[BRIEF NOTE] On Winnipeg's new NHL team

[rfmcdonald]

Everyone on my Facebook and Twitter feeds has been rejoicing at the news that the NHL hockey team the Atlanta Thrashers will be coming to Winnipeg, bringing NHL hockey back to Winnipeg a decade and a half after the 1996 departure of the Winnipeg Jets to Arizona.

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.

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.

[. . .]

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 Sellinger 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.

The Globe and Mail's James Mirtle had described the problems facing the Thrashers in an article posted earlier this month, noting that Atlanta had sports teams it could turn to if the Thrashers left and that Atlanta already has a record of failure (the Calgary Flames came to Alberta from Atlanta back in 1980). The reaction of Atlanta fans is understandably negative, but as USA Today noted back in February the signs of departure were there. You even had some Canadians hoping to scout out the team.

As the Thrashers (25-23-10) try to earn their second playoff berth in 11 seasons — they sit ninth in the Eastern Conference, one spot out of qualifying range — the noise around whether the team is viable in Atlanta long term grows.

Busloads of Quebec City fans, clamoring for a team, traveled 535 miles to Nassau Coliseum on Long Island to see the New York Islanders play the Thrashers, a bid to show a fervor that exists north of the border. They camped behind the goals.

Thrashers President Don Waddell said a Quebec City newspaper sent reporters to inquire about the demise of hockey in Atlanta and whether the team might be relocated to — where else — Quebec City, which lost its team to Colorado in 1995. Winnipeg, which lost the Jets to Phoenix in 1996, also covets the Thrashers.

[. . .]

The Thrashers started the season 7-9 but then ripped off eight wins in nine games in a November-December stretch, and it looked like the black drape covering empty seats in the upper level might have to come down. Fans started to trickle back, but then there was a familiar downturn in January and February that featured 12 losses in 17 games.

The Thrashers' lone playoff experience came in 2007-08, when they were swept by the New York Rangers in a first-round series.

There have been seven losing seasons in 10, and the season ticket base has dwindled to between 6,000 and 7,000, which means the team has to sell a whopping 10,000 tickets each home game to get a good crowd in the 18,750-seat arena.

"I used to have eight season tickets, now I have three because I couldn't get anyone to take the other five," said Dennis Grogan, a distributor from Buford, Ga., who has been a season ticketholder for 10 years. "I was giving those five away.

"You want to see a better effort by ownership. This looks like a better team, so maybe it is turning around."

The owners are a target because their payroll is next-to-last in the NHL, $17 million under the $59.4 million salary cap. The Thrashers are averaging 13,056 fans this season, which ranks 29th. They weren't much better last season (13,607).

"This is a town with a lot of fans who are front-runners, and I think it is one of the toughest sports markets there is," said Bernie Mullen, former president of the Atlanta Spirit and now a sports consultant with the Atlanta-based The Aspire Group. "You have to win."

Will Québec City be next?

Regardless, my congratulations to Winnipeggers. You deserve a NHL team of your own.

(And sorry Atlantans.)