Players not down with Winnipeg?

Illegal Curve Picture

So are the Winnipeg Jets fans really worried what some mediocre third line player at twilight of their hockey career a la Eric Belanger has to say about the city of Winnipeg? I hardly think so, the fact remains is that the NHL is drawing poorly in the desert and I can’t fore see crowds this putrid in Winnipeg. What do you think?

Toronto Sun --- While talk of possibly moving the Phoenix Coyotes to Winnipeg is getting most hockey fans excited, especially those in Winnipeg, Coyotes forward Eric Belanger is among the minority that are not thrilled with the idea.

While this is just the latest turn in the ongoing saga surrounding his team, Belanger isn't about to ignore the issue and hope it blows over.

He knows that the Coyotes' days in the dessert are likely numbered, but Belanger, who rarely minces words, doesn't see Winnipeg as a dream destination.

“The guys have been talking about it a bit more every day, and the one sure thing is that we want to play in Phoenix and not in Winnipeg,” said Belanger. “Personally, and I won't name any names, but I've chatted with guys that have played (in Winnipeg) and don't want to go back. There are reasons why hockey wasn't working in Winnipeg at the end, I don't see how that would have changed.”

Belanger, who has also played for the Los Angeles Kings, Carolina Hurricanes, Atlanta Thrashers, Minnesota Wild and Washington Capitals says he has nothing against the Winnipeg hockey fans that are desperate to see a team back in their city.

“There are good fans there, but Winnipeg is still Winnipeg,” Belanger said. “In January and February, I doubt that my family would follow me out there for a holiday.”

Bettman wants arena deal for Coyotes by Dec. 31 or else.

There comes a time when you have to cut your losses and move on, the NHL needs to move on in Phoenix, because it's apparent that this is a losing situation and it’s not getting any better. While I am not an economics major the Phoenix Coyotes aren’t going to make it selling only 4,000 regular season tickets. Finally; NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is starting to get it, albeit he is late to the party but he is realizing that it's time to move on. Now, let’s move the team to Winnipeg.

OTTAWA — NHL commissioner Gary Bettman acknowledged Wednesday there is a limit to the league’s patience in propping up the troubled Phoenix Coyotes franchise.


“We’ve been at this now for a year and a half,” Bettman told The Citizen when asked about the league’s attempts to find a new owner for the Coyotes.

“At some point, just like if you think back to Quebec and Winnipeg (relocating to Denver and Phoenix, respectively), you run out of options and you don’t have a choice. We fight as hard as we can to avoid being in that situation, but at some point, you deal with the realities.”


If the city of Glendale, Arizona — the Coyotes' home — can’t work out a lease agreement with a buyer willing to keep the franchise in Phoenix by Dec. 31, the NHL will accept an existing offer from a purchaser aiming to move the franchise. The Winnipeg Free Press has reported that group as being Winnipeg-based Truth North Sports and Entertainment.


Few details have emerged from Phoenix in the past two weeks, ever since ESPN.com reported that Matt Hulsizer could be a potential new owner of the franchise, perhaps working in partnership with Ice Edge Holdings.


The latest reports suggest the club has sold 4,000 season tickets and only one-quarter of its luxury suites have been booked for the 2010-11 season.

The franchise, which has lost between $200 million and $300 million since leaving Winnipeg, has been bankrolled by the NHL since January 2009.



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This is not good for Winnipeg

This is not good for the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. This also clarifies the rumor that a professional hockey team is coming to Thunder Bay, Ontario soon. It's time to get a deal in place in Phoenix or move on. Personally, I still think there will eventually be another NHL team in Winnipeg in 2-5 years.

Phoenix Business Journal ---
A mystery buyer has stepped to the forefront in efforts by the National Hockey League and city of Glendale to sell the Phoenix Coyotes to a new owner who will keep the team in Arizona.

An undisclosed wealthy buyer is leading a new ownership group that is interested in buying the Coyotes from the NHL. The league has owned the team since October when it bought the Coyotes via Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

Details of the new ownership group are very limited, though Glendale and the NHL could announce details and developments soon, according to sources familiar with the situation. The ownership group has asked for the city and league to keep negotiations private. The new buyer would keep the Coyotes in Glendale and is not a household name. In addition, sources say progress on the purchase is serious and substantial.

As the new group has moved forward, another group, Ice Edge Holdings LLC, is taking a backseat in the Coyotes ownership saga.

Ice Edge announced Monday it was focused on bringing an ECHL minor league hockey team to Thunder Bay, Ontario. Ice Edge CEO Keith McCullough said in a statement Monday his investment group could have some involvement with the new Coyotes ownership group...

Ice Edge deal on thin ice? Prospective Coyotes ownership group misses deadline

This is an interesting turn of events. Actually, I hope this means that Winnepeg is back in the picture.

By Winnipeg Sun ---- Negotiations over the future of the Phoenix Coyotes have hit a snag, according to an Arizona newspaper.

An Arizona Republic article published Monday claims the group seeking to buy the NHL team — Ice Edge Holdings — has not complied with terms to provide the City of Glendale with financial documentation required as part of exclusive negotiations between the city and the prospective ownership group to hammer out a lease deal for the city-owned Jobing.com Arena.

Ice Edge has been granted the right to negotiate exclusively with the city as it attempts to purchase the team from the league, which bought the Coyotes out of bankruptcy last year.

The Arizona Republic report cited City of Glendale spokeswoman Julie Frisoni as saying Monday that Ice Edge failed more than five weeks ago to meet a deadline to submit some of the proof of its financing and the group had lost the right to negotiate exclusively as a result.

The 60-day period of exclusivity Ice Edge was granted to negotiate with the city is slated to end next Friday.

When contacted by QMI Agency Tuesday, Frisoni would not comment on the matter and said negotiations were continuing as planned with the deadline still in place.

When reached via e-mail on Tuesday, Ice Edge chief operating officer Daryl Jones said there are “no comments at this time.”

Glendale city council voted in May to cover up to $25 million in team losses if a buyer isn’t found in time for next season.

The NHL has given Glendale until the end of the year to complete an arena deal with a new owner.

Sources: Coyotes would stay in Phoenix

This story seems to be evolving and changing by the day, it was looking better yesterday. While today's turn of events does not appear to be good for the city of Winnipeg right now, this could change again if the city of Glendale doesn't agree to pay any and all operating losses for the Coyotes next season. - Stay tuned.

The City of Glendale and the Ice Edge Holdings group have agreed on all points on a new lease agreement that would keep the Phoenix Coyotes in Arizona, sources told ESPN.com Friday evening.

The two sides are expected to sign a letter of exclusivity by early Monday morning, which will formally end the bid of Chicago sports tycoon Jerry Reinsdorf, although sources told ESPN.com that the city has not considered the Reinsdorf bid viable for some time now.

Ice Edge will not, however, agree to have its new memorandum of understanding submitted to the City Council for a vote until Glendale agrees to a number of conditions outlined by the NHL, chief among them that the city will agree to pay any operating losses the Coyotes might incur next season if a deal to sell the team collapses.

Those requirements will be discussed by City Council at its public meeting Tuesday in Glendale.

Although it's possible the city could find itself on the hook for between $20 million and $30 million in operating losses if a deal with Ice Edge or any other potential buyer moving forward collapses, it's believed Glendale will agree to the league's conditions because the NHL will exercise its right to move the team without those assurances.

It's believed Winnipeg would be the prime target for relocation, sources have told ESPN.com, and that a deal to sell the team to interests in Winnipeg could be completed quickly if Glendale cannot satisfy the league's conditions. [ESPN.COM]

More on the Phoenix Coyotes mess...

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]

No deal cut to move Coyotes to Winnipeg

The more this story stays on the fore front and does not go away, the more I think there is a chance that Winnipeg could be a destination for the Phoenix Coyotes.

WINNIPEG — No deal has been cut to move the Phoenix Coyotes to Winnipeg, even as a back-up plan, but the NHL has the Manitoba capital on its radar.

A Monday story by the Phoenix Business Journal reported that the NHL had a deal in principle with Canadian billionaire David Thomson and True North Sports and Entertainment, which operates the AHL’s Manitoba Moose and the MTS Centre, to be a "Plan C" for a Coyotes relocation in case current negotiations with Ice Edge Holdings and Jerry Reinsdorf don’t result in a sale of the money-losing franchise.

There is no such Coyotes-to-Winnipeg deal, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said, but the league continues to have dialogue with True North.

"In response to the many inquiries we have received in light of the story in the Phoenix Business Journal this morning, we would like to make clear that at this point in time the National Hockey League has no ‘deal’ in place to move the Coyotes’ franchise to Winnipeg -- or to any other city for that matter -- in the event a transaction cannot be timely consummated in Glendale," Dal wrote in an email response to questions. "Our focus continues to be on completing a transaction with local ownership that is committed to operating the team in Glendale.

So you say there is a chance?

This post is for the people that keep telling me that there is no chance that Winnipeg will get another team. Huh! Looks like that isn't entirely true. It is my contention that some day there will be another NHL team in Winnipeg, MB.

• That the Ice Edge bid to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes is essentially dead and unless there is someone willing to step forward to buy the Coyotes from the NHL and keep them in Phoenix, there is an agreement in principle in place to sell the team to Canadian billionaire David Thomson, who will move the team to Winnipeg before next season.

Thomson’s name in connection with the NHL in Winnipeg is nothing new. He is a major investor in True North Sports and Entertainment, the company that owns and operates the 15,000-seat MTS Centre in Winnipeg. With a seating capacity of 15,015 for hockey, it would be the smallest building in the NHL and it would obviously have to have long-term plans to increase the capacity by at least 2,000.

Even if Winnipeg managed to sell out every game, it would rank 25th in NHL attendance. But the important distinction is that the vast majority of those seats would be paid, in comparison to many American markets where every ticket, including thousands of free and reduced-price tickets, is included in the attendance figure [Hockey News]