Harris County 2026: National Hockey League Team and Arena in Houston

Houston, the largest city in Texas and the fourth largest in the nation, has never had a National Hockey League team, although it had a World Hockey League (WHL) team, the Houston Aeros, between 1972 and 1978. Historically, NHL teams were concentrated in the Northeast and Upper Midwest. Since the 1990s, however, the league has expanded into the Sun Belt, with multiple expansion teams added and existing teams relocating to the region, including the Minnesota North Stars’ move to Dallas in 1993.

With consideration underway for bringing an NHL team to Houston, are people enthusiastic about getting a professional hockey team? Are they supportive of public funding for a new arena?

As part of a survey project focusing on the 2026 election, Harris County likely voters were contacted via SMS text message and directed to an online survey platform with the option to answer the survey in English or Spanish. The survey was fielded between October 3 and October 8, 2026. With a margin of error of +/- 1.87 percentage points, the overall sample population of 2,750 Harris County likely voters was adjusted via multidimensional calibration weighting using demographic, historical electoral, and geographic benchmarks. This report examines the enthusiasm of Harris County likely voters for a new team as well as their opinion on what proportion of the cost of a new NHL arena should be publicly funded by Harris County.

Harris County 2026: Opinions about a Potential National Hockey League Team and Arena in Houston

66% of November 2026 Harris County likely voters are either very (34%) or somewhat (32%) enthusiastic about a new NHL team being located in Houston, while a little more one third (34%) are either not too (16%) or not at all (18%) enthusiastic about an NHL team coming to Houston.

Pie chart showing the proportion of Nov 2026 Harris County voters who are enthusiastic and not enthusiastic about a new NHL team in Houston

When it comes to building a new arena for this NHL team, close to three-fifths (59%) of Harris County likely voters believe that Harris County should not provide public funding at any level for a new NHL arena. Slightly more than one-fifth (21%) of the respondents believe that between 1% and 20% should be publicly funded by Harris County. The final one-fifth of Harris County likely voters is spread across those who think 21-40% (9%), 41-60% (7%), 61-80% (2%), and 81-100% (2%) of the cost of building a new arena should be publicly funded by the county.

Bar graph showing the proportion of the Cost to build an arena for a new Houston NHL team that likely voters think should be publicly funded by Harris County

Read the report to learn more about where Harris County likely voters stand on the possibility of getting a new NHL team and arena, including differences of opinion when considering gender, age, race/ethnicity, education and partisanship.

Research Team

Co-Investigator Renée Cross, Senior Executive Director & Professor of Practice

Co-Investigator Mark P. Jones, Senior Research Fellow, Hobby School of Public Affairs; James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy's Fellow in Political Science, Rice University

Maria P. Perez Argüelles, Research Assistant Professor

Savannah Sipole, Research Associate

Communications Team

Diana Benitez, Program Director, Web & Graphic Design

Victoria Cordova, Executive Director of Communications

Jeannie Kever, Communications Consultant

Celeste Zamora, Director of Communications