MTS Centre boost to NHL hopes: Doer
By ROCHELLE SQUIRES, LEGISLATURE REPORTER
Winnipeg Sun - Jan.27 2007
Winnipeg is better poised to become an NHL city again because of the new MTS Centre, says Premier Gary Doer.
"We have now a new entertainment complex, which has the luxury box seats and has proven to be an economic success in Winnipeg," Doer said yesterday. "It's now producing a number of events besides hockey and that is important."
Doer was responding to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's assertion that Winnipeg could now likely support an NHL team.
"I believe, in an ideal world under the partnership we have with the players and the salary cap, that Winnipeg probably could support an NHL team," Bettman told Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean on Wednesday.
Doer said there are a number of teams in the southern U.S. that are in trouble, and Winnipeg could offer the solution.
"We have two things going for us now. One, which we've always had, is hockey fans. And we have the new entertainment complex," said Doer.
A sly grin crossed Doer's face when asked by reporters if the province has had recent conversations with a hockey franchise about relocating.
"Any questions like that are better directed to (Manitoba Moose owner Mark Chipman)," said Doer.
University of Manitoba economist John McCallum said an improved economy in the province and surrounding region, as well as a salary cap for players, has made it more realistic for the city to support an NHL team.
"We are big enough and robust enough to support this kind of endeavour, especially with the controls they have on it now. We supported it once, and I think the terms are better now," said McCallum.
"I think we have the economic muscle to do this, if the people want it."
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It's alive! It's alive!
Life being breathed into dream of 'Peg NHL team
By TOM BRODBECK
WINNIPEG SUN NEWS Saturday, January 27, 2007
The dream of Winnipeg getting a National Hockey League team isn't just "still alive" as our front-page shouted out yesterday, following comments made by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman this week.
The dream has been inching closer every year over the past several years. So much so that even some of the skeptics in the local sports media world are jumping on the bring-back-the-Jets bandwagon -- acknowledging at least that bringing the NHL back to the 'Peg is now a possibility.
Talk of the NHL returning to Winnipeg was re-ignited in 2003 after the financially strapped Pittsburgh Penguins began musing about relocation.
We got our first boost when hockey sportscaster John Davidson suggested at the time that Winnipeg would be a good place for the Penguins to move. It wasn't much.
But it gave the corpse its first pulse.
Then, former Winnipeg Jets general manager John Ferguson said he believed the city, with its new downtown arena, could "definitely" attract an NHL club.
A year later, Hockey Night in Canada guru Ron MacLean said he believed Winnipeg could have an NHL team within five years.
That got the pulse beating a little faster.
Like now, NHL hockey was not selling well in a number of U.S. markets. And the thinking in 2003 was that if the stars aligned just right, maybe -- just maybe -- Winnipeg could pick up a team.
But there was still a major stumbling block, the same one that was largely responsible for the Jets leaving Winnipeg in the first place: run-away player salaries that long-ago priced this city out of the marketplace.
FALSE HOPES
Everyone agreed that without a salary cap and revenue sharing, it would be impossible to bring the NHL back to a city like Winnipeg.
The skeptics said it was dangerous to even talk about the NHL returning to Winnipeg because all it did was raise false hopes.
We were just setting ourselves up for disappointment, they said.
But then came the NHL lockout, the bitter infighting and, eventually, a new collective bargaining agreement that included a salary cap and revenue sharing.
Suddenly, a whole new world opened up for Winnipeg. Even the skeptics were forced to take a closer look.
We now had "cost certainty," as Manitoba Moose president Mark Chipman said, which allowed him and his colleagues to start doing some arithmetic on this baby.
Still, the league would never have us, the skeptics said. Gary Bettman hates us and wants nothing to do with another Canadian team.
But then, this week, the sea parted a little more.
"Even though we haven't done the homework, I believe, in an ideal world under the partnership we have with the players and the salary cap, that Winnipeg probably could support an NHL team," Bettman said on CBC-TV during the NHL all-star game.
The last time I heard Bettman utter the word "Winnipeg" is when he virtually wrote us off in 2004, saying the league had nothing to offer Winnipeg.
Tell me we haven't made any progress on this file.
The next day Chipman -- who would have to be at the centre of any new NHL team in Winnipeg -- released a statement which said he, too, believes Winnipeg could support a team.
"Mr. Bettman's assessment is consistent with the conclusions we have arrived at after examining the NHL's new framework for ourselves," said Chipman.
Hey now.
Even the skeptics had to climb aboard now, saying maybe it's worth keeping the dream alive after all.
Uh, huh.
Winnipeg is still miles away from getting an NHL team.
But we're miles ahead of where we were four years ago.
And that's something to get excited about.
Even for the skeptics.
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Everyone keep your finger's crossed!
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