Winnipeg is one step closer to its NHL return today, after True North Sports and Entertainment announced an agreement to purchase the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers. It's not a done deal, however, as the league must approve the sale and move of the yet-to-be-named team first.
At a press conference in Winnipeg's MTS Centre Tuesday, True North Sports and Entertainment chairman Mark Chipman outlined his company's history with hockey since the Jets flew south to Phoenix in 1996. Those years spent managing the AHL's Manitoba Moose, he said, served as a foundation for True North's next move.
"Today, on behalf of my family, our partner David Thomson, and our entire organization I am excited beyond words to announce our purchase of the Atlanta Thrashers," Chipman said.
Taking the podium moments later, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the deal was struck in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday morning. According to Bettman, the parties involved were still on a conference call at 4:30 a.m. ET.
"As is obvious by the fact we are here today, True North and Atlantic Spirit reached an agreement early this morning to bring the NHL back to this city," Bettman said.
The agreement between the Atlanta Spirit Group and True North, led by Chipman and the billionaire chair of the Thomson Reuters group David Thomson, is reportedly worth $170 million, of which $60 million will go to the league in relocation fees. The team will move in time to begin the 2011-12 season in Winnipeg.
But the announcement doesn't mean the move is a done deal, he cautioned, explaining that both the sale and the move to Winnipeg will have to be approved by the NHL's Board of Governors. That's expected during their June 21 meeting in New York.
Although it seems there is little, if anything, that can be done to keep the Thrashers in Atlanta, Kasim Reed, the city's mayor, said Tuesday officials had recently stepped up their efforts to keep the team in Georgia, saying they are "an important part" of Atlanta's reputation as a world-class city.
"We have really significantly enhanced our efforts in the last 10 days certainly to try and get a deal done that makes sense," Reed told reporters. "So we're just steady at it, which is why I'm not going to comment on the press conference until I talk to the commissioner for the NHL."
Atlanta radio host Chris Dimino blamed the team's ownership for failing to put a winning team on the ice, which would have filled the arena with fans and kept the franchise viable.
"I do think this city would have absolutely rallied around a winner because there's only been one championship in 45 years down here, the Atlanta Braves in 1995," Dimino told CTV News Channel in a telephone interview. "If you don't think that people would have at least got hopped with the prospect of another one, I think that's wrong."
High expectations for ticket sales
Winnipeg fans who have clung tightly to the Jets brand must also wait to hear what their new team will be called, as Chipman told reporters the deal was struck so late that the subject had yet to be dealt with.
"We know it's a subject of great interest to the community," he said, promising that coming up with a new moniker will be, "one of our first orders of business."
In his remarks, Bettman offered some kind words to tide over the city's die-hard fans.
"This is a wonderful time to add a club to Canada," he said.
"We get to be back in a place we wish we hadn't left in 1996," Bettman continued, before imploring supporters to turn their years of loyalty into tangible support for the returning team.
"Selling 13,000 season tickets is the best message to send to the NHL board of governors before they meet on the 21st," he said, explaining that the move "isn't going to work very well" unless the team can sell out each and every home game.
At about 15,000 seats the MTS Centre, built in 2004, is the smallest venue in the league.
Sportsbusinessnews.com publisher Howard Bloom said Tuesday afternoon that despite the small arena size and a population of fewer than 800,000 residents in the Manitoba capital area, the season ticket sales goal "is a goal that they will achieve in Winnipeg."
"This is Canada, Canada is hockey, Winnipeg's up to the challenge," Bloom told CTV News Channel. "And I can pretty well guarantee you that Winnipeg is going to make this happen and the NHL is back in Winnipeg for many, many years."
In his comments Tuesday, True North President and CEO Jim Ludlow expressed confidence that the team will prove viable.
Extensive market research, he said, has helped arrive at prices in seven categories ranging from $39 to $129.
Fans who want to sign up can log on to the purpose-built website driveto13.com, Ludlow said, adding that monthly payment plans will be available.
"We think these financing alternatives make a bunch of sense," he said. "We are confident of how this ticket pricing will work."
Winnipeg's last NHL experience ended after 17 up-and-down seasons, but Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger said Tuesday that fans are dedicated to "make it work forever" now that the NHL is back.
For native Winnipegger Darren Ford, who is behind an eight-year campaign to bring NHL hockey back to his city, the confluence of circumstances that saw the Jets leave Winnipeg for Phoenix in 1996 have turned around in the years since.
"I think too much of an emphasis was put on raw population as opposed to hockey fans," Ford told Canada AM on Tuesday, suggesting the NHL miscalculated what teams needed to succeed in mid-90s expansion throughout the U.S.
"Winnipeg has more hockey fans per capita than any of those markets and those markets have much more competition for people's sports dollars," he said.
Indeed, Bloom believes that a renewed NHL presence would have much better chances of success now than the last time round, largely due to three factors: "the arena, the dollar and cost certainty in the NHL make it a much more viable NHL in 2011 for the city of Winnipeg."
The MTS Centre is currently home to the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League, a farm team of the Vancouver Canucks that is also owned by True North. The team's future in the city is now in doubt.
For Ford, that makes the prospect of the NHL dropping the puck in his city a reason to celebrate.
"Everything's looking up here in the 'Peg," he said.
According to a statement released in the moments after the big announcement in Winnipeg, Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems to agree.
"On behalf of all Canadians, I am extremely pleased with today's announcement that the NHL will return to Winnipeg. Hockey is Canada's great passion and I'm excited that Winnipeg will reclaim its special role in our country's national pastime," Harper said.
Atlanta, meanwhile, will be saying goodbye to its second NHL team, after the Flames moved to Calgary in 1980. The Thrashers first took to the ice in Atlanta as an expansion team in 1999.
CTV NEWS wants to know: What do you think the name should be? Add comments below, we will read the best ideas on air.
