Winnipeg Will be Getting an NHL Team

A.Eberhard

A.Eberhard

Active member
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/atlanta-thrashers-moving-to-winnipeg/article2029179/

Looks like this is the end of the Atlanta Thrashers and a new beginning for an NHL team in Winnipeg.

n agreement to sell the National Hockey League’s Atlanta Thrashers to a Winnipeg group which plans to relocate the franchise to the Manitoba capital is done.

Sources confirmed tonight that preparations are being made for an announcement Tuesday, confirming the sale and transfer of the Thrashers to True North Sports and Entertainment, which owns and operates the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League and the MTS Centre arena, which would become the NHL team’s new home.

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Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the National Hockey League, is expected to travel to Winnipeg to make the news official.

The announcement would end months of speculation about whether one of the NHL’s financially-troubled American sunbelt teams might move north, filling the void left when the Winnipeg Jets packed up and left for Phoenix in 1996, where they became the Coyotes.

Much of the talk this spring had centred on that failing franchise, which was bought by the league after being placed in bankruptcy by its former owner Jerry Moyes in 2009.

But sources in Winnipeg suggest that the Thrashers had in fact been the primary target of potential owners Mark Chipman and David Thomson all along, and that some months back, the NHL board of governors quietly approved the sale and transfer of the team, pending the negotiation of a purchase agreement between Atlanta Spirit LLC, the Thrashers’ owners, and True North.

In the meantime, no potential owner materialized who was prepared to keep the team in Georgia, and local governments there showed no interest in propping up the Thrashers.

“There seems to be a consensus there is going to be a team in Winnpeg,” former major league pitcher Tom Glavine, who had tried unsuccessfully to find new ownership for the hockey team in Atlanta, acknowledged last week. ““The question is who, and unfortunately the bullseye seems to be on the Thrashers’ back.”

When it appeared this spring that the Coyotes might also be in play, after a deal to sell the team to Matthew Hulsizer underwritten by a municipal bond issue fell apart in the face of political opposition from the Goldwater Institute, the Winnipeg group sought to take advantage of what suddenly seemed a buyers’ market, with two teams available and no other potential owners or relocations sites on the horizon.

After the City of Glendale agreed to cover $25-million of the Coyotes losses for the 2011-2012 season, and the NHL opted to operate the club in Arizona for at least one more year, True North’s full focus returned to Atlanta, and a deal was hammered out this week.

Even before those final negotiations took place, the potential Winnipeg owners concluded an agreement with the Manitoba government which will allow revenues from a sports bar with slot machine to be used for improvements to the arena, and to be used towards the debt service on the building.

That’s consistent with what Manitoba premier Greg Selinger told reporters earlier this week, when he said that the provincial government had no interest in subsidizing an NHL team, but that the province had financially supported the renovation of the MTS Centre in the past, and would continue to be willing to do so.
 
watching sports center interview right now. They're saying its still undecided. It would be pretty cool to see Teemu come back to winnipeg

 
Selanne holds a love-hate thing with me.

Former Shark, current Duck, shouldn't have been in Anaheim to begin with...

That said... Imagine if he went there. Talk about ticket sales. haha.
 
i'm soooo stoked to have another canadian team! they're gonna suck for a while but who knows where they could go in the future
 
I don't think they should be the jets though because that franchise is still in pheonix. If the coyotes had moved back, Jets for sure but it just doesn't feel right the other way.
 
man I'd hate to be an NHL player and have to travel there. Must be so boring.
 
It may not be as exciting as other places but if I was getting payed that much money to play my favorite sport as a career I would have no complaints
 
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A lot of NHL players or other athletes don't live where they play necessarily, if your residence is somewhere else you can pay less in taxes as well.
 
yep. jonathan ericcson of the wings just got a house on an island in sweden, and just has an apartment in detroit
 
I live in winnipeg, and it is far from boring, sure there is no real skiing or mountains but winnipeg and the surrounding areas still have a lot of stuff to do.
 
Highly unlikely, Quebec City has one of the worst markets for a major league sports team in North America. Pretty much its because they were too french.
 
Well they have their fan base still, trust me. lol

Just they need commited fans, quebec city gets alot of tourists. And everyone in Quebec would want to watch a diques game.
 
The problem was they they did everything extremely french. The Canadiens were a lot more bi-lingual in the marketing and in the structure of the ownership and such. It really isolates you fan base and it also affects the players. One big example would be the whole Lindros thing.
 
for some reason i see a bunch of Nordiques jerseys on peeps at winter hawk games.
but still. its not gonna happen.. lol at Canada thinking there gonna get all their teams back plus some.
 
Thats what they said about the Jets retuning in 96...You fail to realize that it It will actually happen, not next year or the year after, perhaps not for another 10 years but it will happen. I also guarantee you will see many current NHL teams relocate to other places in the US.
 
All teams in states that fought for the confederacy that have not won a cup yet move to Canada or more Northern cities. All the southerners that don't care, don't care, and all the good hockey markets get teams.
 
Yea my unvle in Quebec is still a nordiques fan haha. not a habs fan either.

Hey dont jinx yourself haha ;)

Canadien comeback for hockey teams
 
yes and yes,
i just have this feeling that every Canadian would love to have the NHL largely located on Canadian Soil. kinda how.. the MLB and the NBA are "national when they have one team a piece in Toronto. an original six team is safe.. that is for sure.
i would kill for a team in Portland. the league is never going to expand teams. but as you say relocation is the only option.
 
All I would like is just to have all of our original teams (Quebec Nordiques) restored and maybe, just maybe one in Hamilton (I highly doubt that will happen though). Nothing more.
I am also very much for the relocation of American teams( more specifically from the South East) to be relocated to places like Seattle, Portland, Hartford(Nostalgia), Milwaukee and perhaps Kansas. I think its been confirmed that hockey in the desert does not work so places like Phoenix and Vegas are out of the question.
 
true.. at least in the PNW it snows once or twice a year. but said many times Seattle and Hartford do not have up to spec arenas,
and it would make them reopen the 4 closed down rinks that are just mothballed up.
 
At the moment I think its more likely Hamilton would get a team before the Nordiques come back. HAmilton could easily support another hockey team.
 
Except Balsille has been black listed from the NHL. He pissed off Bettman and the BOG. Quebec City is at least building a brand new NHL size arena and aren't pursuing it as aggressively like Jim did. Gary Bettman even through a shot in at Balsille in today's announcement when he said something along the lines of "TNSE pursued this franchise professionally and quietly and proved to be very effective[/i]"
 
my cousins live in atlanta... they're pissed as all hell haha. personally i like the move, winnipeg is a really cool city.
 
They put Quebec City at #2 for a NHL franchise. Quebeckers are crazy about hockey and I could not see the team failing twice. Bring the Coyotes back to Canada. Hockey in Arizona? They lost $25 million this year. It's time for a move.

Back the Jets. Anybody who lives in Winnipeg are they going to build a new rink for the Jets? From what I have heard the Rink they have only holds 16,500 people and I think you need more seats to be profitable.
 
They already have a team, splitting the province would hurt it more than help it. It sure wouldn't randomly create an excess of extra money. Plus as I said earlier the way the Nordiques operated as a franchise was extremely french, it hurt their marketing a ridiculous amount and its really hard on players who aren't french. Montreal is ranked like 3rd for income and I'm pretty sure the NHL wouldn't jeopardize one franchise for another when you could put the team somewhere it'd generate new money.
 
Montreal would have 100% ZERO PROBLEM having their intraprovincial rival back... They have NY yankees sized fanbase... They make travelling Nucks fans look like pansies the way they roll in and take over an opposing arena... no matter what the town.
On top of that, dont think that season ticket holders wouldnt come to Quebec... it's a larger metro area than Winnipeg, a more wealthy metro area, and even with the mostly francophone culture and language barrier, I see it being successful due to a heavily loyal fanbase, and with a much better promoted NHL.
Sure, you say Lindros didnt want to play here due to it's marketability... but He's just a little bitch anyways as you can see from his Philly days, and the Nordiques got MUCH MORE than he was worth back... and it lead to 2 Colorado Stanley cups... If the team stayed in Quebec, shit would have worked awesome for them, and I feel that the exposure would have put the city much more on the map and broke through its francophone situation - thus making it a much more 'globalized' city like Montreal is.
I welcome them back if they get an arena (which they should have irregardless of an NHL team or not)

And just for fun :)/static/images/flash_video_placeholder.png
 
Bit of an overstatement... And nobody in the show takes over an opposing rink like wings fans. Anywhere besides Boston, Toronto, Montreal, San Jose, Vancouver, Chicago, and Philly is pretty much a home game for the wings.
 
No way dude... Nucks fans travel better than Detroit... and they barely shake a stick compared to habs fans as far as I know. Detroit's just a bunch of bandwagon fools. I'm talking about REAL TRAVELING FANS.
go to Minnesota when they play the Habs. My friend went to the game a few years ago... they took over St. Paul...
Detroit does well there too, but they weren't travelling as far as Montreal guys were...
 
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