Today is a good day for the city of
Winnipeg, Manitoba. I had said in the past that the NHL would be making a come back in Winnipeg it was just a matter of time and I had many readers of this blog say that
it was never going to happen.
WINNIPEG - The waiting is over for Winnipeg hockey fans.
True North Sports and Entertainment has scheduled a news conference for noon ET at Winnipeg's MTS Centre to make "a significant community announcement."
True North has been in negotiations with the owners of the Atlanta Thrashers to buy the NHL team and move it to Winnipeg.
Winnipeg has been without NHL hockey since the Jets moved to Phoenix in 1996.
Atlanta is saying goodbye to an NHL franchise for the second time. The Flames moved from Atlanta to Calgary in 1980.
The NHL was unable to find an owner who wants to keep the team in Atlanta.
The MTS Centre has been home to the American Hockey league's Manitoba Moose. Both the team and arena are owned by True North, whose ownership includes Canadian billionaire David Thomson.
True North Sports was founded by chairman Mark Chipman.
Chipman is president and chief executive of Winnipeg-based Megill Stephenson Co. Ltd. and director of the Hockey Canada Foundation.
Opened in 2004 with the Moose, the farm team for the NHL's Vancouver Canucks, as its anchor tenant, the 15,000-seat MTS Centre cost $133.5 million to build, including $40.5 million in public money.
The arena is small by NHL standards with 15,015 seats _ that's 1,159 fewer than Nassau Coliseum, where the New York Islanders play.
Atlanta finished 25th in the 30-team league with a 34-36-12 record and missed the playoffs last season.
It's been a long wait for Winnipeg fans.
Jet diehards kept the spirit of the team alive on websites and chatrooms, lobbying for a team and keeping track of Jets alumni like Bobby Hull, Thomas Steen and Dale Hawerchuk.
Earlier this year it appeared Winnipeg was about to get its own franchise back, but last-minute subsidies and deal-making kept the red-ink-stained Coyotes in Arizona
But just as the Coyote door closed, the Thrasher one opened.
