Tag Archives: david thomson

It’s All a Name Game Now.

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Scott Taylor| 4 Comments

The general manager has been hired and he was a terrific choice.

The guy who definitely deserved a senior vice-president’s job got it. And now it will be up to the two qualified people at the top of the food chain in Winnipeg to hire (or keep) a coach. The new NHL franchise is moving along quite nicely.

Kevin Cheveldayoff and Craig Heisinger will do wonderfully well at the helm of Winnipeg’s new National Hockey League team. In terms of the business of hockey, Team Winnipeg is in good hands.

The next question — and the only one that seems to concern anyone these days — is what will be the name of the franchise to which Winnipeggers have already pledged financial and emotional allegiance?

We’ve all heard the rumours and some of the rumours might be truer than some of the others. Will this be the Polar Bears or the Falcons or the Moose or will good sense prevail and the new burghers of professional ice hockey will relent to the overwhelming majority of fans who want to cheer for the Winnipeg Jets?

I’m like everyone else. I’ve heard all the arguments against calling the team the Winnipeg Jets:

1) the old Jets weren’t that good.

2) if you call them the Jets, people will wear their old Hawerchuk jerseys to the games and not spend any money on new merchandise (If that’s the reason for changing the name from Jets to something else, then why don’t the Montreal Canadiens change their nickname and colors every couple of years?).

3) this is a new ownership group and the old Jets belonged to Ben Hatskin.

4) you have to call the team Manitoba Something because the owners will want to include the whole province.

I’ve heard them all, and I’ve even heard some of the truly bat-$%!& crazy reasons, too. And, hey, I respect people’s thinking. But here’s the deal: On opening night 10,000 of the 15,000 people in attendance are going to stand up and scream “Go Jets Go!”

Everywhere I go in the world, people say to me, “You’re from Winnipeg? Oh, we loved the Jets. I hope you get a team back.”

Thanks to Mark Chipman and David Thomson, Winnipeg got a team back. It would be nice to have the Jets back.

Oh yeah, and I promise to buy a new jersey and hat from my friends at River City Sports.

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The NHL Returns to Winnipeg.

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

I spent lunch hour at the Forks yesterday and it was invigorating. Hundreds of people converged on Winnipeg’s meeting place to celebrate the return of the NHL to Winnipeg.

Perhaps I should make that a little clearer: “Return of the Jets.” Some kids who were barely out of diapers when the Jets played their last game in 1996 were sporting Jets jerseys at the Forks yesterday. Although it’s likely this team will not be the Jets — we’ve heard Manitoba Somethings, maybe Falcons or Polar Bears –it’s pretty definite now that 75-80 per cent of Winnipeg hockey fans WANT the team be the Winnipeg Jets.

But yesterday, the name argument took a back seat to the simple realization that the National Hockey League would once again have Winnipeg as a member.

Mark Chipman, David Thomson, Jim Ludlow and, yes, Gary Bettman (looking like a guy who just got punched him the stomach) made it official. The National Hockey League has indeed, returned to Winnipeg.

At a news conference yesterday at the MTS Centre, True North Sports and Entertainment announced that it had completed a deal to purchase the Atlanta Thrashers and the team would begin play this fall at Winnipeg’s downtown arena. Through it all you got the feeling Bettman did NOT want this to happen. His Southern U.S. experiment has started to crumble and his body language suggested he was pained by the fact he had to move a team out of the seventh-largest TV market in the United States and into a city of 700,000 on the Canadian prairie.

There was some talk that if Winnipeg’s owners didn’t sell 13,000 season tickets by June 21, there was a chance the NHL’s board of governors would not allow the team to move to Winnipeg, but that just seemed outrageous. Yesterday, Chipman said that True North had signed off on a deal to purchase the team from the Atlanta Spirit Group and while Winnipeggers were partying at the Forks, the rich guys who own ASG were doing cartwheels in their executive offices, having dumped the Thrashers, a team that has allegedly lost $130 million in five years. One suspects those guys aren’t about to take the team back so if True North doesn’t sell 13,000 season tickets, what’s the NHL going to do? Move the team to Portage? Winnipeg is the ONLY alternative to Atlanta and I’m sure that with the use of some brilliant legal term there was a “no give-backsies clause” in the final sales contract.

Meanwhile, it appears Moose GM Craig Heisinger will play an important role with Winnipeg’s new franchise and last night Atlanta’s president Don Waddell said he would not accompany the team to Winnipeg. Head coach Craig Ramsey was in Winnipeg yesterday and will likely keep his job.

And just to make everyone happy, Bettman said yesterday, if the new owners decide they want to use the Jets name, the NHL will give it to them.

The NHL is coming back to the ‘Peg. Just as we wrote last year, it was the Atlanta Thrashers, not the Phoenix Coyotes who wound up moving to River City.

It made for a very nice day. Of course, so did getting my picture taken with Ab McDonald, Bill Lesuk and Thomas Steen.

 

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Without an Ice Edge Miracle, the NHL Will Return to Winnipeg

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Scott Taylor| 2 Comments

In the end, it looks like we’ll have been right all along.

As we reported here yesterday, the sale of the Phoenix Coyotes to Chicago-based billionaire — and close personal friend of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman — Jerry Reinsdorf, is off the table. Reinsdorf’s people obviously checked the books and came to the stark realization that a hockey club located in the Arizona desert could not be financially successful under any circumstances.

As well, we reported that Ice Edge Holdings, a group of businessmen who were heavily leveraged, had been approached by the NHL and asked if they would return to the table. Glendale City Council, the folks in charge of jobing.com Arena, told the Arizona Republic (newspaper) that it expected a new lease proposal from Ice Edge as early as today.

As we told the audience on Marty Gold’s Great Canadian Talk Show on 92.9 KICK-FM  last week, the NHL needs an answer by June 1 or it’s likely the league will turn to David Thomson and Mark Chipman, co-owners of True North Sports and Entertainment here in Winnipeg, in hopes that they will purchase the team and move it to MTS Centre.

Sources at True North have told www.rivercitysportsblog.com that the NHL has a purchase agreement with True North if Ice Edge can’t purchase the team and guarantee that it will remain in Phoenix for at least the next 24 years (the current length of the lease). Reinsdorf wanted the right to move the team at any time if it became apparent that the team could never turn a profit on operations.

So here’s the situation today:

1) The NHL still owns the team, having purchased it out of bankpruptcy from previous owner Jerry Moyes who lost more than $300 million in six years of ownership.

2) The franchise, which has never turned a profit since moving from Winnipeg in 1996, is expected to lose as much as $30 million on 2009-2010 operations.

3) The league wants to sell the team for $140 million, although Reinsdorf was only going to pay $103 million.

4) Ice Edge Holdings has first right of refusal.

5) True North is now second in line.

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Glendale (Arizona) City Council Bends Over. Reinsdorf in, Ice Edge Out.

Posted on April 14, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

On the eve of the opening of the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs, the city council of Glendale, Ariz., “unanimously” approved a lease proposal for jobing.com Arena from Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox, that gives Reinsdorf the arena rent free with benefits.

It’s something Winnipeg should have thought about 20 years ago, but that’s a whole ‘nother argument.

The council’s decision means that Reinsdorf, a reluctant buyer for the team, gets to negotiate the details of a new lease with the city. It also means that Ice Edge Holdings, those crazy dreamers from the East, have been dumped by the NHL.

In a story that appeared in the Arizona Republic, it was stated that, “Reinsdorf is on track to owning the team, pending the approval of the NHL.” Approval of the NHL? Who writes this shit? He was brought on board by the NHL. Commissioner Gary Bettman must have pictures of him with a goat. Six months ago, he wanted no part of this perennial money-loser. The deal he was given would be given only to a person who had no desire to purchase the team and the league was begging him to take over.

According to my sources in Phoenix, the city will pay off the $180 million in debt on the arena that essentially buried the former owner Jerry Moyes. This is a team that has never turned a profit and, depending how far they go in the playoffs this spring, could lose between $20 million and $50 million on this season’s efforts, as well.

The deal also creates an “independent taxing authority” around the arena. Great way to raise money and one that would work in Canada because it essentially taxes the users, not everyone universally.

Reinsdorf has been given everything that Jerry Moyes was not. This is the sweetheart of sweetheart deals. Even if the guy wants no part of this money-losing dog, he has to like what Glendale City Council gave him on Tuesday.

OK, back to square one. Is David Thomson still interested in buying the dog-ass Atlanta Thrashers?

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Hey Winnipeg: How About Rick Nash as a Jet?

Posted on November 5, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The following is from today’s Columbus Dispatch:

The Columbus Blue Jackets could leave central Ohio if the team can’t fix an economic model that is causing losses of $12 million a year, according to a report issued today by the Columbus Chamber (of Commerce). But a deal to keep the hockey team here and the Arena District alive — the team and the district generated $30 million in taxes last year — probably will include asking for public dollars, and soon.

“We believe there is a sense of urgency here,” said Ty D. Marsh, chamber president and CEO. “We’re looking for a solution or progress by the end of the year.”

We’ve heard the rumours (mostly fabricated) about how David Thomson, he of the Thomson-Reuters Thomsons, wants to buy the Atlanta Thrashers and move them to Winnipeg. It’s a nice thought, but the move of the Thrashers, if there is ever a move of the Thrashers (and if you’ve seen the empty seats in Phillips Arena, there might be), is probably behind the moves of the Phoenix Coyotes, Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators and Columbus Blue Jackets. Maybe even the Tampa Bay Lightning.

It’s very unlikely the Blue Jackets have made any money in Columbus since the creation of the salary cap — and floor. For most owners, the cap is way too high because the revenues — especially corporate — in the non-traditional or smaller U.S. markets will never touch the traditional big U.S. markets or the six Canadian markets. The Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers can handle a $57 million cap and $45 million floor, the Predators, Panthers, Coyotes and Blue Jackets can’t.

No matter how well the Blue Jackets play — and they are pretty good — it will be virtually impossible to sell enough tickets to match the shortfall. In other words, even if the Blue Jackets sell out, they still won’t make enough money to turn a profit.

If there is a team that becomes available soon, it will be Columbus. Commissioner Bettman still believes the Coyotes can make it in Phoenix and he’ll go to the poor house to see that it happens. Columbus, however, is a college town and Triple A market that will never be a profitable major sports centre.

If any team moves, any time soon, it will be the Columbus Blue Jackets.

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Could We Be Going From the Death of Eaton’s to the Rebirth of the Winnipeg Jets?

Posted on June 12, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

On a recent Winnipeg Goldeyes telecast on Shaw TV, Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz hinted that a deal to bring the Jets (or a reasonable facsimile) back to Winnipeg could be secured if a number “of very complicated things fell into place.”

“It’s certainly not impossible,” Katz said. “It’s not something that would happen overnight. I would say in the next two-to-five years, perhaps. It would involve the MTS Centre and certainly the Chipmans (Winnipeg’s wealthy Chipman family) would have to be involved, although I don’t think they would necessarily be the major shareholders in the club.

“It would be a very complicated deal. First of all, an NHL team would have to be made available and I think that’s coming. If that happens, there is a chance something could be arranged to bring an NHL team to Winnipeg. I really believe that.”

For months (maybe years) there has been a belief among certain Winnipeg business people that the money is already in place to bring an NHL team back to the ‘Peg. That’s not crazy talk from semi-delusional 35-year-old unemployed males who live in their mothers’ basements. There has also been a more recent belief that if someone, anyone (even Jim Balsillie) can break down the NHL’s cartel, there is a good chance half-a-dozen teams in failing markets could become available.

This week, if Balsillie gets a favourable ruling from Phoenix Judge Redfield T. Baum, there is a very good chance he’ll be able to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes and move the team to Hamilton, Ont. If that happens, other teams will soon become available to the highest bidders. You can almost see the Islanders moving to Kansas City as we speak.

The Chipmans, as wealthy as they are, have made it clear they won’t be bringing a team to Winnipeg all by themselves. Just too much coin. But with some help, they have the building (a building that’s way too small, just ask the Columbus Blue Jackets, but that’s for another day), that could play host to an NHL team. The team would lose money, but it certainly would have considerable fan support.

In order to get the help they need, the Chipmans have already reached beyond the Perimeter Highway. One of the current investors in True North Sports and Entertainment, the parent company of the MTS Centre and the Manitoba Moose, is the Toronto/Stamford, Conn.-based Thomson family.

The Thomsons, owners of Thomson Reuters, Thomson Financial, Thomson Legal, Thomson Scientific, et. al, have a stake in True North today. The family owned the old Eaton’s site in Winnipeg where the MTS Centre now stands and have been investors in the company since the early days.

The key person in this alleged NHL ownership group is David Thomson, who runs the multi-billion dollar Thomson business conglomerate from the head office in Stamford, Conn.

Lately, there has been talk that the Thomsons will soon take over the major shareholder position in True North from the Chipmans.

If that’s true, and there is still some question that it is, the NHL will be in Winnipeg in two-to-five years, just as Mayor Katz suggested on our Shaw telecast last week.

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