Post by Ducky on Dec 5, 2004 18:47:57 GMT -5
Howard Baldwin wants back into the NHL
Howard Baldwin's hockey history is about as long and colorful as they come, going back to the NHL's 1967 expansion from the Original Six teams to 12, and the birth of the rebel World Hockey Association five years later. That and this report from The Orange County Register's Dan Wood
The question, however, is not so much about Baldwin's past, but whether he has a future at the sport's highest level.
Baldwin, formerly a principal owner of two NHL teams, the Hartford Whalers and Pittsburgh Penguins, is the front man for a group attempting to purchase the Mighty Ducks from the Walt Disney Co.
Baldwin, the president of Baldwin Entertainment Group, a Santa Monica-based movie production company, has partnered with Peter Guber, the chairman and chief executive officer of Mandalay Entertainment Group, in hopes of buying the team that Disney has actively been shopping for more than two years.
"What you have in Peter Guber and my little group is that we want to make this work," Baldwin said. "Every owner says the same thing, but it's up to us to make it work. Actions speak louder than words."
Something of a boy wonder when he took "a leap of faith" by jumping from his job as ticket manager and sales manager with the Philadelphia Flyers to found the WHA's New England Whalers at age 30, Baldwin is now 62. Though he is part owner of a dormant AHL franchise that is set to resume play next season in Des Moines, Iowa, Baldwin has been absent from the NHL since the still-troubled Pittsburgh franchise declared bankruptcy in 1998.
Considered a "tremendous owner" in the wake of a second consecutive Penguins Stanley Cup championship in 1992, Baldwin now holds the unofficial title as "the worst owner in the history of Pittsburgh sports," according to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Ron Cook.
"I loved Howard personally, but he has no money," Cook said. "When he bought the team (in 1991), he had no money. He leveraged everything. He just made some horrible business decisions. He paid money he didn't have. My take is that he is right up there as one of the reasons the NHL is in the position it's in now."
The primary knocks on Baldwin from his days with the Penguins are huge contracts he handed out to players such as Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Kevin Stevens and Tom Barrasso, and the fact that he opted for some $12.9 million in improvements to the antiquated Mellon Arena rather than taking advantage of a growth movement within the city that resulted in new stadiums for the NFL's Steelers and Major League Baseball's Pirates.
"I think the criticism of Howard is totally unfair," Flyers chairman Ed Snider said. "Pittsburgh is a small market. They don't have a new building. He was doing everything he could to keep it together. I think Howard did an outstanding job, and I don't think anyone could have done any better. The situation in Pittsburgh is worse now than when he was there.
"Howard has always been a solid guy who has great ideas and an ability to bring people together. I think he has absolutely outstanding ability to run a team."
Snider, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame who ranks among the NHL's most respected and influential owners, gave Baldwin his start in hockey. In the year leading to Philadelphia's inaugural NHL season of 1967-68, Baldwin worked for the fledgling organization as operations manager of the Jersey Devils in the old Eastern League. That and this report from The Orange County Register's Dan Wood
"The year with the Devils was one of the most fun years a guy could have," Baldwin said. "I did everything - drove the bus, even coached the team for a week."
Baldwin learned quickly, and after five years with the Flyers, got in on the ground floor of the WHA. With financial backing from a number of corporate sources, Baldwin started the Whalers in Boston, eventually transferred the franchise to Connecticut and survived the infamous 1978 Hartford Civic Center roof collapse by quickly cutting a deal for the team to play in Springfield, Mass.
"I learned a lot about running a team in the WHA, but it was such a survival game," Baldwin said. "We didn't have that sense of a stable environment. It was like the 'Wild West' of sports."
When the Whalers, Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques entered the NHL in 1979 after seven seasons in the rival league, Baldwin was the lone remaining WHA founder. He had also become league president.
"Even though he was in the WHA, we maintained our personal friendship," Snider said. "We were constantly in contact about how we could bring about a merger. Eventually that did come to pass, largely due to Howard's efforts. He was very instrumental in ending the war between the leagues."
POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES
The Whalers, who once featured legendary former NHL star Gordie Howe and his sons Mark and Marty, enjoyed their share of success in the WHA. The club won division titles its first three seasons, claimed the inaugural Avco World Trophy as league champion in 1973 and also reached the Avco finals in 1978. The Whalers made the playoffs in their first NHL campaign, 1979-80 but missed postseason play each of the next five years, in an era when 16 of the league's 21 teams qualified.
"When we got to the NHL, I made some mistakes," Baldwin said. "I wasn't patient enough on the hockey side."
Still, memories of Baldwin from Hartford, and Springfield and Boston, are mostly positive.
"He was a real dynamic guy, and still is," said Chuck Kaiton, the former Whalers radio play-by-play man who moved with the team to Carolina in 1997 and still announces Hurricanes games. "From a character standpoint, an ownership standpoint and a guy to work for, I couldn't have asked for a better situation."
Just as would later be the case in Pittsburgh, the end for Baldwin in Hartford came in 1988 when his financial backers wanted out of the game. At that point, along with his wife, Karen, Baldwin relocated to Southern California and got heavily into the movie business. Among Baldwin's productions are the 1999 hit "Mystery, Alaska," "Danny Deckchair" and "Swimming Upstream" in 2003, and the current release "Ray."
After having explored the possibility of securing an NHL expansion team for the San Francisco Bay area, Baldwin wound up with a short-lived minority interest in the former Minnesota North Stars as part of a convoluted agreement that granted ownership of the San Jose Sharks to former North Stars owners George and Gordon Gund.
Baldwin joined forces with former rental-car executive Morris Belzberg to purchase the Penguins after having initially been asked by former owner Ed DeBartolo to help find a buyer for the club. In Pittsburgh, Baldwin experienced a roller-coaster ride that began with a Stanley Cup celebration and ended with co-owner Roger Marino, who had bought out Belzberg in 1997 and become the franchise's primary money man, opting for bankruptcy.
"Obviously, Howard was a great owner for the players," said former Penguins winger Bob Errey, a member of Pittsburgh's 1991 and '92 Stanley Cup champions and now a television color analyst for the club. "He was willing to go to any extent to have a good hockey club. I don't know if that eventually led to us having to unload some players and the Penguins subsequently going into bankruptcy."
VOLUNTARY BANKRUPTCY
Unlike the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators, each of whom went bankrupt despite playing in sparkling new arenas, Baldwin pointed out, the Penguins' filing was voluntary. Marino made the move, Baldwin said, as a "weapon" to get out from under huge debts to Lemieux, Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh, which televises Penguins games, and the Spectacor Management Group, which manages Mellon Arena.
"On the building side, I wouldn't have changed anything," Baldwin said. "On the player side, no question there are a couple of contracts I would do over. Mario is not one of them. I've never regretted the Lemieux contract for a minute."
Certainly, Lemieux's ongoing health woes that included a bout with Hodgkin's Disease and chronic back problems didn't help Baldwin in Pittsburgh. Neither did the NHL's 103-day lockout in 1994-95, which cost the Penguins untold millions of dollars.
"I'm not saying we didn't make mistakes," Baldwin said. "We got caught up in trying to keep too much of the team together, and not anticipating the future better, but my record over the years will speak for itself. If people in Pittsburgh think I did a bad job, so be it."
MONEY MATTERS
In addition to his love for the game, Baldwin's competitive nature motivates him to get back into the NHL so that the end with the Penguins does not mark the final chapter in his career.
"People in the league, I know, have always liked Howard," said Dallas Stars president Jim Lites, a longtime Baldwin friend and supporter. "He has an appreciation for the game's history. What I love about him the most is that he loves hockey.
"At the same time, he would only be a good owner to the extent that it is well-financed."
While it remains highly questionable whether now is the best time for Disney to sell the Ducks, and how likely the NHL would be to approve an ownership transfer in the midst of yet another lockout, Baldwin vowed that money will not be a problem. In addition to Guber, Baldwin's group also includes at least two other as-yet undisclosed investors.
"I've never pretended to be a deep-pockets owner. I'm not," Baldwin said. "But you will find that it (financial backing) will be as good as any in the NHL. Peter is a great partner. He loves marketing and has a great passion for the game. And neither of us have to make a living off this. We just want to break even, and have some enjoyment." That and this report from The Orange County Register's Dan Wood
Howard Baldwin's hockey history is about as long and colorful as they come, going back to the NHL's 1967 expansion from the Original Six teams to 12, and the birth of the rebel World Hockey Association five years later. That and this report from The Orange County Register's Dan Wood
The question, however, is not so much about Baldwin's past, but whether he has a future at the sport's highest level.
Baldwin, formerly a principal owner of two NHL teams, the Hartford Whalers and Pittsburgh Penguins, is the front man for a group attempting to purchase the Mighty Ducks from the Walt Disney Co.
Baldwin, the president of Baldwin Entertainment Group, a Santa Monica-based movie production company, has partnered with Peter Guber, the chairman and chief executive officer of Mandalay Entertainment Group, in hopes of buying the team that Disney has actively been shopping for more than two years.
"What you have in Peter Guber and my little group is that we want to make this work," Baldwin said. "Every owner says the same thing, but it's up to us to make it work. Actions speak louder than words."
Something of a boy wonder when he took "a leap of faith" by jumping from his job as ticket manager and sales manager with the Philadelphia Flyers to found the WHA's New England Whalers at age 30, Baldwin is now 62. Though he is part owner of a dormant AHL franchise that is set to resume play next season in Des Moines, Iowa, Baldwin has been absent from the NHL since the still-troubled Pittsburgh franchise declared bankruptcy in 1998.
Considered a "tremendous owner" in the wake of a second consecutive Penguins Stanley Cup championship in 1992, Baldwin now holds the unofficial title as "the worst owner in the history of Pittsburgh sports," according to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Ron Cook.
"I loved Howard personally, but he has no money," Cook said. "When he bought the team (in 1991), he had no money. He leveraged everything. He just made some horrible business decisions. He paid money he didn't have. My take is that he is right up there as one of the reasons the NHL is in the position it's in now."
The primary knocks on Baldwin from his days with the Penguins are huge contracts he handed out to players such as Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Kevin Stevens and Tom Barrasso, and the fact that he opted for some $12.9 million in improvements to the antiquated Mellon Arena rather than taking advantage of a growth movement within the city that resulted in new stadiums for the NFL's Steelers and Major League Baseball's Pirates.
"I think the criticism of Howard is totally unfair," Flyers chairman Ed Snider said. "Pittsburgh is a small market. They don't have a new building. He was doing everything he could to keep it together. I think Howard did an outstanding job, and I don't think anyone could have done any better. The situation in Pittsburgh is worse now than when he was there.
"Howard has always been a solid guy who has great ideas and an ability to bring people together. I think he has absolutely outstanding ability to run a team."
Snider, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame who ranks among the NHL's most respected and influential owners, gave Baldwin his start in hockey. In the year leading to Philadelphia's inaugural NHL season of 1967-68, Baldwin worked for the fledgling organization as operations manager of the Jersey Devils in the old Eastern League. That and this report from The Orange County Register's Dan Wood
"The year with the Devils was one of the most fun years a guy could have," Baldwin said. "I did everything - drove the bus, even coached the team for a week."
Baldwin learned quickly, and after five years with the Flyers, got in on the ground floor of the WHA. With financial backing from a number of corporate sources, Baldwin started the Whalers in Boston, eventually transferred the franchise to Connecticut and survived the infamous 1978 Hartford Civic Center roof collapse by quickly cutting a deal for the team to play in Springfield, Mass.
"I learned a lot about running a team in the WHA, but it was such a survival game," Baldwin said. "We didn't have that sense of a stable environment. It was like the 'Wild West' of sports."
When the Whalers, Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques entered the NHL in 1979 after seven seasons in the rival league, Baldwin was the lone remaining WHA founder. He had also become league president.
"Even though he was in the WHA, we maintained our personal friendship," Snider said. "We were constantly in contact about how we could bring about a merger. Eventually that did come to pass, largely due to Howard's efforts. He was very instrumental in ending the war between the leagues."
POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES
The Whalers, who once featured legendary former NHL star Gordie Howe and his sons Mark and Marty, enjoyed their share of success in the WHA. The club won division titles its first three seasons, claimed the inaugural Avco World Trophy as league champion in 1973 and also reached the Avco finals in 1978. The Whalers made the playoffs in their first NHL campaign, 1979-80 but missed postseason play each of the next five years, in an era when 16 of the league's 21 teams qualified.
"When we got to the NHL, I made some mistakes," Baldwin said. "I wasn't patient enough on the hockey side."
Still, memories of Baldwin from Hartford, and Springfield and Boston, are mostly positive.
"He was a real dynamic guy, and still is," said Chuck Kaiton, the former Whalers radio play-by-play man who moved with the team to Carolina in 1997 and still announces Hurricanes games. "From a character standpoint, an ownership standpoint and a guy to work for, I couldn't have asked for a better situation."
Just as would later be the case in Pittsburgh, the end for Baldwin in Hartford came in 1988 when his financial backers wanted out of the game. At that point, along with his wife, Karen, Baldwin relocated to Southern California and got heavily into the movie business. Among Baldwin's productions are the 1999 hit "Mystery, Alaska," "Danny Deckchair" and "Swimming Upstream" in 2003, and the current release "Ray."
After having explored the possibility of securing an NHL expansion team for the San Francisco Bay area, Baldwin wound up with a short-lived minority interest in the former Minnesota North Stars as part of a convoluted agreement that granted ownership of the San Jose Sharks to former North Stars owners George and Gordon Gund.
Baldwin joined forces with former rental-car executive Morris Belzberg to purchase the Penguins after having initially been asked by former owner Ed DeBartolo to help find a buyer for the club. In Pittsburgh, Baldwin experienced a roller-coaster ride that began with a Stanley Cup celebration and ended with co-owner Roger Marino, who had bought out Belzberg in 1997 and become the franchise's primary money man, opting for bankruptcy.
"Obviously, Howard was a great owner for the players," said former Penguins winger Bob Errey, a member of Pittsburgh's 1991 and '92 Stanley Cup champions and now a television color analyst for the club. "He was willing to go to any extent to have a good hockey club. I don't know if that eventually led to us having to unload some players and the Penguins subsequently going into bankruptcy."
VOLUNTARY BANKRUPTCY
Unlike the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators, each of whom went bankrupt despite playing in sparkling new arenas, Baldwin pointed out, the Penguins' filing was voluntary. Marino made the move, Baldwin said, as a "weapon" to get out from under huge debts to Lemieux, Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh, which televises Penguins games, and the Spectacor Management Group, which manages Mellon Arena.
"On the building side, I wouldn't have changed anything," Baldwin said. "On the player side, no question there are a couple of contracts I would do over. Mario is not one of them. I've never regretted the Lemieux contract for a minute."
Certainly, Lemieux's ongoing health woes that included a bout with Hodgkin's Disease and chronic back problems didn't help Baldwin in Pittsburgh. Neither did the NHL's 103-day lockout in 1994-95, which cost the Penguins untold millions of dollars.
"I'm not saying we didn't make mistakes," Baldwin said. "We got caught up in trying to keep too much of the team together, and not anticipating the future better, but my record over the years will speak for itself. If people in Pittsburgh think I did a bad job, so be it."
MONEY MATTERS
In addition to his love for the game, Baldwin's competitive nature motivates him to get back into the NHL so that the end with the Penguins does not mark the final chapter in his career.
"People in the league, I know, have always liked Howard," said Dallas Stars president Jim Lites, a longtime Baldwin friend and supporter. "He has an appreciation for the game's history. What I love about him the most is that he loves hockey.
"At the same time, he would only be a good owner to the extent that it is well-financed."
While it remains highly questionable whether now is the best time for Disney to sell the Ducks, and how likely the NHL would be to approve an ownership transfer in the midst of yet another lockout, Baldwin vowed that money will not be a problem. In addition to Guber, Baldwin's group also includes at least two other as-yet undisclosed investors.
"I've never pretended to be a deep-pockets owner. I'm not," Baldwin said. "But you will find that it (financial backing) will be as good as any in the NHL. Peter is a great partner. He loves marketing and has a great passion for the game. And neither of us have to make a living off this. We just want to break even, and have some enjoyment." That and this report from The Orange County Register's Dan Wood