What does it mean that Atlanta’s NHL expansion groups were put on hold?

Whatever the NHL’s decision to formally explore expansion in Houston and Austin means for the two groups seeking a team in metro Atlanta, it’s not good news.

It’s not the end of Atlanta’s hopes for the NHL’s return, either. But it makes you wonder if it’s going to happen for either local group, or at least when. Tuesday’s news was a clear sign that both have work to do to convince NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman that either is ready for a team.

In fact, Bettman said as much to reporters at a meeting of the league’s board of governors Tuesday in New York.

At the meeting, “there was an update on Atlanta, there was an update on Arizona and there was an update on South Texas,” Bettman said, according to The Associated Press. “But neither Arizona nor Atlanta are quite as far along in the process as the Friedkin (Houston billionaire Dan Friedkin) opportunities.”

This would seem a prelude to Friedkin and his family ultimately being awarded the NHL’s 33rd franchise, as someone with Friedkin’s wealth (an estimated net worth of $11.4 billion, according to Forbes) probably wouldn’t put himself in a position to be so publicly jilted.

A few things were interesting with respect to the two metro Atlanta groups that are trying to land a team, one in Forsyth County led by car dealership owner Vernon Krause and the other in Alpharetta led by former NHL player Anson Carter.

First, Bettman said that he has been in discussions with Friedkin over the past two years.

Krause announced his pursuit of an expansion team, as part of a mixed-use development, in 2023. Carter announced his formal request to begin the process for an expansion team in 2024, additionally saying that he had been talking with Bettman about an expansion franchise for Atlanta since 2019.

So this isn’t a matter of the two groups losing out because they hadn’t been at the party long enough.

What else?

Friedkin would have to build an arena in either city. (Houston does have the Toyota Center, the home of the NBA Rockets, but Bettman said Tuesday that both cities would require a new building.) That Forsyth County and Alpharetta only have plans for arenas has been seen as a strike against them and yet it was a hurdle that Friedkin cleared.

Bettman didn’t rule out the possibility of a group from Atlanta or Arizona being added as a new franchise owner, saying they’re “on a different track” than Friedkin.

“Tomorrow we could all wake up and they say, ‘You know what, that looks so good we want to do the same thing,’” Bettman said.

Here’s the thing, though. It may be true that such a change could happen, although as of Wednesday afternoon, it didn’t appear that he woke up this day and made that declaration.

But it seems unlikely that, if Bettman were to give either Atlanta group a green light, it would happen anytime soon. This past September, they got a cold dose of reality when Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said that the competing groups in Atlanta were “aspirational” and that the NHL needed a “fully baked plan” that was “a little more actionable” than where either was.

That was more than nine months ago.

Both groups surely must know what Bettman wants for their plans to be “fully baked.” But even given nearly a year from the time of Daly’s deflating pronouncement, neither was unable to provide what he was looking for to get into the next stage of the expansion derby. And both groups probably knew how and where they were lacking well before Daly’s comments.

If there’s a positive for the two groups from Tuesday’s announcement, it’s that the NHL is officially interested in expansion. But that’s weighed against the reality that they were put on hold.

And maybe adding a Texas team means the NHL could try to balance it out with a team in the East. But Bettman isn’t going to add a team just for that reason.

It must be frustrating; Forsyth officials declared themselves “shovel ready” in 2025.

It’s possible that either the Forsyth or Alpharetta group could pull together whatever is missing and change the dynamics. For the sake of the thousands of hockey fans in metro Atlanta — who lost the Flames in 1980 and Thrashers in 2011 — I hope it does.

But it’s also reasonable to wonder if, after at least two years, if it’s going to happen at all with either of the two groups. With the NHL’s last new franchise, for instance, three different arena groups in Seattle fell short before the fourth brought the necessary ingredients for the magical fully baked plan.

Maybe it’s the $2 billion (at least) franchise fee. Maybe it’s confidence in the ownership group. Maybe Bettman has to be further convinced that an NHL-grade arena would absolutely happen if a franchise were awarded.