The Complete Historical and Statistical Reference

[JETStender]

May 21,1977

NHL merger possible,
says Toronto lawyer

TORONTO (AP) - Alan Eagleson says a merger of the National Hockey league and World Hockey Association could come by the 1977-78 season—but as the executive director of the NHL Players Association, he says he doubts it will.

The NHLPA, in the middle of a fiveyear contract with NHL owners, fears a merger would undermine its strength. Eagleson attended a merger factfinding meeting in New York last week in which the NHL and WHA met jointly and separately. He said meetings dealt with player-owner problems, "then we talked about proposed NHL expansion." "I told them if they (owners) removed the compensation clause from the collective bargaining agreement, we would be willing to discuss the next step."

The NHL merger fact-finding committee is headed by John Ziegler, chairman of the NHL board of governors, and includes Bill Wirtz, owner of Chicago Black Hawks; Bruce Norris, owner of Detroit Red Wings; Ed Snider, owner of Philadelphia Flyers; Al Savill, owner of Pittsburgh Penguins, and Charles Mulcahy, alternative governor for Boston Bruins.

The next step, said Eagleson, a Toronto lawyer, "could be expansion of the NHL into WHA cities, similar to the setup between the NBA and ABA." The National Basketball Association absorbed four American Basketball Association teams last year after several years of bidding wars between the two leagues for top college players.

"I'd be prepared to review such plans with the NHLPA. For that purpose, we have called a special meeting for May 31 and June 1 in Bermuda with the NHL owners to discuss serious changes that would have to take place to save the situation."

[JETStender]

SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1977

Hal
Sigurdson
SPORTS EDITOR

Just for the sake of argument, let us suppose you are the owner of a National Hockey League franchise. Suppose, too, that for years it has been a successful franchise, almost as good as having a branch of the mint in your very own basement. Or that it was until an upstart league calling itself the World Hockey Association came along.

Now, suddenly, your easy, affluent style of life is drastically changed. Salaries of the hired help double, then double again. The pesky new league picks off some of your stars and beats you to a few graduating juniors and Europeans you would like to have signed. Then, into this atmosphere, comes a players' association so powerful it can tell you how to run your own business. Following years of handsome profits, your financial report is now being written in red ink.

Five years later, chances are you will not be feeling too friendly toward this league of Johnny-come-latelies which has so painfully changed your easy, clubby style of making money. You think back wistfully to the good, old days when your entire league was playing to 94 per cent of capacity and cities were lining up three deep to pony up $6 million for a piece of your action. A bundle of television money seemed just around the corner. Life couldn't have been better. The name of the game, obviously, is to rid yourself of the intruders who have turned your rose garden into a snake pit. The question is how?

New approach needed

So far you've tried ignoring, suing, out-bidding and keeping a hopeful watch listening for signs of a.death rattle. Some of your rival's cities fold, others are on the verge and you take some solace from the fact many are losing even more money than you are, but as an entity the league will not go away. The tenacious WHA seems likely to be back in business next season and the next and the next - .It is time, you decide, for a new approach. For the last couple of years these snakes in your Garden of Eden have been clamoring for a merger. At first blush it was unthinkable, but now you have thought some more. These turkeys want a merger, do they? Well, let's fix them. Let's give them one.

The secret is to do it just right.. .to set a price high enough to make them choke a little, but not so high it will make them mad enough to regroup and fight some more. Ideally, what you want is a figure some clubs, but not all can handle. It is the old divide and conquer approach. Find a figure some teams will be tempted to tackle, but one which will leave others gasping. How does $3.5 million sound?

It is high, yes, but not totally outrageous. It can be defended. After all, didn't Buffalo, Vancouver, New York Islanders, Atlanta*. Washington and Kansas City have to cough up $6 million apiece? Sure, maybe some of those cities were let off the hook when they ran into financial difficulty, but that was the figure originally agreed upon. The more you think about it, the better $3.5 million sounds. Some WHA teams are sure to say they're prepared to pay it. Others will claim it's too high. If you've played your cards just right it will create a split in their ranks not likely ever to heal. Those who pay will help salve your financial wounds. Those who don't aren't likely to have either the will or'the resources to carry on a league capable of causing you any concern. If as many as six clubs buy your terms, you and your lodge brothers will pick up better than $1 million apiece.


An arithmetic lesion

If some of your partners express doubts over the merits of your scheme, you simply point out the mathematics of the amateur draft. If the WHA stays in business,-any graduating junior or European likely to do you any good is going to cost a minimum of $100,000 to sign. Without the WHA that figure will drop to less than half that figure say a $15,000 signing bonus and a $30,000 salary. When the contracts of all but the dozen or so genuine superstars expire, you offer them two choices — a whopping pay cut or a road map out of town.

The Players' Association? Alan Eagleson will scream blue murder. He will demand compensation and compensations will have to be granted. The bargaining will be tough, heated and noisy, but in the end Eagleson will yield because he will have to. The majority of his members want jobs and the memory of the Cleveland Barons situation is still fresh in everyone's mind. Bankrupt teams do not offer new contracts or honor old ones.

One of your conditions to the WHA, of course, will be the initiation fee, or at least most of if, will have to be paid up front. If that entails borrowing money and adds an interest load that makes their operating costs too tough to handle, what's to worry? If they fold, you merely conduct a bargain basement sale of their most desirable talent. There won't be another league around to bid up the price. Then you'll have their money and their players, too—the best of both worlds. Happy days will be here again. This is all pure supposition, of course. But if you owned an NHL franchise, you might just consider it, right?

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Tuesday, May 24, 1977

Hockey merger talk continues to surface

TORONTO (CP) — The Globe and Mail says between four and eight World 'Hockey Association teams will merge with the National Hockey League as early as July.

The newspaper says Quebec, Edmonton, Cincinnati and New England are four franchises that are prepared for the move into the NHL. Houston, Winnipeg, Indianapolis, Calgary, Birmingham and the recently transferred San Diego franchise are less likely candidates because they lack the necessary capital to make the move, says the paper.

Quoting two unidentified NHL governors, the newspaper says the WHA owners involved are raising the $2.5-million expansion fee and will join the NHL for the 1977-78 season if litigation can be worked out between those teams accepted in expansion and those excluded.

The merger will likely follow the lines of the National Basketball Association's absorption of the American Basketball Association, the newspaper says.

The National Hockey .League Players Association and its executive director, Alan Eagleson, are expected to throw their support behind the project once the fine points are worked out at a series of NHL meetings scheduled for Bermuda next week, the newspaper adds. The newspaper says Eagleson will trade concessions with the NHL owners to allow the merger.

The WHA clubs ready to merge will have to appease those clubs who cannot make the jump. The cost could be as much as $2 million, the newspaper says.

[JETStender]

Tuesday, May 24, 1977

NEW YORK (AP) — The signing of the three hockey playing Howes to contracts by the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers started two weeks that may well change the course of hockey history.

These next two weeks will see meetings galore — some public, some very secret, according to sources — that will determine just what teams will be playing hockey next season and whether the much-talked about merger will take place between the WHA and National Hockey League. There is much detail to be sorted, many items to be examined.

First, docs Monday's signing of the Howes — Mark, Marty and father Gordie — by the Whalers mean the death of the Houston Aeros, whom the trio led to consecutive WHA titles? And, if such is the case, is the Aeros' death to be looked upon as an obstacle cleared that might induce merger?

The Aeros, financially troubled to such a point this season that only the Howes received their paychecks, might become the second WHA team within weeks to go under. The Phoenix Roadrunners folded, effective the end of the 1976-77 regular season.

The Aeros' demise would leave the WHA with nine teams. Further streamlining of disabled franchises would leave only the stronger clubs and improve the WHA's bargaining position in accomodation talks.

And what of these talks the fact finding committees from both leagues met here last Tuesday and are expected to convene again "within the next 10 days," according to a well-placed source. Beyond that, the WHA governors will meet within the same time period and the NHL's annual governors meeting will take place at Montreal June 6-8. It is known that the NHL's fact-finding committee will report to the governors at Montreal, and it can be assumed the WHA's counterpart will do the same.

Meanwhile, a conclave is scheduled this week at Las Vegas between WHA Players Association President Andre Lacroix of the San Diego Mariners, WHA President Bill MacFarland, WHA executive Ben Hatskin, NHLPA President Bobby Clarke of the Philadelphia Flyers, and NHLPA executive director Alan Eaglcson.

Clarke and Eaglcson will report to the NHLPA's meeting at Bermuda May 31- June 1, where the NHLPA and NHL owners will meet and possibly decide whether to go ahead with a consolidation of some sort for the coming season.

Eagleson thinks such a joining of forces would take place for the 1978-79 season. "The odds are that negotiations would be completed in 1977 and the ball would start rolling in 1978-79," he has been quoted as saying.

But the stumbling blocks are many. The major problem is the following stipulation in the five-year collective bargaining agreement between NHL owners and players: "It is expressly understood that if the NHL enters into an agreement to merge with the WHA, the NHLPA shall forthwith be entitled to terminate . . . this entire agreement. .. ." That's section 9.03, section C.

NHL owners are hesitant to threaten their future labor relations with the players, and therefore would have to amend the collective bargaining agreement before any progress could be made. That action might be taken at the Bermuda meeting next week.

The players, too, could be hesitant to act without a bargaining agreement, since it calls for a payment to their association this season of $1,815,000 in playoff purses and individual trophy and all-star game awards, and half the revenues from any international hockey competition.
Another stumbling block is the removal of the compensation clause included in the bargaining agreement. "I told them (the NHL owners), if they removed the compensation clause from the collective bargaining agreement, we would be willing to discuss the next step," said Eagleson.

Compensation and equalization for the signing of free-agent players also presents a major segment of the NHL by-laws. When a team signs a free agent, it must compensate the player's former team with cash, players, draft choices or any combination of the three. If the teams are unable to agree on the payment, each club submits a proposal to an impartial arbitrator, who selects one or the other with no compromise. There is feeling that this procedure inhibits teams from signing players — fear over what they might lose.

Possibly the most important factor, however, is the United States' anti-trust laws. The accommodation of four American Basketball Association franchises by the National Basketball Association was achieved only through a circuitous process by which the ABA declared itself to Congress as a failing business.

Canadian anti-trust laws are not of as much concern because 15 of the 18 NHL teams and six of the 10 WHA franchises are United States-based. At any rate, Congress may not be as willing to overlook the anti-trust structures, no matter how American-based hockey is. If it does, merger — accomodation, amalgamation or some suitable word — would be facilitated.

But right now, NHL schedule-maker Brian O'Neill is "about halfway through" a 1977-78 slate for 18 teams. "I'm not sure that that will hold up," he says, "but right now I have no other indications." That's because so much may happen in the next two weeks

[JETStender]

TUESDAY, MAY 24, 1977

Merger by July?
Whalers add some know-Howe
HOUSTON (AP) — The World Hockey Association Houston Aeros lost the Gordie Howe family to the New England Whalers Monday but that is not the only problem facing the former two-time WHA champions.

Losing the services of Gordie and his sons Mark and Marty to the Whalers may reduce the Aeros' payroll but it won't end their financial difficulties. The Aeros still are negotiating in their attempt to purchase an interest in the Arena Operating Co., which runs The Summit where Aeros' home games are played. Successful completion of the lengthy negotiations would give the Aeros operating capital.

After a season of declining attendance, the Aeros couldn't sell out the Summit during the second round of the playoffs against defending champion Winnipeg.

It also was rumored last week the Aeros will ask current players to renegotiate with contracts downward to help get their finances under control. The team averted a crisis during the season when players agreed to defer part of their salaries to help keep the team afloat.

The Howes are under contract to the Aeros until July 1 and it is expected the Whalers will compensate the Aeros in some manner for their loss. The Globe and Mail, meanwhile, says between four and eight WHA teams will merge with the National Hockey League as early as July.

Quebec, Edmonton, Cincinnati and New England are four franchises that are prepared for the move into the NHL. Houston, Winnipeg. Indianapolis, Calgary, Birmingham and the recently transferred San Diego franchise are less likely candidates because they lack the necessary capital to make the move, the newspaper says.

Quoting two NHL governors, the newspaper says the WHA owners involved are raising the $2.5-million expansion fee and will join the NHL for the 1977-78 season if litigation can be worked out between those teams accepted in expansion and those excluded. The merger will likely follow the lines of the National Basketball Association's absorption of the American Basketball Association, the newspaper says.

The National Hockey League Players Association and its executive director, Alan Eagleson, are expected to throw their support behind the project once the fine points are worked out at a series of NHL meetings scheduled for Bermuda next week, the newspaper adds

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 1977
Hal Sigurdson
SPORTS EDITOR
The most important decision in the history of both the Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets is about to be made. And it has nothing to do with what happens at the Colisee Thursday night in Quebec City.

All the Jets and Nordiques have proven after six games of their World Hockey Association final is they are both alarmingly accident prone and given to having them in bunches. It is a problem one of them will overcome Thursday. Next season neither may be that lucky.

A decision far more important to the future to both teams than the outcome of tomorrow's showdown in Quebec could be made sometime today in a New York hotelroom where the suddenly heated-up merger talks between the WHA and National Hockey League are continuing. Nothing will be formalized, of course, but the tenor of those talks are likely to determine if and when merger actually takes place. It it does, neither team will be playing in a final next season performing the way they have."

It is the strong chance of merger that had Jets' board chairman Bob Graham and vice-president Gerry Wilson boarding the red-eye special to New York at 4:13 this morning. It is also why Al Eaglesoit was in town yesterday conducting personal negotiations with the Jets' management.

Monday Eagleson was being widely quoted as saying Quebec City, Cincinnati, Edmonton and New England are virtually certain to be merged — or if you prefer, absorbed— into the NHL next season. He listed Winnipeg, Birmingham, Houston and the recently tranferred San Diego franchises as possibles, who may have trouble raising the $2.5 million initiation fee the older league will demand. Last night, following the Jets' absurdly one-sided 12-3 victory over Quebec, Graham was conceding Eagieson's evaluation isn't all that far off the mark.

It's a matter "of money

"The only problem on us is we may not have the money," Graham agreed, but added, "they (the NHL) want us in badly and it's not a deal without this team. We won't hold it up, but we could."

The Jets' problem, Graham pointed out, is their community ownership. "We don't have financial mobility," he said. "There is nobody on this club who can sit down and write a cheque for $2.5 million or $1 million or even $30,000." Graham does not suggest raising the required capital is impossible. "The numbers do not scare me," he said. "We can raise it for a good deal, but not for a deal that would be financial suicide."

Whether or not the direction merger talks are taking constitute a good deal for Winnipeg is something Graham and Wilson hope to determine today. "Let's put it this way," he suggested. "Suppose you were in the market to buy a new car and someone offered to sell you one for $5,000. That might be a reasonable figure or it might not. It all depends on whether the guy is selling a Volkswagen or a Cadillac."

Winnipeg, he is saying, can afford a new car, but it isn't going to buy a Volkswagen at Cadillac prices. Suddenly, too, these merger talks — talks which Winnipeg played a prominent role in initiating — are moving too rapidly for Graham's liking. We are now being told there is a distinct possibility the marriage of the two league will be accomplished in time for next season. "There is heat in the kitchen." Howard Baldwin of the New England Whalers was telling Free Press hockey writer Reyi Davis earlier in the day.

The kitchen is getting a little too warm for Graham's liking. "Don't get me wrong," he added. "I'd like to make the agreement to merge tomorrow, but I think we should play another season as separate leagues before making it official. There are a lot of details that have to be worked out. There are people involved. What happens to our league officers, our referees, our other employees if we merge right away? Do we just cast them aside? I think we should take our time and work out as many problems as possible beforehand instead of trying to solve them as we go along."

Graham wants more time

His motives, he readily admits, are not entirely altruistic. Putting off the actual fact of merger another year would give a team with a problem in "financial mobility" the time it needs to raise the money it will require.

But if push comes to shove Graham insists Winnipeg will be there, money clutched in its hot, little hand. If the deal is good. "First we have to know if we get to keep all the players we have what land of a break we get in the amateur draft what kind of television revenue we're likely to pick up," he said. But he will stop short of buying a Volkswagen at Cadillac prices.

[JETStender]

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1977
Merger chances hurt by leaks?
By STAN FISCHLER
Special to the Free Press
NEW YORK — Has the World Hockey Association talked its way out of merger with the National Hockey League?

Some NHL officials Wednesday acknowledged this was a possibility as another round of interleague amalgamation talks concluded here at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel and Mariott's Essex House hotel. At least two NHL governors said they were annoyed over WHA leaks to the media about how close the two leagues supposedly were to hammering out a merger pact.

"Some of our members are getting their back up," said Philadelphia Flyers chairman Ed Snyder. Head of the NHL fact-finding committee on dealing with the WHA, Snyder said he was less optimistic yesterday than he was one week ago about working out an agreement. "We were in a better position to get this 'amalgamation' done last week," said Snyder, "than we are now. We've run into a whole mess."

“Another NHL team president, who asked that his name be withheld, said he was worried WHA executives were premature in talking about merger as a sure thing. But at least one WHA official left the Marriott's Essex House sounding a lot of optimism. "Between you and me," the WHA executive said, "amalgamation is going to go."

However, the Winnipeg delegation was considerably more close-mouthed about the developments yesterday. "I have nothing to say," said Winnipeg Jets vice-president Dr. Gerry Wilson, "until this is resolved." Neither Bob Graham, Jets' chairman of the board, nor Ben Hatskin, the Jets' original boss, would add to Wilson's comment.

WHA vice-president Howard Baldwin added: "At the moment, the meetings are too sensitive to comment about." An Edmonton report that four WHA teams "including the Oilers" already have been approved by the NHL was categorically denied by Snyder. "That," said Snyder, "is impossible." Snyder said a meeting between the NHL owners committee and the NHL Players Association executive committee will be held next week in Bermuda.

It's possible something can still be worked out before our June meetings are over," Synder said. "But it's going to take a lot of hard work." However, some WHA officials have been pressing for Indianapolis and Birmingham to be included in the package. At least one NHL governor acknowledged this was possible. If eight WHA clubs come up with the money," the NHL governor asserted, "it would be sort or silly for us to turn them down."

Although Toronto Maple Leafs president Harold Ballard has been the most vocal of the NHL's anti-merger faction, his ability to marshall four other votes needed to reject the plan is doubted by some NHL colleagues Ballard said last week Toronto, Detroit, Boston, Pittsburgh and Chicago could block any move to incorporate WHA teams into the NHL.

"Harold is wrong," an NHL governor countered, "about all of those teams opposing the WHA." Montreal Canadiens, for one, have taken a pro-absorption stand. Canadiens' president Jacques Courtois said yesterday unification could improve big league hockey. Neither NHL nor WHA officials appeared concerned that the Players Association of either league will reject any interleague pact, if merger plans gell.

"As far as the players are concerned," said a WHA executive, "it's a case of taking 10 per cent of a dollar 'merger* or 100 per cent of nothing if teams fold left and right."

Of the potential NHL entries now in the WHA, Edmonton and Cincinatti are considered in the strongest financial position, followed by Quebec and New England.

Winnipeg and Houston are regarded as the least formidable in terms of fiscal strength. However, WHA delegates believe Winnipeg could muster the necessary assets, even if public fund-raising is required.

At the moment, time is running against the pro-merger advocate. "It would be hard to believe," said a WHA official, "that this package could be sewn together in time for next season."

[JETStender]

THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1977
NHL Studies Four WHA Teams
Hockey Merger Possible
TORONTO (AP) — Four World Hockey Association clubs reportedly have approved an outline for acceptance into the National Hockey League put forward by an NHL fact-finding committee.

The Toronto Globe and Mail said owners of- the 'Edmonton Oilers, Cincinnati Stingers,' New England Whalers and Quebec Nordiques are willing to accept the terms of the arrangement .which was proposed last, week at talks held between representatives of the two leagues.
The outline calls for a cash outlay of about $3 million each by the interested clubs, the newspaper says.

Alan Eagleson, executive director of the NHL Players Association, met Wednesday with officials of the publicly-owned Winnipeg Jets to review the complete expansion package.

"I met with Bob Graham (president) and Rudy Pilous (general manager) to discuss the players' viewpoint on such an arrangement," Eagleson said. "With a public company, they believe they may run into difficulty raising the large expansion fee the fact-finding body is promoting."

The newspaper says Peter Pockington, .- who represented the Oilers at Wednesday's meeting with' the fact finding' committee, let it be known to NHL officials that his group—headed by Vancouver developer Nelson Skalbania—would be involved whatever the conditions.

Howard Baldwin, managing general partner of the Whalers, has made it known that, with minor exceptions, the conditions suit his Hartford, Conn., investors. Quebec, controlled by Carling O'Keefe brewery and Cincinnati, controlled by the De Witt family, will also be able to raise the initiation fee, the newspaper says.

The fact-finding committee will report to the NHL board of governors next month at league meetings in Montreal and is hopeful its recommendations will be approved -thus enabling the latest round Of expansion to be in operation next fall.

The newspaper adds that the WHA clubs-joining the NHL must pay off their weaker ; WHA partners to disband and this is expected to cost them much-as-$2 million each.

[JETStender]

FRIDAY, MAY 27, 1977
NHL downplays WHA merger talk

From wire services
The National Hockey League acknowledged Thursday that,a league fact-finding committee on merger met in New York with World Hockey Assn. representatives Wednesday but said that the committee has no power to approve any merger plans.

An NHL spokesman said in Montreal that the committee, headed by owner Ed Snider of Philadelphia Flyers, has no authority to negotiate for the league or make any binding commitments. The spokesman said the committee's purpose is one of continuing investigations in order to report its findings to a meeting of the NHL board of governors in Montreal during the week of June 6. "At this point, the committee has not finalized any report," the spokesman said.

Wednesday, a Toronto newspaper reported that four WHA teams — Edmonton, Cincinnati, New England and Quebec — have agreed to terms of a merger porposal made last week by the NHL committee.

Reports in New York said Snider and several other NHL owners are upset that some of their WHA counterparts have been leaking premature reports of the merger to the press. "Some of our members are starting to get their backs up," Snider warned.

Following Wednesday's gathering, Peter Pocklington, the Edmonton Oilers' representative on the WHA's committee, was reported to have said the merger "is going through." Pocklington arrived in Edmonton with officials of two other WHA teams, the San Diego Mariners and Birmingham Bulls, Thursday and declined comment on the meeting. There was one report that the Mariners and Bulls would be absorbed by a new NHL Edmonton franchise but the WHA officials would not comment on it. "By June 7, maybe there will be some kind of decision," said Nelson Skalbania, a partner in the Edmonton franchise.

Snider, a proponent of merger between the two leagues, said there was a better chance of it being a reality last week than this week. He added that there has been too much talk on the subject by WHA executives. "It's possible something can still be worked out before our June meetings are over, but it's going to take a lot of hard work," he said.

Other WHA clubs reportedly interested in joining the NHL but having difficulty raising the necessary cash reportedly were Houston, Winnipeg, Indianapolis, Calgary, Birmingham and San Diego.

A number of consitutional conditions must be fulfilled before any potential league member can join the NHL. Reliable league sources have said that four to six- WHA franchises are being considered in a complex merger formula that would spell the end of the five-year-old WHA.

The NHL constitution points out that "any person, firm, association or corporation of good repute shall be eligible for membership." There are a number of admission specifications set forth by the league constitution, the most important of which is that "a favorable vote of three-fourths of the members of the league shall be required for election to membership."

WHA teams seeking admission into the NHL would have to pay a fee in order to enter the league. Various reports quoted the fee as being anywhere from f 2-million to $5 million per franchise.

While Cincinnati, Edmonton, New England and Quebec were the four WHA franchises most frequently mentioned as ready to be absorbed by the NHL, an offficial of the Houston Aeros said in Houston Thursday that it's too early to eliminate the Aeros from a possible merger plan.

"The thing that ticks me off is the negative speculation before the owners have even had a chance to hear the presentations," said Jack Stanfield, the Aeros' assistant general manager. "It's ridiculous at this point to speculate that the Aeros won't be involved in a merger, if there is a merger."

Stanfield said he talked with Harrison Vickers, the Aeros' legal counsel who is a member of a WHA committee which is meeting with the NHL committee.

"He (Vickers) told me there has been a presentation of the conditions that would be needed to complete a merger," Stanfield said. "The next step is for those at the meeting to go back home and discuss the conditions."

[JETStender]

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, MAY 27, 1977
Winnipeg Jets to be invited into NHL

By REYN DAVIS
QUEBEC CITY —The Winnipeg Jets are about to become one of six new members in a 24-team National Hockey League.

After a midweek meeting in New York, the Jets have been given until July 1 to raise $1 million as the down payment of a $3.2 million expansion fee to join the 60-year-old NHL.

"A proposal has been made that, if we meet it (the proposal), we're in the NHL," said Bob Graham, chairman of the board of the community owned Jets — who failed in their bid to win their second World Hockey Association championship last night They were beaten 8-2 by the Quebec Nordiques.

Graham said that, because of the Jets' unique ownership structure, the Winnipeg team has been given a month to determine how it shall be financed.

"By this concession of time, it's my interpretation that they (the NHL owners) want us," Graham said. "I know this: We're definitely going to be invited to join."

Potential investors in Winnipeg have already met with Graham. They include an insurance company, a brewery and an electrical audio-visual firm.

The six new teams are members of the five-year-old World Hockey Association. Others expected to join the NHL are the Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques, New England Whalers, Cincinnati Stingers and Birmingham Bulls and Houston Aeros.

Calgary Cowboys expect to be given assurances a franchise will be available to them in the NHL once a new arena has been built there. Indianapolis Racers have indicated they don't intend to seek an NHL franchise and would probably expect compensation from their fellow WHA members who are abandoning them.

Houston and Birmingham have similar situations. Neither city has a hockey background so there is nothing magic about the NHL monogram. However, both cities have excellent facilities.

Edmonton is the most ambitious of the WHA teams destined for the NHL. The Oilers are negotiating to buy the entire roster of San Diego Mariners and the Oilers have indicated an interest in buying Birmingham's, too, if the Bulls' owners decide not to pursue an NHL franchise.

The Jets would be obliged to carry at least 27 players. Already they have in mind specific players now under contract with Birmingham, Calgary, Houston and Indianapolis. Size and a rugged nature are common to all but one.

As league partners, NHL teams would agree to drop from their protected lists the names of all players who now belong to WHA teams, and vice versa.

Sammy Pollock, general manager of the Montreal Canadiens and member of the NHL's committeee discussing expansion, nas proposed two divisional arrangements.

One would be four divisions of six teams; another would be six divisions of four teams.One suggestion has Winnipeg in a division with Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Black Hawks and Minnesota North Stars.

The Jets were one of the few teams in major league hockey to make money the past season. Thanks to healthy playoff revenues, the Jets were able to show a profit of $240,000, a WHA record.

Formal approval for expansion to include the six WHA teams is expected at the NHL's annual meeting June 6 to 8.

[JETStender]

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, MAY 27, 1977
Nine WHA teams eligible, says Dacres

By RICHARD FRIEDMAN

NEW YORK — An enlarged National Hockey League next season appears to be more than a remote possibility as NHL and World Hockey Association owners come closer to agreement on merger.

John Dacres, president-trustee of the Quebec Nordiques, Thursday night disclosed that as many as nine WHA teams may be invited to apply for membership in the NHL before a July 1 deadline set by the NHL.

The financially weak Calgary Cowboys received a "conditional" invitation — and an option to enter the NHL in two years. Their small arena is said to have been a contributing factor.

"Everybody (in the WHA) is in on the invitation," Dacres said Thursday. "The ones who have the money will be there." Dacres, who participated in the joint NHL-WHA merger meetings here earlier this week, said that each WHA team will be assessed a $3-million entrance fee, and another $500,000 for legal expenses.

Potential WHA entrants in the expanded NHL include Cincinnati, Edmonton, Houston, Indianapolis, New England, Quebec City, San Diego and Winnipeg. "However," said Dacres, "plans are being formulated to combine some franchises and place players from defunct clubs with active clubs.

"Birmingham Bulls players, for example, could be sold to the more-solvent Edmonton Oilers or players from the San Diego Mariners, a franchise which has been on the auction block for some time, could be sold to another WHA team.'

But a complicating factor would exist in the case of any WHA team that did not meet NHL admission standards. Such teams could ask for compensation similar to that demanded by disbanded ABA teams during last year's basketball merger.

Dacres said that the NHL would request $l-million of "up front" money for the WHA entrants to show good faith. He said it was an agreeable demand.

"We want to be sure that our teams that take to the ice next season can pay their bills," said Dacres. "Three factors will be crucial — strength of ownership, the market and the size of the building."

Dacres added that several WHA entrants with smaller buildings — Winnipeg, Quebec and Hartford— either could or would expand their facilities in the foreseeable future.

An outline of an NHL entry plan is being circulated among WHA officials now, but final details must be worked out by July l. By that time, said Dacres, his league would know which WHA clubs cannot meet NHL demands. In the wake of the very guarded atmosphere surrounding the WHA meetings here on Wednesday, the Nordiques official's statement took at least one of his colleagues by surprise.

League vice-president Howard Baldwin reacted angrily when told of Dacres' comment. "As far as I'm concerned," said Baldwin, "Dacres is out of order." Although Baldwin discounted the possible harmful impact of such leaks on merger talks, some NHL officials are disturbed by the apparently premature reports from the WHA camp.

The NHL can't act officially on merger proposals until its board of- governors meetings in Montreal, June 6-8, and an anti-merger section still exists in the NHL. "Every time a WHA official talks about how they're getting into the NHL," said an NHL governor, "it gets (Maple Leafs' president) Harold Ballard madder and diminishes their chances." However, the NHL leader added that, WHA talk or not the NHL "would be stupid not to take four good WHA teams.

[JETStender]

SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1977

Hal
Sigurdson
SPORTS EDITOR
The first thing Clarence Campbell said when he answered the phone in his Montreal office was that he was tired, had a nasty cold and his humor was particularly rotten. Then the president of the National Hockey League set about proving the latter portion of his declaration. What has the retiring chief of the NHL in such a foul mood is the ever escalating talk of merger with the World Hockey Association.

"Gosh darn it," he said approximately, "what is the matter with these (WHA) people? Don't they realize they are simply antagonizing the people who aren't favorably disposed to the idea (merger) in the first place? Can't they understand there is such a thing as anti-trust laws in the United States? Don't they realize there doesn't have to be a contract to be in violation of those laws? Haven't they heard of conspiracy? You don't have to actually break a law to be found guilty. Merely talking about breaking a law is in itself a felony."

In short, Clarence, a Rhodes Scholar and lawyer, is not too happy about the way this supposedly hush-hush merger story keeps springing more holes than your average golf course. And despite what you may have read or heard elsewhere, the official sign still hasn’t gone up. Call it merger, amalgamation, absorption, expansion or whatever you choose, it still hasn't happened. It may and probably will, but then again it may not.

"Our committee (discussing an accommodation with the WHA) has no negotiating power," Campbell emphasized. "It can make no decisions binding on our league. It is empowered only to conduct an investigation and to report back to our governors here June 6. To suggest otherwise is utter nonsense. It makes me irritable, it's exasperating. Reporters keep asking me the same questions and I tell them the truth, but when the question keeps coming back the clear implication is they must think I've been lying to them. Well, dammit, I'm not lying. If anything is going to happen, it can't take place before our June governors' meeting. Any proposal long those lines would require 14 favorable votes (or approval and there is no guarantee that many favorable votes would be forthcoming."

Something to ponder

Campbell tossed in another thought for his talkative WHA friends to ponder. "If our league expands to include some WHA cities, the ones left out are going to demand compensation," he said. "Can't they see all this talk is simply driving up the price of franchises in their own league. I've heard some are now talking about $1.5 million. What was a WHA franchise worth before all this merger talk got started?"

None of this is to say the startling assertions revealed in Reyn Davis’ front page story yesterday will prove untrue. But they haven't happened yet, according to Campbell, and the message he is trying to get across is they will have a much better chance of happening if everybody cools it. Now there is a chance Clarence hasn't been completely informed of everything his employers, the governors, are doing. He is, after all, 72 years old. He has been trying to retire for the last 10 years and he's actively pushed the issue for the last two. (He says he's hopeful of finally making it this- June). But I have no doubt the man is speaking the truth as he knows it. You take people the way you find them and in the dealings I have had with him over several years, I have never known Clarence Campbell to be anything but dead honest Sometimes too honest for his own good.

The impression I got from our conversation was that while he may not be an enthusiastic supporter of merger, he has come to view some sort of accomodation between the NHL and WHA as a logical solution to everyone's problems.

He sounds concerned

One gathers he is genuinely concerned too much premature talk could screw up the whole deal. He's afraid it might bring down the law on everyone's head. He's afraid the opposition will get stirred up even more and succeed in upsetting the cart.

Harold Ballard, the talkative owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is said to be the leader of the official opposition. "He is certainly the most visible," Campbell agreed. Ballard needs only four of his 17 partners to vote with him to defeat all the plans and proposals of the pro-merger people in both leagues.

Campbell also adds that in his opinion (one he says is shared by his legal advisors) a straight merger between the leagues is illegal. The American Basketball Association and the National Basketball Association achieved merger last year because the ABA went to the courts and declared itself a "failed business." He suspects that is a proposition the WHA will have trouble selling.

"There hasn't been a single gesture of their inability to carry on," he said. "Look at the big deal they made out of their final game in Quebec City. I don't blame them for it, but it was hardly the sign' of a failing business." One is left with the impression merger, disguised under another name of course, is going to happen. As long as it doesn't get talked to death.

[JETStender]

Saturday, May 28, 1977

Winnipeg Jets offered time plan for entry into the NHL

CF-AP
Winnipeg Jets have been given until July 1 to raise $1 million as down payment for entry into the National Hockey League, says Bob Graham, chairman of the board of
the community-owned World Hockey Association club.

Graham said the Jets were given the time after the mid-week meeting in New York between representatives of the two leagues. He said the entry fee for WHA teams into the NHL will be $3.2 million.

"A proposal has been made that, if we meet it, we're in the NHL," said Graham. He said the Jets were given the time to raise the down payment because of its unique community-ownership structure. "By this concession of time, it's my interpretation that the NHL wants us," Graham said.

"I know this; we're definitely going to be invited to join." The Winnipeg Free Press says the Jets, who currently carry only 23 players, would be obliged to carry 27 in the NHL. The newspaper also says the NHL teams would agree to drop from their protected list the names of all players who now belong to WHA clubs, and vice versa.

It also says Sam Pollock, general manager of the NHL champion Montreal Canadiens, has proposed two divisional arrangements: one with four divisions of six teams and the other with six divisions of four teams.

The newspaper said Winnipeg will be one of the few teams in major league hockey to make money in the 1976-77 season. The Jets, who lost their bid for a second straight WHA championship when they lost 8-2 to Quebec Nordiques in the seventh game of the final Thursday, played 10 home playoff games and that was the difference that will allow them to show a profit of about $240,000.

Meanwhile in Houston, the Aeros have lost the Howe family and suffered through another financially-troubled season, but still claim they have a chance to get into the NHL.

"The thing that bothers me is the negative speculation before the owners have even had a chance to hear the presentations," Aeros assistant general manager Jack Stanfield said Thursday. "It's ridiculous at this point to speculate that the Aeros won't be involved in a merger, if there is a merger."

Stanfield referred to a report that four teams in the WHA-Cincinnati Stingers, New England Whalers, Quebec Nordiques and Edmonton Oilers — would be absorbed by the NHL. A Toronto newspaper said WHA teams would have to pay $3 million each to join the NHL.

"Those reports might be half true, but you can't take them at face value," said Aeros coach and general manager Bill Dineen. "If the NHL board of governors approves the NHL committee's proposal to allow some WHA teams to buy in, I think we'll be included."

Harrison Vickers, the Aeros' legal counsel and chief spokesman, has declined to say, however, what is truth concerning the reports. Vickers is a member of a WHA committee that is studying possible merger with the NHL.

The Howes — father Gordie and sons Mark and Marty — are leaving the Aeros at the end of their four-year contracts in June to play of the WHA New England Whalers. The Howes' departure followed bitter contract squabbles with owner George Bolin. The Aeros, who have won two WHA titles, again were successful on the ice last season, but attendance dropped an average of 1,000 fans a game.

The Aeros' attendance dilemma was especially noticeable during the WHA playoff series against Winnipeg, one of the glamour teams of the league featuring Bobby Hull. Even with the Howes and Hull as drawing cards, there were no sellouts.

[JETStender]

TUESDAY, MAY 31, 1977

Hal
Sigurdson
SPORTS EDITOR
The man at the other end of the phone line has been credited with creating a brand-new disease. It was a severe case of "Bolinitis", we've been told, which sent the Howe family — Gordie, Mark, Marty and den mother Colleen — scurrying from Houston to the more agreeable climate of New England.

Nevertheless, George Bolin, the realtor-rancher-conservationist who is chairman of the board and principal shareholder of the Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association, did not sound particularly repentant. Indeed, he seemed to view the departure of the clan, particularly its female member, as a blessing. "Colleen Howe is a pyschopathic liar," he said. "You may quote me."

However, while Bolin called to clarify a point in his well-publicized dispute with the Howes, it is a matter which presently ranks as one of his less pressing problems. Of far more concern, he conceded, is the future of Houston hockey. Sometime next week governors of the National Hockey League will vote on a proposal to expand to include an indeterminate number of WHA cities in its operation next season. It is not a charitable venture.

If the proposal musters the necessary 14 affirmative votes, WHA cities will be required to come up with $3.2 million for the privilege of joining. They'll have to pay $2 million up front, $1.2 million on time. And that's not all. Cities which choose not to join will want compensation from those who do. The figure $1.5 million has been mentioned. Bolin's dilemma, he says, is the route Houston should follow. His enthusiasm for the proposal is underwhelming. "I think we picked the wrong people for our expansion committee," he said. "Howard Baldwin (New England) and Bill DeWitt (Cincinnati) were so damn anxious to get into the NHL they would have agreed to anything. I think it's an exorbitant fee."

A matter of marketing

The Summit where the Aeros play their home games is, in the opinion of many, the finest hockey facility in North America. The catch is they filled it far too seldom. Even an attractive playoff series with the Winnipeg Jets failed to produce sellouts. It wasn't even close. Bolin doubts applying an NHL label would bring out customers in droves. However, he admits the Aeros* attendance problems are the fault neither of the WHA nor the quality of the team. "The blame," he said, "belongs entirely to me. We thought all we had to do was put together a good, competitive team and the people would simply show up. It isn't that easy. You have to market and promote and I've done a lousy job.

A recent survey told us only 40,000 people out of a total population of 2 million have seen an Aeros game. That's terrible marketing. Much of our population has migrated here from the north. There must be several hundred thousand people here who have seen professional hockey, but they're Minnesota, Chicago or Detroit fans. Our job is to make them Aeros fans and we haven't done it. The question he now must answer is whether he and his fellow owners have the will and financial resources to handle the job.

"The directors will decide in the next few days," he said. "Either we go or fold the hockey operation. There are no other options. The more WHA cities which do not to join the NHL, the more difficult it becomes for those who do. The abstainers will want compensation. The larger their numbers, the more expensive it becomes to join.

It is a problem the WHA recognLr.es and one it is trying to head off at the pass with amalgamations within the league. There is talk of Edmonton and Birmingham joining forces to form one Edmonton-based team. Various teams are bidding for the assets of the San Diego Mariners. There is even speculation on an interleague alliance between the NHL Pittsburgh Penguins and WHA Indianapolis Racers, since the Pens are already owned by Indianapolis money.

Competition is needed

But the NHL will be unhappy if Houston is not one of the cities acquired by expanding. NHL owners have always been building freaks despite evidence buildings alone do not make a franchise.

It was the quality of the building that caused the NHL to choose Oakland over San Francisco in its orginal expansion a decade ago. That decision cost the owners $11 million unsuccessfully trying to keep the Oakland franchise afloat Nor does it seem to have made much of an impression that four of its poorest drawing teams — Colorado, Cleveland, Atlanta and Washington — all play in fine buildings. NHL owners still blindly believe if a large arena exists, customers automatically will fill it.

Now its members, or some of them, are hot for marriage with the WHA (and the dowry that goes with it). The reason is 10 of its members lost a total of $17 million last season. Or so we're told by Alan Eagleson.

The NHL Players' Association and the owner are meeting this week in Bermuda and Eagleson, the players' executive director, claims the owners are indulging in wishful thinking if they believe expansion and/or merger will solve all their problems.

"Hockey is on the ropes," he said. "The players realize it, but not all the owners do. We're only interested in talking expansion if there is some substantial adjustment in the inequalities of the league, not the least of which is that a team like Montreal loses eight games while Detroit loses 38." Eagleson is entirely correct. The quality of the product, not the quality of the buildings determines attendance. Poor teams are bad for business no matter where they play.

The NHL's problems are caused at least as much by the disparity between its Haves and its Have-Nots as by the existence of the WHA. It has three distinct levels. Montreal is alone at the top. Four, perhaps five others rate as "contenders." The rest are nowhere, no better and in many cases worse than the WHA teams we're accustomed to watching." The rub is dull teams are usually the product of weak ownership and bumbling management Can Eagleson or anyone else can legislate against that?

[JETStender]

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 1977

NHL players dim merger picture

TUCKER'S TOWN, Bermuda (AP) — The National Hockey League Players Assn. began a three-day meeting at a fashionable hotel here Tuesday and NHLPA Executive Director Alan Eagleson said, "No real progress had yet been made in the merger discussions and it appears doubtful that the situation would be resolved by the time the NHL governors meet next week."

The association has virtual veto power over any possible merger agreement with the World Hockey Assn. That remark would indicate an NHL merger with between four and six WHA clubs would not take place before the 1977-78 season. The NHL's fact-finding committee on accommodation will report to the NHL governors at Montreal next week, but without the players' consent, no formal action could take place. two years.

"The position regarding the merger is that the NHL owners have stated that unless the Players' Association consents to it, the plan will not be presented when they meet," said Eagleson. The agenda for the player meeting "is an extremely complex and important
one." he said. "But to essence, it is to review the future of hockey and what part a merger could play to that future.

"As far as any NHL teams folding," he continued, "the Players' Association intends holding individual meetings with each club to determine if there would be any purpose to that particular club continuing in existence under merger conditions." The players will not be meeting with WHA representatives here, but this did not preclude meetings between the owners and the WHA, Eagleson said.

"We haven't had any policy in the past toward signing players who have not yet reached their 20th birthday," the spokesman said. "It's just been a general agreement we wouldn't be doing it any more."

WHA teams angered NHL rivals three years ago when they decided to raid top junior prospects in Canada. The Houston Aeros started the major bidding for underage talent by drafting the Howe brothers, Marty and Mark, away from the Toronto Marlboros of the OHA. The Howe boys were 19 and 18 at the time.

Several other top juniors were grabbed by WHA clubs before the league agreed to discontinue the practice. Before the unsettled truce came into effect, however, two more prominent Marlboros — Mark Napier and John Tonelli — were signed by the Toronto Toros (now Birmingham) and Houston and defenseman Gordie Roberts was taken from the Victoria Cougars of the Western Canada Hockey League.

In Montreal, Clarence Campbell, president of the NHL, said: "I don't know whether the signing of Linseman could affect any merger talks or not. I don't believe the conflict for players is really that important. They're (WHA) not that competitive. "I'm concerned about the damaging effect of this on junior hockey. This has been going on for five years. I don't know why somebody doesn't take positive steps to bring them (WHA) into line.

"They agreed not to sign underage players and then they go against everything they've said. And when Mark Napier signed with Toronto of the WHA, they said it was illegal and not to do it any more, but the league approved Napier's play for the team." Clarence Campbell

[JETStender]

Thursday, June 2, 1977
FINAL

WHA:To hell with them'

NEW YORK (CP) — President Clarence Campbell of the National Hockey League said Wednesday that he personally would prefer to let the rival World Hockey Association wither on the vine than accept a merger of the two major leagues.

In an interview, Campbell expressed strong feelings about the WHA and continued rumors that at least four top WHA - clubs have a chance of joining the NHL if they meet the financial .requirements. But Campbell said such a move would not solve the problem of the dissolution of player talent in the NHL since, expansion began in 1967 and the WHA's creation in 1971 that led to the raiding of more than 100 players from the senior league.

Expansion was essential at the beginning, Campbell said, "but we didn't anticipate the invasion of Mr. Davidson and company." He was referring to Gary Davidson, one of the founders and first president of the WHA who later resigned. Campbell said that WHA candidates are not suitable for the NHL.

"In the first place, they're not compatible. They're our rivals. They were people that did their best to destroy us. Why would we salvage them now? To hell with them.

"Don't talk about the NHL's attitude. I'm talking about my attitude. I haven't the right to speak for the NHL. They will decide (at the governors' meetings) next week. I'm talking about my attitude."

The NHL and WHA have been "holding a series of talks on a possible merger and a special committee made up of owners from both leagues will report to the governors at the meetings in Montreal next week. As far as the NHL is concerned, Campbell said the status of the talks "hasn't changed a bit."

"We have a committee that is investigating the advantages and disadvantages of some possible type of accommodation — I'll use that word — and they have not any authority to negotiate or to make any offers of any kind or to receive any. Their only responsibility is to report to the governors next week."

Although the amateur draft will be held on June 14, the intra-league draft will not take place at the Montreal meetings because of the many problems the governors face, and it may not be held until August.

Campbell said that-in the event a couple of NHL franchises folded, there isn't much chance that the WHA would be taken in to fill the places.

Would the NHL be, allowed to have a dispersal draft among WHA players if that league folded? "No way at all. Their contracts afe no good. They're not valid. The NHL has rights only to those that are defectors."

The NHL president also made these points:

•He hopes the governors can come up with his successor soon.

•The group headed by Sanford Greenberg, who want to purchase the troubled Cleveland Barons, has reported progress irf assembling the financial package needed to consummate the sale.

•Next season's schedule is being drawn up on the assumption there will be 18 teams "but I don't say there will be 18 going to the starting gate."

Obviously, some of the financially- troubled expansion clubs must come up with solutions to their problems. Campbell said in the event a couple NHL franchises fold, there isn't much chance the WHA would be taken in to fill the places.

Campbell also had some comments about the switch of the Howes from Houston to New England. Owner Howard Baldwin of the WHA New England Whalers, a member of the merger committee, last week signed Gordie Howe and sons Marty and Mark to a multi-year contract with the aim of building up the franchise for NHL entry.

"I think he's right and I think that's exactly what he is planning," Campbell said. "And quite frankly I think the Howe deal is entirely conditional. I can't conceive of him doing it for any other purpose. "Hell, I've got enough intelligence to know you don't spend that kind of money in the type of prospects that are currently available for the Whalers in the WHA."

Would the NHL be allowed to have a dispersal draft among WHA players if that league folded? "No way. Their contracts are no good. They're not valid. The NHL has rights only to those that are defectors."

[JETStender]

SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1977

Meetings begin Monday
Problems, as usual, face NHL

MONTREAL (CP)—Faced with the usual mountain of problems, the National Hockey League's board of governors will get together here next week for the league's 60th annual meetings.

The sessions, which get under way Monday morning, will deal with the league's relations with the World Hockey Association, the selection of a successor to retiring president Clarence Campbell, the restructuring of the playoff system and problems which certain league members are encountering.

Cleveland Barons are up for sale and the deal could be completed and approuved by the board. St Louis Blues are up for grabs as well and no one is certain just what will happen to what was once the league's best expansion franchise.

"As I understand, the deliberations are going well to resolve the problems in Cleveland," said Brian O'Neill, the NHL's executive director.

"We knew St. Louis is having difficulties in arranging the sale of the franchise. They are still talking to some very interested people. At this point it has not been resolved. If they can't sell it, then I can't tell you what is going to happen as far as St. Louis is concerned!

Sidney Solomon Jr. and his son, who own the Blues and the St. Louis Arena, are in a difficult position to operate the club, says O'Neill, and one of the main reasons is the fact (hey must maintain the building.

Then there is the question of merger, and there have been various reports some WHA clubs have already been accepted by the NHL, but O'Neill says this is not true.

"We have not made any offers to the WHA. Our committee is not authorized to make any offers.

"That committee is made lip of just three or four of our owners and they have to answer to the whole 18. "No one has been accepted. Nothing can happen until we take the thing to the full ownership next week."

Campbell said earlier this week he personally was opposed to the merger and some NHL owners, like Harold Ballard of Toronto Maple Leafs, have given indications they will battle any type of accomodation of WHA teams.

The general feeling is there will not be any accomodation of WHA teams this year, But the fusion could happen in time for the 1978-79 season. Still 1 there were hot denials of a-marriage of the National Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association before it was announced four ABA teams would join the NBA last summer.

Meanwhile the search for Campbell's successor might be at an end. There has been speculation John Ziegler of Detroit, the chairman of the NHL's board of governors, will be the man chosen to take the reins from the 71- year-old Campbell, who has run the League since 1946-47.

The playoff change could see the top two teams in each division qualify along with four wild-card entries. This alteration was demanded because of the situation this year where New York Rangers failed to qualify for the playoffs because they finished last in the Patrick Division.

But the Rangers had more points than the three Smythe Division qualifiers— St. Louis, Minnesota North Stars and Chicago Black Hawks. The NHL Players Association Is reportedly going to ask the league to go into two nine-team divisions rather than the present four division setup. O'Neill said it was unlikely there would "not be a major move in realignment unless there is some accommodation with the other league."

Also to be announced at the meetings will be the NHL all-stars and individual trophy winners as well as the hall of fame selections.

[JETStender]

JUNE 7, 1977

NHL ponders bailout plan

MONTREAL (AP) — The National Hockey League's Board of Governors was to convene the formal segment of its convention today and attempt a final resolution of the continued troubles of the Cleveland Barons.

The governors were to listen to George Gund, who might be willing to purchase the Barons in partnership with Sanford Greenberg. owner of the team's Richfield Coliseum home arena.

Alan Eagteson, executive director of the NHL Players Association, said Monday he had heard that Greenberg had decided to withdraw from a reported deal. He said that Mel Swig, who bought the club from the league during the summer of 1975, would fold the franchise if that was the case.

"George Gund is supposed to fly in here," said Gordon Ritz, governor of the Minnesota North Stars "He is going to make some kind of proposal. Then we are going to decide whether it is feasible for the club to start and finish the 1977-78 season "

The Barons tost more than $2 million last year after moving from Oakland, where they were known as the California Seals.

One of the major concerns the league has is the Barons' debt to Charles O. Finley. Who sold the club to the NHL in 1974.

Once the Barons' matter was discussed, there was to be a report by NHL Referee m Chief Scotty Morrison His report was not expected to take up much time, but the Cleveland problem -would, so the governors might not get a chance to talk merger There was bound to be some heated words when the discussion began

"I think there are some people on the extreme ends and there is a whole group in the middle." said Ritz "The group in the middle wents to review any proposal "I would like to see the proposal our fact-finding committee has made with the WHA before I decide which way we are going to go."

Leading the pro-merger force is Ed Snider of the Philadelphia Flyers. The most outspoken anti-merger man has been Harold Ballard. president of the Toronto Maple Leafs

[JETStender]

JUNE 7, 1977

Barons' money woes dims future in NHL

MONTREAL (UPI) — According to Alan Eagleson, executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association, the future is bleak for the Cleveland Barons.

Eagleson expressed this feeling to reporters Monday on the opening day of the 60th annual NHL meetings. Washington businessman Sanford Greenberg had reportedly purchased the floundering Barons and was to come up with $3 million by Wednesday to satisfy the NHL Board of Governors.

"From what I hear through the grapevine, the deal to raise capital in Cleveland has fallen through and it looks like the franchise will fold," said Eagleson.

Eagleson also affirmed that although the players are interested in a merger with the World Hockey Association there is more pressing business at the current time.

"Even the Colorado franchise is in financial trouble. And other teams are also suffering, so why should we put 100 hockey players out of a job and then create another 100 openings?" he said. "As a matter of fact, the players in our association feel that expansion is only one problem facing the NHL right now."

The players, through Eagleson, also raised several other points for consideration by the owners.

Eagleson hoped that the 18 owners could sit down with the players as soon as possible and consider the problems facing the league.

Eagleson, in a memo to the NHL board, also suggested several rule changes and realignment of the league into two divisions.

At least one of the several rule changes the players have requested was adopted Monday when the rules committee imposed a two-minute minor penalty on a team which challenges but fails to prove the illegal measurment of a stick on the opposing team. In addition, the complaining club will still incur the present $100 fine.

Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard also came out loudly against any type of merger with the WHA. "I know the proposal will be defeated if it comes to a vote this week. I have seven or eight other owners, on my side' and we only need five votes to veto it," said Ballard.

Ballard also pointed out the NHL must do some strengthening of its own. "Let's spruce up our own league so that the weak teams work on building their own organizations before thinking about getting any expansion money," Ballard said.

[JETStender]

JUNE 7, 1977

NHL governors talk a lot, settle little

MONTREAL (CP) — The National Hockey League board of governors talked a lot, but accomplished little during its 60th annual meetings.

In fact, the only major decision came on the final day of the meetings Thursday as the board approved the sale of Cleveland Barons to George Gund and Sanford Greenberg by Mel Swig.

But the governors did not officially elect a president at the meetings as it was thought they would. Although most observers feel John Ziegler, a 43-year-old Detroit lawyer and chairman of the NHL board has the job, the final announcement will not be made until a special league meeting in Chicago on June 22.

There was no final decision on an association with the World Hockey Association although the board agreed unanimously that the NHL's fact-finding committee on expansion should continue its work and report to the governors in Chicago.

"More important decisions will be made during the Chicago meetings June 22," said outgoing president Clarence Campbell after he officially announced the sale of .the Barons.

The new owners had to come up with close to $2 million in cash plus $4:5 million in banknotes. The group will also assume the debts incurred by the franchise, including $1.5 million owed to Charles O. Finley, who sold the club to the NHL in 1974 before Swig purchased it from the league last summer.

The new owners will also have to pay $2.5 million in bank loans that Swig ran up.while the team was in Oakland and Cleveland. Swig will receive a reported $500,000.

The new NHL president will not be named until after a special board meeting because the board must approve changes in the constitution to broaden the president's powers.

Campbell said it is likely the changes in the constitution will allow the new president to also be chairman of the board.

At the beginning of the week, the board had a heated discussion about any NHL plans for accommodation of WHA teams.

Harold Ballard, president of Toronto Maple Leafs, was the most vociferous of the anti-accommodation owners although he did not have the support he felt he had.

Monday, Ballard said he knew at least seven NHL clubs which would not go along with any plans to accommodate WHA teams. Yet on Wednesday, the fact-finding committee on the matter received near unanimous support to go ahead with its work.

"I don't think I want to say what the number of teams voting against was," said Ed Snider of Philadelphia Flyers, one of the main backers of the accommodation plan. "But the fact-finding committee wouldn't have continued if it did not have a solid expression to continue."

The NHL committee will continue meetings with a group of WHA owners and will report to the governors on June 22.

Ken Dryden, all-star goaltender of Montreal Canadiens, said the NHL Players Association, which will have a say on any association between the two leagues, has adopted the attitude that merger would have to be a part of a larger package. The association says it will go along with the owners to reach a goal to make hockey more stable.

Quebec, Edmonton, Cincinnati and New England appear ready to join the NHL with Winnipeg and Houston still making the final arrangements for the necessary funds. It is likely to cost the WHA teams $3 million apiece to join. Asked if an agreement could be worked out in time for the 1977-78 season, Campbell said: "It's possible. Even miracles happen in this league."

While there may be some new teams added, some of the existing 18-member clubs could drop out. "The determination of whether clubs may continue next year or not to a very large extent will be established by the attitude the, players take with regards to some of our requested changes," said Brian O'Neill, the NHL's executive director.

The changes will be discussed at the owners-players council meetings in Chicago June 23-24. The problem of two-way contracts appears to be a major concern to many owners, including Colorado Rockies.

"What really kills our teams are the players that they are paying that aren't playing or aren't playing for the major team," O'Neill added.

The St. Louis Blues franchise is still up for sale and so far, there has been a minimal amount of interest shown. The Salomon family, which also operates the arena where the Blues play home games, are unlikely to be willing to operate the team next season if they don't get a buyer.

Also not resolved is a new league playoff format, although this may not be done until a decision is reached on accommodation of WHA clubs.

Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres, and Vancouver Canucks are still looking for coaches and Ballard said he would have a decision next week on Toronto's coach for next season. Ballard has not fired Red Kelly although some feel he might.

The next major piece of NHL business is the amateur draft next Tuesday which will be conducted by telephone. Then the governors gather in Chicago for the late June sessions and there's a good chance they will be having more meetings between that time and the semi-annual meetings