So how goes the hockey team?

[Zaz]

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Q...649/story.html

QUEBEC — Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume on Friday announced plans to build a $400-million NHL-sized arena in the hope of bringing back a professional hockey team to the city that was home to the Nordiques until 1995.

The mayor laid out plans to build the 18,000-seat arena, which will be used as a concert venue and a hockey arena.

"The current arena doesn't serve our ambitions anymore," said Labeaume, who is asking federal and provincial governments to invest $175 million each into the new arena through infrastructure programs.

"The population of Quebec City wants an NHL hockey club. "

Rumours that a NHL hockey club could make a return to the city have been fuelled in the past week with the news Labeaume and former Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

Bettman had said earlier this month he would look at a team for Quebec City if a new arena were built and a club were available for sale.

Labeaume on Friday said he received no assurances from the NHL on a return of a team to Quebec but stressed there is "no doubt" on league's interest.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told a local radio station this week Quebec City would be "on top of the list" for future NHL expansion or relocation if it went through with plans to build a new arena.

A falling Canadian dollar and an aging arena led to the sale in 1995 of the Quebec Nordiques.

The team moved to Colorado to become the Avalanche and won the Stanley Cup the following year.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

[FRM]

Originally Posted by Zaz

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told a local radio station this week Quebec City would be "on top of the list" for future NHL expansion or relocation if it went through with plans to build a new arena.

yea...unless there is a southern market thirsting for some hockey when Quebec City builds a new arena

[Jon Dalton]

Wow. $400000000 is a lot of money to spend in order to hope that some American organization that has no stake in the community and is accountable to nobody will follow through with some vague, non-commital hint at investing sometime in the future.

[FairHamilton]

What is not mentioned is next you need someone with $400M to buy the franchise rights, as we have seen trying to move an existing team to Canada will be met with stiff resistance.

[SteelTown]

Back when I started going to these monthly meetings at McMaster in 2006 Jim Balsillie's name came up as a possible donator (ended up being Braley), pretty sure I disclosed that information here. His name dropped off for awhile but then it became public Balsillie was to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins.

So I wouldn't be surprised if he donated large sum of money to Hamilton or possibly brings RIM to Hamilton. That is if he has completely lost interest in obtaining an NHL franchise to Hamilton.

[SteelTown]

Mum’s the word on NHL franchise
Keep mouths closed, eyes on prize, Mayor warns other councillors

By Kevin Werner, News Staff

News
Oct 16, 2009
http://www.ancasternews.com/news/article/191549

Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger is warning other councillors to button their lips when it comes to talking publicly about a possible NHL franchise for the city.
“The old slogan ‘loose lips sink ships’ is true,” said Mr. Eisenberger in an interview.

“If we have loose lips in Hamilton, we can’t maintain some trust and confidence until things are ready, our opportunity for getting a franchise is zero.”

NHL officials, including commissioner Gary Bettman have been talking about establishing NHL franchises in Quebec, Winnipeg and Hamilton. In the recent Arizona bankruptcy court for the Arizona Coyotes, the NHL revealed if a franchise was placed in Hamilton, it would be the fifth most valuable in the league.

Over the weekend it was reported Quebec officials had been meeting with NHL representatives. Quebec will soon announce funding for a $250 million, 18,000-seat arena. The Quebec Nordiques were relocated to Colorado, while the Winnipeg Jets left for Phoenix.

Hamilton Mountain Councillor Terry Whitehead said last week he had been in contact with Mr. Bettman, but did not reveal what was discussed.

Mr. Eisenberger, who said he has not talked to Mr. Bettman, has been furious at Mr. Whitehead’s actions in pursuing an NHL franchise, including leaking what he considers sensitive information about Hamilton’s strategy in pursuing a NHL team.

“There is no ‘I’ in ‘team’,” said Mr. Eisenberger. “

You build a strategy. You identify who will affect that strategy and you can follow that in a strategic direction. If I was Mr. Bettman, or any other owner, if my comments with anyone in Hamilton made the media shortly thereafter, I would be very reluctant to go and talk to anyone there. That’s the problem.”

An NHL spokesman did not reveal any details about the conversation.

Mr. Eisenberger said the city still has an exclusive agreement with Research In Motion CEO Jim Balsillie until Oct. 31.

After the agreement ends, the city will be free to pursue other opportunities, he said.

Both Mr. Whitehead, who is chair of the city’s NHL subcommittee, and Mr. Eisenberger have suggested reaching out to NHL officials to plot a proper course of action in getting a hockey team.

There are up to 10 teams in the NHL that could be for sale or available for relocation, including Tampa Bay, Florida, New York Islanders, Nashville and Atlanta.

[emge]

Moyes to sell Coyotes to NHL

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/stor...y-coyotes.html

Phoenix Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes has agreed to sell the beleaguered club to the NHL.

The agreement was announced in U.S. bankruptcy court in Phoenix on Monday, and still has to be approved by presiding Judge Redfield T. Baum.

But Wayne Gretzky, former Coyotes coach who has a $22.5 million US claim in the case, has not agreed to the deal.

According to Moyes' lawyer, the decision to make a deal came from the fact that the costs of running the club right now are coming out of the league's $140 million US offer.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said that the league will begin work to sell the team immediately after the deal closes. The league hopes that it can sell the team to an owner who will keep the team in Phoenix.

Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie ended his bid to buy the bankrupt franchise and relocate them to Hamilton on Sept. 30, only hours after Judge Baum rejected both his $242.5 million US offer and the NHL's bid in bankruptcy court.

Baum rejected Balsillie's bid "with prejudice," and the NHL's "without," suggesting the league only needed a few tweaks to its bid for it to be accepted.

The judge expressed concern over the NHL's omission of Coyotes majority owner Jerry Moyes and former head coach Wayne Gretzky on its list of creditors to be paid.

Baum sided with the NHL on three points — the right to approve membership; the right to control where teams play; and the right to a relocation fee — and, in doing so, avoided setting a legal precedent feared by all major professional sports leagues.

Moyes claimed to have lost more than $200 million US in equity and accumulated $100 million in debt since partnering with developer Steve Ellman and Gretzky to buy the team for $90 million in 2001.

Moyes filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 5, with the expressed purpose of selling the Coyotes to Balsillie over the NHL's vehement objections.

Balsillie, the billionaire co-CEO of Blackberry maker Research In Motion, has been thrice shut out on attempts to buy an NHL club. Deals to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2006 and the Nashville Predators in 2007 both fell through at the 11th hour.

[DHLawrence]

Pretty easy to make that happen when you chase away the best bid.

[realcity]

NHL sucks

[SteelTown]

NHL will establish second team in Southern Ontario

DAVID SHOALTS
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...rticle1356687/

Globe and Mail Update Published on Monday, Nov. 09, 2009 12:18PM EST
Last updated on Monday, Nov. 09, 2009 12:19PM EST


NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly acknowledged Monday morning that the establishment of a second franchise in Southern Ontario is a possibility.

And if the Toronto Maple Leafs don't like it, Daly said in so many words, they can lump it.

However Daly would not speculate on when this could happen.

“I suppose, without talking about time frame, there may be,” he said of the possibility.

Daly's answer came in response to a question about the inevitability of a second team in the Greater Toronto Area simply for economic reasons. Most sports economics experts agree that such a team that would likely earn enough revenue to be a major contributor to the NHL's revenue-sharing program as opposed to a continual drain like the Phoenix Coyotes, the team BlackBerry billionaire Jim Balsillie tried and failed to move to Hamilton.

Daly did say the team would not be located in Hamilton because the city's Copps Coliseum “doesn't provide modern-day NHL economics.”

There were extensive renovations planned in conjunction with Balsillie's plans to relocate the Coyotes. But, Daly, said, the plans were not clear.

“As far as I know, the money that would take was not coming from any particular source,” Daly said. “It was kind of a pie-in-the-sky kind of deal.”

Daly was speaking after he appeared at an annual sports management conference in Toronto that was organized in part by Leafs president and general manager Brian Burke. Daly and Burke took part in a panel discussion Monday morning on the relocation of franchises.

During the discussion, Burke said the Leafs have never officially opposed the idea of a second franchise in their territory. Burke said if a study could prove a second team would be beneficial to the Leafs and the NHL they would not be opposed.

If they were opposed, Daly, said, the NHL could put a team in Southern Ontario anyway.

“They don't have to agree,” Daly said of the Leafs. “They can be dead-set against it, but that doesn't mean they can stop the league from putting a franchise here if the league thinks a franchise here makes sense.”

However, among the court documents filed in the Coyotes bankruptcy court case was a letter from the Leafs to the NHL which said the Leafs believed they had a veto over allowing any team to enter their territory and they were prepared to take all possible steps to protect the right to have sole control over their market.

Balsillie's lawyers made much of the letter, saying it bolstered their interpretation of the NHL's constitution. The lawyers argued that franchise relocation required a unanimous vote of the governors, which effectively gives each team a veto. The league says only a majority vote is required.

Daly said the Leafs' letter “says they have a different interpretation of the constitution than we have. So?” He repeated the NHL's contention, which was argued in the Coyotes case, that “the whole concept that someone has a veto is just plain wrong. It's made up. There's a falsification of the facts.”

In other NHL news, Donald Fehr, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, has agreed to advise the NHL Players' Association on its search for a new boss to replace Paul Kelly and on its plans to rewrite its constitution.

[markk]

Translation: several of our franchises are in financial trouble so we'd like to put a team in Mississauga or Vaughn and call the team the Toronto.

The NHL's hate-on for Hamilton continues...

[flar]

The NHL is dead to me.

[Jon Dalton]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Daly did say the team would not be located in Hamilton because the city's Copps Coliseum “doesn't provide modern-day NHL economics.”

Oooh, right in the face.
Seriously what city in Ontario does have a better arena? I think this guy just plain talks out his ass. Didn't he say just a few weeks ago that Hamilton would still have a chance with a different owner?

[SteelTown]

Copps will undergo renovations for the Pan Am Games. Perhaps the city could kick in the necessary $5 million to upgrade Copps for NHL?

[SteelTown]

Well I guess there will be more serious renovations.

On CHCH Mayor Fred said there are plans to renovate Copps but he won't reveal any information until the plans are finalized.

[markk]

^
While I think its a great idea to reno copps, I even wonder if Hamilton had a state-of-art arena, if the NHL would find excuses to put place a team elsewhere in the GTA.

[Gurnett71]

Originally Posted by markk

^
While I think its a great idea to reno copps, I even wonder if Hamilton had a state-of-art arena, if the NHL would find excuses to put place a team elsewhere in the GTA.

Look what happened from circa 1985 when Copps Coliseum was a state of the art arena...both times that the NHL entertained expansion shortly after the arena was built, and Hamilton was screwed both times!

I am sure that the NHL maintains that a Hamilton team will not be able to sell tickets when visiting US teams...what a crock.

[flar]

Hamilton is toxic, no big players in any business are willing to invest in the city (except Jim Balsillie, perhaps one of the very few who realize the potential)

[Blurr]

Originally Posted by flar

The NHL is dead to me.

So come down to the waterfront and spark up some leaf/nhl memorabilia with me..

Don't worry I'll get a permit.

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Copps will undergo renovations for the Pan Am Games. Perhaps the city could kick in the necessary $5 million to upgrade Copps for NHL?

The $5MM was a complete stop-gap measure to get the arena up to snuff for the NHL in the very short term.