Houston is very annexation happy so a good portion of their suburban areas in Houston proper, unlike Dallas which has Plano, McKinney, Frisco, Arlington (all with populations over 100k) plus Fort Worth. So that stat is rather misleading as comparing the populations of Dallas and Houston because Dallas/Fort Worth is a much larger metropolitan area (as was said in an earlier post). That being said, here in Dallas, Stars fans would love a Houston franchise. It would create an instant rivalry, as the Stars' biggest rival currently is Edmonton, and it would be very successful in Houston. Hockey in Dallas has been very successful, its at a low point right now because of the ownership situation and Mike Modano leaving. WIth the whole ownership situation, they haven't been able to market at all and there have been less ticket plan options and the prices have gone up. But when they get a new owner (likely over the summer), the attendance will go back up to the 17k numbers they were drawing before Tom Hicks went bankrupt. But youth hockey is huge with the Stars running many rinks around the Metroplex and there are successful minor league teams (Texas Tornado, Allen Americans) as well. So with a Houston team, a rivalry would be created instantly which would draw more interest in the Stars and it wouldn't impact the Stars fanbase since noone in Houston would ever root for a Dallas team. So I would have to believe that Houston would be a solid hockey market as well.