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Thursday, December 2, 1999 Houston, we may have team
With a For Sale sign hung on the Ottawa Senators, several prospective American buyers are waiting in the wings. Among them are wealthy Houston businessmen Bob McNair, Chuck Watson and Les Alexander. McNair recently paid $700 million (US) to buy a National Football League expansion team, even though a new football stadium hasn't been built yet in Houston. His buddy, Watson, the owner of a minor league hockey team, "has had an itch to buy a major hockey team," said Dick Friedman, a reporter with the Houston Chronicle. The pair is interested in buying an NHL team, or Watson could go solo, he said. Either way, it would be competing against Alexander, whose plans for a new hockey arena were rejected in a public referendum Nov. 2. "This upset him highly," said Friedman. "The NHL has supposedly said Houston must have a new arena to get a team." The tycoon had even agreed to pay half of the $160-million cost, he added. Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys recently denied knowledge of any bids for the Senators.
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