So how goes the hockey team?

[raisethehammer]

http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/article/533831

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/article/533831

Reacting with such vigour to a total non-story might not be a great idea.

[SteelTown]

We play nice too much in my opinion. We have to fight back from negative viewpoints. I believe many Hamiltonians have become used to being ridiculed and teased on.

But I absolutely agree we really need to be extremely careful and walk a fine line. Submitting an information package and making a full presentation to the NHL board is a good move. Letter to the Editor I'm fine with as long its calm and filled with facts and information.

[Hammer Native]

I really do hope if any kind of public relations campaign is launched at the NHL the city take the time and do it right and it not be a knee-jerk reaction to their negative comments. Maybe get a good PR firm to work on it.

In an earlier thread I mentioned people like Wayne Gretzky and Don Cherry speaking up. (Love him or hate him at least Don Cherry spoke up for Hamilton, but because he's controversial let's take him out of the picture for the moment.) WE are the hometown of people like Harry Howell, Dave Andreychuk, and Pat Quinn to name a few. Heck, we even named arenas in honour of the latter two. We know we are very much about hockey, the challenge is to show the league that and convince them to look at cities that are so. But to get to my point, I hope some high profile NHL or former NHL people that are from around our area would be willing to get involved in some capacity, to help promote our city and it's potential. (And I'm hoping the Board of Governors would be bright enough to know their backgrounds.)

Even though someone like Wayne Gretzky is part owner of a team, wouldn't it be to the surviving teams advantage to start supporting expansion into cities where they are likely to make it, instead of going bankrupt? This trying to expand in US markets has long been a farce, and so is the issue of some of the questionable people they have allowed to own teams. Some have been corrupt and even in jail now. The owner of the Nashville Predators is bankrupt and under investigation by Federal authorities. Even the Buffalo Sabres were owned by the Rigas family of Adelphia Communications, and they went the same way as the people from Enron, Worldcom, etc. Yet a very credible businessman like Jim Balsillie was shown the door by this league. (Well maybe not this time.)

In 2004, the NHL hired Arthur Levitt, the former Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission to do an audit. So he came from an investment banking background. Now his report was mostly critical of the amount spent on salaries, but in a nutshell he said the league was in very dire shape and in real danger of going bankrupt. Haven't exactly headed in the right direction since then, have they?

And lastly a bit of history trivia although I'm sure most of you know this. We did have an NHL team from 1919-1925 when the team was sold and moved out of the city, and the reason for the sale was the players went on strike. I believe they were a contender for the Cup that year too. That was a different era of course, I know. They played out of the old Hamilton Forum on Barton Street and Sanford which in the late 1970's, in true Hamilton style, was demolished.

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

Councillor Bob Bratina was on Toronto radio station Talk 640 this morning and he made a HUGE mistake on the air which I hope the Hamilton group doesn't repeat when they make their pitch to the NHL Board of Governors. He told everyone on the radio that they will be telling the Board of Governors that placing an NHL team in downtown Hamilton would really help out Hamilton's economy....The NHL doesn't want to hear that, what they want to hear instead is How can an NHL team in Hamilton help out the NHL....Bratina had it backwards.

To try and tell the NHL that a team here in Hamilton would really help out our economy would be dealing from a position of weakness. Bratina made it sound like Hamilton really needs this team in order to give our downtown an economic boost. The NHL is not interested in hearing that. What they want to hear instead is "WHAT CAN HAMILTON DO FOR THE NHL?" The angle he should have used instead is deal from a position of strength and list all of the things that a city like Hamilton has going for it and why any team based in Hamilton it would be a great addition to the NHL. The number one area I focus on with NHL in any presentation is the History of hockey in Hamilton and we have it here in Hamilton and this is something that a lot of these U.S. cities with new clubs do not have. I'm talking about the players, coaches, GMs, referees, hockey inventions and innovations, the major hockey tournaments like Memorial Cups, World Junior Championships and TWO Canada Cups that we have hosted here while setting attendance records for each one of them at the time of hosting them. We've already had season's ticket drives here in town now TWICE where we had to cap off the amount of seasons tickets sold in order to leave some seats available for the folks that would not be able to buy seasons tickets and in the second drive we even sold 70 of the corporate boxes.

I hope the Hamilton group gives this better thought before making their presentations to the NHL Board of Governorsand doesn't make fools of themselves just like councillor Bratina did this morning on the radio.

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

Originally Posted by Hammer Native

I really do hope if any kind of public relations campaign is launched at the NHL the city take the time and do it right and it not be a knee-jerk reaction to their negative comments. Maybe get a good PR firm to work on it.

In an earlier thread I mentioned people like Wayne Gretzky and Don Cherry speaking up. (Love him or hate him at least Don Cherry spoke up for Hamilton, but because he's controversial let's take him out of the picture for the moment.) WE are the hometown of people like Harry Howell, Dave Andreychuk, and Pat Quinn to name a few. Heck, we even named arenas in honour of the latter two. We know we are very much about hockey, the challenge is to show the league that and convince them to look at cities that are so. But to get to my point, I hope some high profile NHL or former NHL people that are from around our area would be willing to get involved in some capacity, to help promote our city and it's potential. (And I'm hoping the Board of Governors would be bright enough to know their backgrounds.)

Even though someone like Wayne Gretzky is part owner of a team, wouldn't it be to the surviving teams advantage to start supporting expansion into cities where they are likely to make it, instead of going bankrupt? This trying to expand in US markets has long been a farce, and so is the issue of some of the questionable people they have allowed to own teams. Some have been corrupt and even in jail now. The owner of the Nashville Predators is bankrupt and under investigation by Federal authorities. Even the Buffalo Sabres were owned by the Rigas family of Adelphia Communications, and they went the same way as the people from Enron, Worldcom, etc. Yet a very credible businessman like Jim Balsillie was shown the door by this league. (Well maybe not this time.)

In 2004, the NHL hired Arthur Levitt, the former Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission to do an audit. So he came from an investment banking background. Now his report was mostly critical of the amount spent on salaries, but in a nutshell he said the league was in very dire shape and in real danger of going bankrupt. Haven't exactly headed in the right direction since then, have they?

And lastly a bit of history trivia although I'm sure most of you know this. We did have an NHL team from 1919-1925 when the team was sold and moved out of the city, and the reason for the sale was the players went on strike. I believe they were a contender for the Cup that year too. That was a different era of course, I know. They played out of the old Hamilton Forum on Barton Street and Sanford which in the late 1970's, in true Hamilton style, was demolished.

Great post...even better selection than Don Cherry would be 1972 Summit Series hero Paul Henderson who played his junior hockey here in Hamilton and won the Memorial Cup with the Hamilton Red Wings back in 1962. Furthermore if the city of Hamilton wants to get serious with this when making their presentation to the NHL Board of Governors and want to be using politicians instead of councillors like Bob Bratina, they should instead use someone like Ken Dryden, who also happens to be a Hall-of-Famer who won six Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens and was also born here in Hamilton.

[SteelTown]

Councillor pushing for NHL team in Hamilton
Hamilton Spectator
11/10/2008

City councillors are considering taking the gloves off in the fight over a new NHL team coming to Canada.

Councillor Bob Bratina is seeking council's support to direct city staff and the mayor to meet with the NHL's board of governors to promote Hamilton as a good location for a new team.

He was outraged by anonymous comments in a recent Globe and Mail article that stated the league was interested in bringing a team to Toronto instead of Hamilton.

The unnamed governor was quoted calling Steeltown a "minor-league town" and questioning who would buy tickets to see a team from Hamilton.

Bratina wants the city to write a letter to the editor countering the "disparaging remarks" and send an information package to the NHL board.

He also suggests the mayor ask to make a presentation to the board to explain the advantages of relocating a team to Hamilton.

"Let's get on the stage," said Bratina, "We've got to tell our story."

[Hammer Native]

Thank you Boomtown, those men would be great choices too. I knew I was forgetting some big names, and I'm hoping some of them would be willing to return to their roots and help us out in some PR form, if they can. Who better to help make our city look credible then credible names like these? Maybe be the faces of a campaign. Yes politicians, and if they bring in any PR people to work on anything should, for the most part, work in the background.

This city wants big league and we will get behind things that are. We've shown it with neutral site NHL games, Canada Cup, and pre season ticket sales to a team that we didn't even have. We even looked good for a world class bicycle race, (just for our own FYI.)

I also forgot to mention the name of our NHL team was ironically, The Tigers.

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by Boomtown_Hamilton

Great post...even better selection than Don Cherry would be 1972 Summit Series hero Paul Henderson who played his junior hockey here in Hamilton and won the Memorial Cup with the Hamilton Red Wings back in 1962. Furthermore if the city of Hamilton wants to get serious with this when making their presentation to the NHL Board of Governors and want to be using politicians instead of councillors like Bob Bratina, they should instead use someone like Ken Dryden, who also happens to be a Hall-of-Famer who won six Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens and was also born here in Hamilton.

Dave Andreychuck (sp??) is from here.
Of course, the Great One is from Brantford and has already said a team in Hamilton would be great. Mind you, he's already in Bettmans communist regime so he's not allowed to join an effort like this.

[Hammer Native]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

Dave Andreychuck (sp??) is from here.
Of course, the Great One is from Brantford and has already said a team in Hamilton would be great. Mind you, he's already in Bettmans communist regime so he's not allowed to join an effort like this.

They re-named the Hester Street Arena for him.

[Hammer Native]

^^^And in the real political world many communist leaders have fallen, maybe it can happen in the hockey world.

[FairHamilton]

November 11, 2008
The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Gary Bettman said Monday a second NHL team in the Toronto area is not on the league’s agenda, even if the market could support one.

“Can the Ontario market support another team? Probably,” the NHL’s commissioner told an audience at a sports business conference in Toronto. “But you can’t base a decision on probability. You have got to study the market closely.”

Bettman went on to say that relocating an existing franchise to the Toronto area to compete with the Toronto Maple Leafs would not happen because all 30 of the NHL’s clubs are in good financial shape.

Then he said expansion was not on the horizon, either, because of ”uncertain economic conditions.“

The only way the league would consider relocation of a franchise, Bettman said, is if an owner decided, with the agreement of the league’s governors, that his team could not survive in its market.

“If it got to that point, we would study it,” Bettman said. “But we are not there. If there is a reason why a franchise is unsustainable, we would look at the options. Right now, we’re not in that position.”

As for a second team in Toronto, either through expansion or relocation, Bettman once again brushed aside the idea, which has been informally discussed by some NHL governors.

“Anyone who thinks there are any (official) discussions going on right now about another team in Ontario is wrong,” he said. " This is not on any agenda."

I highly doubt this statement; "Bettman went on to say that relocating an existing franchise to the Toronto area to compete with the Toronto Maple Leafs would not happen because all 30 of the NHL’s clubs are in good financial shape."

[markk]

All 30 teams are in good financial shape?

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=389353

[crhayes]

But you can’t base a decision on probability. You have got to study the market closely.

But when they study the market they will be basing their decision on statistics analysis; in other words probability

[crhayes]

So here's what happens: Hamilton gets an NHL team, Balsillie pours $160 million into Copps, Hamilton goes through with the York Boulevard Streetscape (maybe even extending it farther east) and a beautiful (tall) hotel is built on the north-east corner of York and Bay, or the north-east corner of Park and Bay (where parking lots currently sit).

Wouldn't that be a big boost for Hamilton??

Oh, and just to make Boomtown happy, the hotel can have a film studio in the basement

[adam]

maybe the new streetscape could include an "ice-lane" for the hockey players? that way they don't have to undo their laces as they go to the farmer's market and library between games LOOOOL

[crhayes]

Originally Posted by adam

maybe the new streetscape could include an "ice-lane" for the hockey players? that way they don't have to undo their laces as they go to the farmer's market and library between games LOOOOL

You mean back and forth from their vehicles that are parked in one of the 12 parking lots within a 5 minute skate...DUHHH!

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by Boomtown_Hamilton

Councillor Bob Bratina was on Toronto radio station Talk 640 this morning and he made a HUGE mistake on the air which I hope the Hamilton group doesn't repeat when they make their pitch to the NHL Board of Governors. He told everyone on the radio that they will be telling the Board of Governors that placing an NHL team in downtown Hamilton would really help out Hamilton's economy....The NHL doesn't want to hear that, what they want to hear instead is How can an NHL team in Hamilton help out the NHL....Bratina had it backwards.

Agreed.

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

Originally Posted by crhayes

So here's what happens: Hamilton gets an NHL team, Balsillie pours $160 million into Copps, Hamilton goes through with the York Boulevard Streetscape (maybe even extending it farther east) and a beautiful (tall) hotel is built on the north-east corner of York and Bay, or the north-east corner of Park and Bay (where parking lots currently sit).

Wouldn't that be a big boost for Hamilton??

Oh, and just to make Boomtown happy, the hotel can have a film studio in the basement

A film studio for Hamilton eh?...sounds like a pretty good idea.

[SteelTown]

Whining about NHL put-downs is a minor-league move

November 12, 2008
By Steve Milton
The Hamilton Spectator

Here’s a note to our friends Terry Whitehead and Bob Bratina and all the other folks on Hamilton city council who may be on the cusp of making an extremely serious mistake.

Don’t vote in favour of any kind of official reaction to recent stories in another newspaper that Hamilton hasn’t got the stuff to be a major league city and that the NHL would rather have a second team in Toronto than one in Hamilton.

If you want to affirm some people’s assumptions that this is a hick town, go right ahead and send a letter to the Globe and Mail, showing your wounded pride, then go meet the NHL commissioner and do the same thing. You’ll play right into Gary Bettman’s anti-Hamilton hands.

You’ll be admitting that you really have no clue what’s going on behind closed doors.

And you’ll be getting in the way of some very deep, and outwardly painful, work which Jim Balsillie has been conducting on behalf of this city.

First of all, Balsillie’s desire to relocate a team here — not Toronto, not Winnipeg and not Cambridge — is what stimulated this entire debate in the first place. When he took subscription requests for a Hamilton team, while in the process of trying to purchase the Nashville Predators, he incurred Bettman’s anger, and the commissioner passed it on to the 30 owners.

But it was necessary for Balsillie to demonstrate that he wasn’t going to play the same way other bids, all of which failed miserably, have been played. And less than a year later he did the unprecedented and near-impossible: he had people inside the NHL wondering if a second team in this market wasn’t indeed a good idea. And they wondered it out loud, as the Spec has reported for many months now.

Second — and it seems hard to believe that people who represent the city where The Spec is printed haven’t read this — for more than 20 years, this has always been about a second team for Toronto, as in the GTA. Hamilton happens to be the place where the rink is. And for councillors not to understand that is political naivete of the worst kind.

Third, Balsillie is the guy with the money, and he wants the team in Hamilton. Let him do the fighting for you. If you think he hasn’t done the job to this point, then go back and read the last few paragraphs, v-e-r-y slowly if necessary.

Fourth, the sample of NHL governors the Globe talked to was very small. They may not represent everyone’s views and they, too, may also mean GTA, rather than Toronto proper.

Fifth, Balsillie has been working behind the scenes to mend any broken fences with NHL governors, and to correct any disinformation which has been directed their way by the NHL head office. He’s been making nice progress in that regard and any public action by Hamilton council can only unearth all the doubts about this city again and undermine what Balsillie is doing.

Sixth, people and political bodies who whine about not being heard, never get heard. Their complaints seem to justify the tuning out.

Yes, it’s hard to see your city dissed by uninformed people, but the right decision here — the one that doesn’t involve political grandstanding — is to let it be and it will fade away. That requires maturity, so we’ll see if council has any.

Any kind of delegation, or letter, will not help land a team in Hamilton — not in the slightest. If anything, it will hurt: making the city look petty and thin-skinned.

Even a discussion of what was said by a few anonymous people about a situation — a fourth pro team in the Air Canada Centre? On what nights? — that is almost beyond hypothetical makes us look foolish and, well, definitely not major league.