A few of my readers have told me that the NHL will never return to Winnipeg. Stories like this one is the reason why I am still hopeful that eventually an NHL franchise will relocate to Winnipeg and once again be only a short drive of 150 miles away from Grand Forks, ND. That is a third of the distance one must drive to see the NHL in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I will still follow the Wild of course but it gives fans like me stuck in flyover country between Saint Paul and Winnipeg options. With each passing day the possibility of an NHL franchise moving back to Winnipeg, Manitoba is becoming more and more of a possibility and looking better and better all of the time. For fans like me that are hoping for this to happen all I can say is keep the faith.
ESPN.com was reporting late Thursday night that the agreement between the City of Glendale and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf was dead, and that Glendale, which had voted against Ice Edge and in favour of Reinsdorf several weeks ago, had reached out to Ice Edge again. Even the NHL, however, has questioned the ability of Ice Edge to put the funding together to buy the team, and ESPN.com reported that the NHL would place a number of conditions on the sale, including Glendale having to agree to cover any operating losses next season.
If Ice Edge can't strike a deal, the ESPN.com report indicated that Canadian billionaire David Thomson has a purchase agreement ready to sign that would see the team shift operations to Winnipeg.
Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz said it's "just a matter of time" before the city gets an NHL team. Even if it's not the Coyotes, Katz said this week he believes a team will be in Winnipeg within three years.
The impressive first round playoff performance by the Coyotes that saw huge crowds attend the club's games against the Detroit Red Wings apparently weren't enough to keep Reinsdorf in the game, or to make his proposed deal acceptable. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said as recently as Monday that he still hoped a deal could be struck to keep the team in Phoenix, but that he had no deadline on when a purchase could be completed.
[The Spin]
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