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As the NHL moves closer to solidifying a 33rd team, the league is also pushing back on the prospect of a 34th franchise anytime soon.
Soon after the league said it intends to have a definitive agreement on a second Texas-based team by December, the NHL threw cold water on a public suggestion that a metro Atlanta-based group has similarly submitted a final financing packet to the league for approval.
NHLtoAtlanta, an X account dedicated to returning hockey to the Georgia market, said late last week that a group behind a Forsyth County expansion proposal had taken such a step, based on an email update from the developers behind the project, led by Atlanta businessman Vernon Krause.
But the NHL insists no formal application has been made from any Atlanta area entity.
“The NHL has made no decisions with respect to our project, and we are not in the expansion application phase,” Krause said in a statement. “Our ownership group has a strong interest in making this vision a reality, and we will continue our conversations with the NHL leadership team as they see fit.”
Widespread Interest
The frenzy around the Atlanta situation, however, shows the excitement that continues to grow across the U.S. Sun Belt toward the prospect of NHL expansion. The league is aiming to debut a second Texas team for the 2029–30 season to join the existing Stars, who are moving to Plano, and reached a formal agreement with billionaire Dan Friedkin to explore expansion to either Houston or Austin. Houston remains the more likely choice.
Atlanta, meanwhile, has two separate suburban entities seeking a franchise. In addition to the Forsyth County proposal, the city council in Alpharetta, Georgia, voted last month to rezone that town’s North Point Mall to allow a mixed-use development that would support an NHL franchise.
In addition, the metro Phoenix area is also part of ongoing league deliberations—though without the ownership-level or local political developments seen thus far in Texas or metro Atlanta. In 2024, the then-Coyotes franchise moved to Utah and ultimately became the Mammoth.
The Georgia and Arizona considerations, however, are still taking a back seat to the advancing negotiations between the NHL and Friedkin.
Atlanta is “not even remotely close to an application phase,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Athletic after the recent claims from Forsyth County.
Teams from the Sun Belt have claimed the past four Stanley Cup titles, and six of the past seven, including the Hurricanes this past season. It is not critical that the NHL bring in expansion clubs in even pairs. There was a four-year gap between the 2017 arrival of the Golden Knights, the league’s 31st team, and the Kraken’s 2021 beginning as the 32nd franchise.
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