The Hampton Roads Rhinos were a proposed National Hockey League (NHL) expansion team in the late-1990s to play in Norfolk, Virginia. The franchise would be under the ownership of George Shinn and play in a proposed $142 million arena to be constructed in Downtown Norfolk. After making a push to sell season tickets and reaching an agreement in principle to construct the arena, the NHL rejected the Norfolk bid for an expansion franchise in February 1997. By the following May, the prospect of a NHL franchise calling the Hampton Roads ended with the relocation of the Hartford Whalers to Raleigh, North Carolina.