s one thing that Dallas excels at far more than Houston, it’s being able to promote and grow the sport of hockey.

Houston may be a great city, but is far below par in terms of hockey. It’s seen as a medium-sized town (at best) in terms of opportunities for competitive hockey, and has made it hard for millions of people to become truly immersed and exposed to the sport. Houston wants hockey, and I’m fully expecting you to bring an NHL hockey team to this city in the forthcoming years — while simultaneously growing the sport in the community. There is no reason why hockey should not be popular within the Greater Houston Area.