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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:39:25 GMT -5
Syracuse Herald-Journal, Saturday, Feb. 24, 1979
Rockies drop $2M
DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Rockies expect to lose about $2 million this year and have the National Hockey League's worst record, as well as the NHL's worse home attendance.
But they're not going anywhere, Rockies* President Arrnand Pohan says the club will remain in Denver for the 1979-80 season. Pohan, an attorney and stepson of Rockies' owner Arthur Imperatore, said it probably is Inevitable that rumors win circulate that the team will either fold or be moved to another city this summer.
Pohan said he hoped to take steps to dispel those rumors, such as taking out full-page newspaper ads saying the team will stay in Denver. "I spent yesterday going over the season-ticket campaign for next year," he said Thursday. "We want to operate the team here — and there's no place else for us to go, I've got to do my best to prove to the people that that's what we're going to do.
"We can't go through the summer with me saying, 'I don't know, I don't know what we're going to do/ Well, we're going to operate the team here." Pohan said the franchise would lose about $2 million in the first season of ownership by Imperatore, a New- Jersey trucking magnate who bought the club from Denver oilman Jack Vickers and his partners.
Imperatore still hopes to obtain an expansion franchise for his home area when the Meadowlands arena is completed in East Rutherford, N. J., Pohan said. But in the meantime, he said, Imperatore will hold onto the Rockies.
Pohan denied having heard or courted any offers from investors in Calgary, Alberta. Investors there hope to acquire an NHL team for a planned arena, and they have indicated interest in the Rockies, Pohan said he has had inquiries from. Hamilton, Ontario, but added. "They don't have a building built, either."
"We know there's no chance of us moving this team to the Meadowlands — that's been made pretty clear (by the NHL)r" Pohan said. "We want to build the team up here, sell to local people and get an expansion team. *Tm not talking to Calgary, I'm not talking Hamilton. I'm not talking to anyone."
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:39:43 GMT -5
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1979
NHL rejects WHA
KEY LARGO, Fla. (CP) — The National Hockey League board of governors today rejected plans to expand to include four World Hockey Association teams for the 1979-80 season, NHL president John Ziegler said after a two-day meeting broke up.
"We finally got a motion on expansion on the floor, and it did not receive the required vote," Ziegler said.
At least 13 of 17 governors would have had to be in favor to approve plans to bring Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques and New England Whalers into the NHL for next season.
Harold Ballard, the Toronto Maple Leafs owner who has long been against a move to absorb WHA clubs, said there were six clubs voting against the motion as presented today. Apart from Toronto, the others were believed to be Boston Bruins, Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings and, possibly, Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders.
"I'm disappointed for our fans," Winnipeg Jets general manager John Ferguson said after learning of the NHL decision. "I know many of them were hoping the merger would go through, but there is going to be hockey at Winnipeg Arena next season, you can be sure of that."
It will also be better than ever, Ferguson insisted. "We'll be going after all the good young hockey players we can sign," he said. "We're going to hit t h em (the NHL) where it hurts. . .by signing the top junior players in the country." Ferguson indicated many WHA teams will be attempting to sign under-aged juniors, however, he stopped short of saying the Jets will also follow that route.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:39:58 GMT -5
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1979
Talks on expansion lack a formal vote
KEY LARGO, Fla. (CP) — The scene was new — the lush surroundings of the exclusive millionaires' playground that is the Ocean Reef Club — but the topic was old, the National Hockey League's third annual exercise in discussing expansion to incorporate World Hockey Association teams.
NHL president John Ziegler, essentially guarded on what he could say after a board of governors meeting Wednesday, said the talks were concerned with the possible forms the NHL could take if four WHA teams Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques and New England Whalers —were accepted into the NHL.
Meeting continues
But there was no formal vote on the subject taken in the day-long meeting before the governors went back at it in a meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. today.
"That's a goal," Ziegler said when asked if he wanted a yes-or-no position to be reached by the time the governors head home to- night.
"If it doesn't look like there's much chance of having an expansion, then I'm just going to get a 'No' vote and get it over with so we don't waste time any more.
"If we're very close to perhaps a 'Yes' vote on this question, and it needs a little more work, it would be my recommendation that we not kill the idea just because we ran out of time. But we'd have to be pretty close before I'd do that."
Another possible expansion site is the Meadowlands facility at East Rutherford, N.J., but no team would play there before the 1981-82 season. Arthur Imperatore, owner of Colorado Rockies, has been reported ready to put a team there, but the NHL currently does not want the Rockies moved, so he would have to sell that club first.
Ziegler said he personally is in favor of a deal to bring the four WHA teams — excluding Cincinnati Stingers and Birmingham Bulls — into the NHL fold if it will bring order to professional hockey.
"I've maintained the same view for the last couple of years. I think it would be a good idea if we had one major professional league in North America. That's always subject to 'ifs' and 'ands.'
Conditions dictate
'"If conditions are such that it can only be done so that it's going to end up hurting us, then I'm not in favor of it. My personal view is that there are conditions which could be adopted which would benef i t everybody in the league. "But, like many things, not everybody agrees with me."
The ultimate decision, however, rests not with Ziegler but with the governors, and Harold Ballard of Toronto Maple Leafs, long recognized as the leader of the group opposed to any deal with the seven-yearold WHA, is believed to have several colleagues lined up with him. Among the teams in that group are believed to be Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings.
Discussion Wednesday took the form of hypothetical cases arising after the four WHA clubs are admitted, Ziegler said, "without anybody prejudicing their over-all positions." Presumably, then, governors opposed to the idea could give what their views on realignment, scheduling, player rights, Canadian television revenue and dealings with the players' association would be in light of expansion. "We still don't have a consensus yet," Ziegler said.
"We had discussions today with everybody, not just those who were involved with the committees on the question, and they raised some of the things we talked about but which had to be brought Up again," he said.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:40:21 GMT -5
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1979 WHA rebuffed; NHL rejects expansion i .. KEY LARGO, Fla. (CP) — Reactions ranged from the effusive elation of Harold Ballard of Toronto Maple Leafs to the deep disappointment of Ed Snider of Philadelphia Flyers after the National Hockey League's'board of governors voted Thursday to scrap a plan to add four World Hockey Association teams for the 1979-80 season.
"I feel so elated, it's just like the North beating the South in the Civil War," said Ballard as he left at the end of the two-day meeting that resulted in the rejection of a motion to add Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques and New England Whalers, by what was, believed to be one vote.
"There is no reality in the National Hockey League," said Snider, who was a proponent of the plan and at loggerheads with Ballard, a longtime champion of anti- WHA forces in the NHL.
Expansion requires that three-quarters of the NHL's 17 clubs vote in favor, and only 12 were bejieved to have supported the plan presented Thursday. Those opposed, it appeared, were Toronto, Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings.
NHL president John Ziegler went to pains to avoid saying who lined up on each side of the question, but he acknowledged that for him, personally, the result was surprising and disappointing.
"I think that everybody went about it on the basis of 'Let's make a decision one way or the other and get it behind us —whatever it is, that should be it," Ziegler said.
"Certainly the whole approach was that if we were going to do anything for the '79-'80 season we should do it now, and nobody had any stomach or desire to go through this exercise in the near future.
From a procedural standpoint, no member club is precluded from asking that anything be put on an agenda. But from a practical standpoint, I'd have to say that the matter has expired." Ziegler has said he believes that hockey would benefit from having only one major league. "You're disappointed in the sense that a lot of people put a lot of work on it and, as I've said, I still think the best thing for our sport is one professional league, so the fact that we have not accomplished that, I'm disappointed in, yes."
Jacques Courtois of Montreal, an apparent surprise 'No' vote in light of his past statements that the Canadiens favor absorbing stronger WHA clubs into the NHL, declined to say directly how the Stanley Cup champions had voted. "John Ziegler suggested that the release of the vote should not be itemized because it could be misleading because you aren't necessarily against expansion if you vote against a specific plan," Courtois said.
'But you know there are some guys in the NHL who are prepared to make a deal at the expense of the others. They give up nothing, but they say: 'Oh it's a very good deal.
You give up this, you give up that, and we'll have a deal." If Montreal did go against its previous position, it likely was because the Canadiens did not feel they were receiving adequate compensation for, or re-acquiral rights to, the 30-odd p'layers who jumped from their well-stocked organization to the WHA.
This is the third consecutive year in which NHL governors have discussed some sort of accommodation with the rival WHA — to avoid anti-trust problems no one dares call it a merger — and it could be the last for some time, if not forever. "I'm sure if you were to ask right now, everybody would say 'It's out forever', " Ziegler said.
Snider, who has perhaps worked the hardest during the last several years to bring about a deal, appeared to be of that view when he said he could not see bringing the matter up again, given the work involved and the failure here after considerable hope of success. But there were ample indications that a large majority of the NHL clubs were disappointed at the failure of the Expansion plan, and one or more could, as Ziegler noted, propose it as an agenda item later.
"I'm disappointed because I think it would be the best Thing for the league," said Gordon Gund of Minnesota North Stars. "I think it would be the test thing for hockey, for the whole sport. But obviously not enough people agreed."
The NHL deferred, without action, a proposal to put an expansion team into the Meadowlands facility at East Rutherford, N.J., for the 1981-82 season, but that will, no doubt, come up again. "We never make a decision until we have to," said Ziegler.
Meanwhile, the ball was squarely back in the WHA's court after the NHL rejection. Although no formal bids for franchises had been received or requested from the four WHA teams unde consideration, that would have been easy enough to arrange if the plan had passed. "I don't think anybody really thought in those terms," Ziegler said when asked if he believed the NHL snub would result in the death of the WHA.
"I believe that they will continue. I don't think anybody expressed any belief that the WHA will not continue. I think everybody expected that, if we did not expand, they would continue as a league. "If anybody held any other opinion, they certainly didn't say it at the meeting."
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:40:46 GMT -5
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1979
Vote embitters Jets' president By REYN DAVIS "We will never apply to the NHL again."
A hurt and angry Michael Gobuty made the remark Thursday afternoon, hours after the news had broken that the National Hockey League had rejected a proposal to expand to four World Hockey Association cities, including Winnipeg.
Gobuty, the president of Winnipeg Jets, didn't mind the weeks of worry, hours of negotiation and thousands of miles of travel to make a better, more acceptable presentation to the NHL on bshalf of Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques, New England Whalers and the Jets.
But he was dismayed that Molson's and Western Broadcasting would stop it from happening. Molson's owns Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks are owned by Western Broadcasting.
Vole 'a surprise'
"It really came as a surprise to see both of them vote against expansion," said Gobuty. "We felt that Vancouver and Montreal would support us."
All three Canadian-based NHL teams voted against expansion. Toronto Maple Leafs, owned by Harold Ballard, have bitterly opposed any kind of accommodation with the WHA.
Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings were also opposed. Gobuty said the biggest problem was the NHL owners' inability to settle the question of players' rights and the splitting of television revenues "three or four years down the road."
Terms of the expansion recommendation were: • Each WHA team would pay $6 million as an expansion fee that would include cleanup costs of leaving the WHA. • Canadian-based WHA teams would not participate in the national pool of-Hockey Night in Canada telecasts for three years, but in the meantime, the Jets would have French and English rights to show their games on television in Manitoba. • Each WHA team would be obliged to have $1.5 million in operating capital for the first season.
Rejection, however, has made WHA owners more determined than ever to establish itself as a major league.
Move a mistake
"The NHL has made a mistake," said Jets' general manager John Ferguson. "Their fans are going to be cheated out of seeing some awfully good hockey players. . .Mark Howe, Real Cloutier, Wayne Gretzky. "We'll hurt them where it hurts most. We'll sign the best kids." Ferguson said the WHA's backup plan would be invoked at a meeting next Tuesday and Wednesday in Toronto. He said the Jets would concentrate on graduating juniors, but he couldn't vouch for his league partners, especially those in the United States, who might be inclined to sign under-age juniors.
"Five of the top 10 draft choices this year are playing in Birmingham," he said. "We'll keep them and get more." If the NHL had agreed to expand, there was a distinct possibility of a three-way trade involving the Jets, Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Black Hawks.
Montreal would have traded left winger Cam Connor to Chicago for defenceman Phil Russell. Then the Hawks would have traded Connor to Winnipeg for Bobby Hull.
Hull's price tag high
"We would have given it some thought," said Ferguson. "Of course, we would have expected some cash and a couple of draft choices as well. "Right now, we're willing to talk about Hull's services. But the price tag is high —$750,000." Ferguson said the possibility of such a trade still happening is jeopardized by the fact that Connor would have to be waived out of the NHL before he could come to the Jets. "And the possibility of that happening is very remote," said Ferguson.
BENCH BITS: Western Broadcasting's role in stopping expansion is made more puzzling by the fact that it also owns radio station CJOB, which has carried Jets' broadcasts since the club's inception. .
What price Molson's will pay for its role in stopping expansion will be interesting. . Suddenly, the rosy picture painted by Canadiens' president Jacques Courtois during a visit to Winnipeg several weeks ago sounds like so much pap. . ."I don't think there are enough hard-liners anymore to completely stop expansion," he said. . .He seemed sincere at the time.. .
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:41:03 GMT -5
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1979
Greed prompted betrayal of hockey heritage John Robertson
Okay, take a deep breath and repeat after me: "I will NEVER watch another NHL telecast, or use its sponsors' products. . . "I will NEVER watch another NHL telecast or use its sponsors' products. .. "I will NEVER watch another NHL telecast or use its sponsors' products. . ." The foregoing is a message from the John Robertson school of "Don't get mad. . .GET EVEN!" Don't just say it, shout it! Better still, put it in writing and mail it to the CBC. Hockey Night in Canada? Humbug! It never really was. . .and now it never will be . So let's face up to this charade and deal with it once and for all, in the same blunt manner the Canadian cities of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver dealt with us at the NHL meetings in Florida Thursday. You don't want us? Fine, then we no longer want you.. .any part of you!
The NHL may be your league, but the CBC is our corporation and they are perpetrating a fraud by taking a house league dominated by Yankee carpetbaggers and pedalling it to us as Hockey Night in Canada. The shiv under the heart was hard enough to take, but when three of our own Canadian cities — Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver — stuck it in and broke it off, it is a betrayal of our hockey heritage.' And why did they do it? GREED!
Forget all the other published reasons! It would have been Hockey Night in Canada television money split six ways instead of three, if Winnipeg, Quebec and Edmonton came in. So let's mak e them pay!
And to think that Molson's have the guts to put out a beer called Molson's Canadian! Well, you can give them a message where it hurts most. Because what Molson's did to us Thursday was tantamount to serving us up a cold one, and passing it through their kidneys first.
Turnabout is fair play, I say. Then we have that tiresome, bloated 72-year-old juvenile delinquent who owns the Toronto Maple Leafs. The only way we can get back at him is to try and cut off some of that Hockey Night in Canada television money.
We can do this, as I mentioned, by sending a written message to Fat Harold, through the CBC, Hockey Night in Canada, and the sponsors. And we can take it a step further and demand the CBC pull the plug on the games here and put on something we can watch without setting projectile vomit records. It's our CBC, isn't it?
Vancouver Canucks are owned by Western Broadcasting, which also owns CJOB. But before you do anything rash, bear this in mind. When the Jets were going under a few years ago, it was Peter Warren and CJOB who put the full weight of the station and its mighty audience to the task of raising money to save the team. And it is CJOB which today is the voice of the Jets, and a mighty eloquent one at that.
The people at CJOB have no say in what the parent company in Vancouver decides. Sympathize with them. Don't knock them.
I don't know about you, but I am in a seething snit and it soars to apo plectic proportions when I dwell on the fact we were done in by our own people.
Five clubs voted against expansion, and all five men who voted against were Canadians. Jack Kent Cooke, the owner of Los Angeles Kings, milked most of his millions out of fellow Canadians before heading south. Paul Mooney, the man whocast the vote against for Boston, is, or was, a Canadian.
All of which brings me to another timely and topical subject.. .that additional grant lona Campagnolo announced here a while back. • -$5 million for arena expansion, conditional On us getting an NHL franchise.
With a federal election in the offing, I would suggest lona undergo a drastic revision pf thinking. She's done it before. Are you listening, Lloyd Axworthy. As of late Thursday afternoon, the Jets are fighting for economic survival, without a lifeline connecting them even loosely to a future NHL franchise.
Answer me this, lona. Should the people of Winnipeg be forced to suffer, because a bunch of money-grubbing fast-buck boys in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver sold them down the river.
Forget the mealy-mouthed quotes deploring the NHL vote, lona, Put up, or shut up. Put up $5 million unconditionally, and wish both Winnipeg and Quebec all the best of luck in the WHA in the future.
And then go on down the hall and visit your buddy Jean Sauve, Minister of Communications, in charge of the Canadian Radio-Television Commission, and get her to order the CRTC to order the CBC to carry WHA games on a weekly basis in at least half the cities across this country, but essentially Winnipeg, Edmonton and Quebec.
We have every right to expect this. The very television money being made from NHL viewers in Winnipeg and the other WHA cities is the reason we were voted out in the cold. Turn off the tap! Do it now.. .or stand accused of protecting a monopoly for the NHL within our very cities. \ What will happen to the Jets? I'll tell you what should happen. All eyes will be on Winnipeg Arena on Sunday night. People from all across Canada, especially NHL eyes in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, will be watching — like so many buzzards — hoping and praying that our fans will stay away, that the WHA teams will degenerate into bankruptcy, and that the NHL teams will be able to swoop in and pick up the players for a song.
They all want hockey to die here because that would best suit their economic interests. Who cares what it would do to us? Well, WE care. And it's about time we showed everyone how we feel — everyone including the Jets —especially the Jets!
I say let's turn Sunday into a JETS APPRECIATION NIGHT. Let's not only fill all the seats, let's fill the aisles and make them bring out the fire marshals to turn the overflow crowd away. It's not really a matter of choice. We MUST do it! We can turn rejection by the NHL into the best thing that every happened to hockey here. Let's give the Jet ownership the overwhelming community vote of confidence they need and deserve and motivate them 1.0 take the elastic off the bankroll and go out and sign the best junior stars money can buy. They say they will, if that's what you want. The alternative is nothing.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:41:21 GMT -5
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1979
Rejection not in best interests of hockey9 UNCONDITIOKILOMETER WHA plans own expansion By THE CANADIAN PRESS
Reaction to the National Hockey League's decision not to bring at least four World Hockey Association teams into its fold for next season was a mixture of surprise and, understandably, disappointment.
It marked the third time since 1977 the NHL governors have rejected plans to merge with the seven-yearold WHA.
Maurice Filion, vice-president of Quebec Nordiques, expressed surprise that the NHL would refuse to accept the WHA teams in a merger. Filion said he believes the WHA is stronger today than it has ever been and that the league will continue operating next season.
WHA president Howard Baldwin, also president of New England Whalers, said in Hartford, Conn., the NHL decision not to expand through merger with the WHA wasn't in the best interests of hockey.
He said he was amazed that the NHL would "turn its back" on the expansion proposals. He said he believes in the one-league concept, but that the WHA now will concentrate; on looking after its own teams and fans.
Filion said the league would continue next season with the same six teams currently operating and eventually consider expansion to eight and 10 teams, possibly including some European teams. Although Filion had a mild reaction to the news, Marcel Aubut, the Nordiques' president, gave a new twist to the idea of expansion.
"From now on we'll think only of our own league," Aubut said. "For the moment we'll continue with our six-team league, and we're preparing our own exansion plan over a fiveyear period, with the possibility of a European division. "The (NHL) decision is incomprehensible and is far from being in the best interests of hockey in North America."
Quebec City mayor Jean Pelletier said he was "surprised and disappointed" when he heard of the failure of the latest NHL-WHA expansion plan. Pelletier also questioned whether the best interests of hockey and the general public were served by the decision!
Pelletier said the municipal government's agreed participation in a plan to increase the seating capacity of le Colisee was voided, because the plan was tied to the Quebec team's gaining membership in the NHL.
He added, however, that the municipal government would be ready tostart a new study of expansion of seating capacity in le Colisee based on the reorganization plans of the WHA.
Baldwin said groups in such centres as Seattle, Portland, Dallas, Miami, Phoenix, Calgary, Ottawa and the Meadowlands, N.J*., have expressed interest in securing a WHA franchise.
The failure to come to an agreement in the merger talks means more to Birmingham than any other team in hockey, Bulls' owner John Bassett said.
"We've suffered a tremendous lag in attendance over the past two years because of the merger issue," Bassett observed. "Now that issue is gone and we can find out what kind of hockey town Birmingham really is."
The Bulls were not mentioned in merger rumors with the NHL this year. Four teams — Quebec, Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg and New England — were reported seeking absorption into the older major league.
Asked for a comment on the action, Bassett replied: "I can't really comment on other people's insanity. I've got enough problems of my own." Meanwhile, Cincinnati Stingers, the other WHA club not considered in possible merger plans, announced Thursday they'll be back next year. "The climate is certainly better now that we don't have that cloud on the horizon," said Bill DeWitt Jr., Stingers' executive vice-president.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:42:05 GMT -5
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1979
First step up to NHL - Baldwin HARTFORD (AP) ~ Howard Baldwin, president of the World Hockey Association, said Friday any future talks between his league and the National Hockey League will have to be initiated by the NHL.
Baldwin said he was very disappointed at the NHL board of governors' rejection of the merger plan Thursday in Key Largo, Fla., and blamed the three Canadian NHL teams for the situation.
"The three Canadian teams (Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks) look upon adding our Edmonton (Oilers), Winnipeg (Jets) and Quebec (Nordiques) franchises as a threat to their television revenue."
He added that the WHA believes the merger would have increased television money in Canada, but the NHL never allowed the WHA to explain that position. "If there are to be any future merger talks, the NHL will have to come to us," he said.
Baldwin, who also is president of New England Whalers, said the WHA efforts would he to solidify its operations and expand by two teams in the 1980-81 season.
He also,said the league has formed an international committee to consider interlocking play with European teams.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:42:23 GMT -5
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1979
Club terminates brewery's sponsorship Jets' lounge loses its three-star rating By REYN DAVIS
Winnipeg Jets went to bed with Molson's. Now they're kicking them out.
The Canadian brewery, renowned for its support of hockey and its hockey team (Montreal Canadiens), flabbergasted the fets on Wednesday by voting against a long-negotiated proposal that would have seen the National Hockey League expand to three Canadian cities — Winnipeg, Edmonton and Quebec City — and Hartford, Conn.
To register their disgust, the Jets have terminated Molson's sponsorship of the Three Star Awards held immediately after every home game.
They have also stripped the Three Star Room of its title and offered to buy the furniture from the brewery. The room is plushly decorated and is located directly off the dressing room.
The Jets take VIPs there and it's also a gathering place for the wives and girlfriends of the players. Presumably, the changes will be in effect on Sunday night when the Jets meet Quebec Nordiques in a World Hockey Association game at 7:30.
If the Jets ever needed the moral support of their fans, it's now. . .and they're receiving it. Three times they have tried to join the NHL and three times they have been refused. Each time the wounds grow deeper.
The Jets' office was flooded with phone calls Friday from fans expressing their indignation for the NHL and pledging their support of the team in its future endeavors.
Molson's in Winnipeg was busy too as beer-drinking hockey fans told the company of their disgust. In Quebec City, the brewery received a bomb threat.
But why should Molson's be singled out for a public outcry? The Canadiens' president, Jacques Courtois, made a tour of Edmonton and Winnipeg to specifically say he supported expansion. The Canadiens and their new owners (Molson's) were in a good position to be the national leaders of expansion. They seemed to be taking advantage of that role.
Then they voted against the proposal. Some people feel betrayed. Can you blame them? Amazingly, one of the terms of the proposal stated that WHA teams would be allowed to protect only four players — two goaltenders and two skaters. The NHL would also get all of the players off the rosters of Cincinnati Stingers and Birmingham Bulls.
Actually, the expansion fee for a Canadian team would have been $7.2 million or $6 million, U.S. Now, presumably, some of that money will be spent on signing the best juniors.
Next week in Toronto each WHA team will be asked to spend $1.5 million to sign junior players. Atnerican-based WHA teams, especially Cincinnati and Birmingham, have already reached tenative agreements with some under-age juniors.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:42:39 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Tuesday, March 13,1979
Consumers foaming, merger on tap? By REYN DAVIS
Molson's, the beer company that unwittingly betrayed a country, wants a second chance.
Scared silly to be cast in the role of fall guys of the expansion that didn't happen, Molson's is mounting a new initiative .to reopen talks in the National Hockey League. "We ask for your sympathy, support and some patience," said Morgan McCammon, president of Molson's Canada. "I have to believe it's (expansion) possible. I do believe we will be successful this time, and I hope I'm not being overly optimistic."
A general boycott of his company's products in the Winnipeg area has had an almost immediate effect. McCammon and Hoilis Brace, vicepresident of Molson's Canada and president of Molson's International, flew to Winnipeg Monday and held an evening press conference at the Winnipeg Inn.
Molson's is feeling the wrath and ire of Manitoba consumers because the administrators of its hockey club (Montreal Canadiens) chose not to support an expansion proposal .last Thursday in Key Largo, Fla. "None of us were participants," said McCammon, absolving his company of the blame. "And nobody is as upset as we are."
As McCammon sees it, the ill-fated expansion proposal was badly conceived by four NHL governors who worked through the night late last Wednesday. He said there was only one typewritten draft, containing 15 points and it was read to the other governors.
He said that although the Canadiens supported the concept of expansion they could not accept the proposal for two main reasons: • The 14 U.S.-based teams in the NHL would have shared in the revenues of Hockey Night in Canada telecasts, a domain that has been enjoyed exclusively by Canadian clubs; • NHL teams would receive only cash payments for the fights of WHA players on their protected lists. The Canadiens want the players or draft choices.
McCammon said the WHA teams would have been shocked to see the financial terms of expansion. The figure was $10 million a team, or $4 million more than they expected to pay.
The reason, he explained, was because WHA teams thought their $6 million expansion fee should include cleanup costs while the NHL thought the cleanup costs —$2.4 million to Birmingham Bulls and $4.8 million to Cincinnati Stingers — should be borne over and above the $6 million.
"I know you feel you are a rejected suitor," McCammon told the gathering of 30 media members, three of whom were from Quebec City, an equally indignant populace. "You feel you were slashed, pokechecked and charged into the boards. As a corporate citizen we can and do share your feeling."
McCammon said he has been in contact with Winnipeg Jets' president, Michael Gobuty, and executive director, Marc Cloutier, in the last four days. Meanwhile, back at the pub, beer drinkers drown their sorrows in other brands while Molson's attempts to undo the damage done by merely being a party to such a bizarre situation.
However, the opportunity is there for Molson's to rescue expansion by drafting a better proposal, still acceptable to the bulk of the U.S. governors and more equitable to the four franchises that wish to join. But it's unlikely to happen without some major concessions by the Canadiens.
"We're the target of most clubs, especially the clubs in our league," said McCammon. Would Molson's risk a dynasty to champion the cause of expansion in the rest of Canada? Would Molson's ever put Canada ahead of the Canadiens?
That's the $24 million question.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:42:59 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Tuesday, March 13,1979
Hal Sigurdson Sports Editor
Storm brewing over vote
A friend sells beer at Jets' hockey games at Winnipeg Arena. Normally, he says, he personally opens about six two-dozen cases or 144 bottles of Molsori's products a night. Sunday his sales of Molson's brew totalled eight bottles.
Some time Saturday night, says Molson's local sales manager Ed Mazur, someone shot a hole through the plate glass in the front door of his Furby Street brewery. People have also been returning Molson's products already purchased, he admitted.
Signs advocating a boycott of Molson's beer were prominently displayed Sunday at'the Arena. The Three Star selection at the end of Jets' games is now just that —the three star selection. It used to be the Molson's Three Star Selection.
All this, of course, is the work of irate Winnipeg hockey fans angered by the fact Molson's most prominent subsidiary, the Montreal Canadiens, voted against a merger with four WHA cities, including Winnipeg, last Thursday in Key Largo, Fla. Their efforts have not taken long to catch the attention of the people at Molson's head office in Montreal. That is why we were favored Monday by a visit from two of the brewery's top honchos, Morgan McCammon, president of Molson's Canada and Hoilis Brace, vice-president of Molson's Canada and president of Molson's International.
They sat together on a Winnipeg Inn settee wearing three-piece suits and sincere looks. Ringed by reporters, they attempted earnestly to explain how, despite that negative vote, Molson's really loves us with all its corporate heart. "We are corporate citizens of Winnipeg, too," McCammon announced gravely. "We are just as disappointed as you are."
Sure, Morgan.
Vote a misunderstanding
But if he's really that disappointed, reporters demanded, how did he explain that negative vote? It was all a terrible misunderstanding, he insisted. Both Molson's and the Canadiens are all in favor of expansion. It wasn't expansion the Canadiens voted against. It was only this particular expansion proposal.
McCammon then proceeded to lay before us a scenario which, if true, should result in the immediate impeachment of NHL president John Zlegler and the censure of every NHL" governor by his shareholders. The way McCammon tells it, the governors spent nine fruitless hours Wednesday discussing a written expansion proposal submitted by the WHA. It included 15 separate points and the governors couldn't reach unanimous agreement on any of them.
Eventually, the McCammon story continues, the governors gave up for the night. However, an informal committee made up of four unnamed clubs continued to wrestle with the problem into the wee, small hours. (On Arthur Wirtz' yacht, it's whispered). Thursday morning a -brand new proposal, long and complex, was read to the governors who were then asked to vote on it immediately. No written "copies were supplied. No time was afforded to consider the new ground rules.
Montreal voted no, McCammon said, because Canadians' governor Jacques Courtois understood this proposal to give his 14 U.S.-based partners the right to share in Canadian television, revenues. Montreal has no objection to sharing with its good friends in Winnipeg, Quebec City and Edmonton, we were assured, but not with those greedy Americans.
Canadiens after new meeting
Whether or not you choose to believe that, I leave to your discretion. But I have to believe McCammon's version of the scenario leading up to the vote. Would anyone in his right mind make up a story that farfetched? Surely not. And if it is true, is the WHA really sure it wants to join a league which runs its business in such slapstick fashion?
Meanwhile, McCammon tells us Les Canadiens are insisting the NHL call a new meeting to reopen.the topic. He hopes to be pull it off within the next two or three weeks, he says, thus saving merger and Manitoba's Molson's beer sales.
Saving merger is apparently a desire shared by the Vancouver Canucks, who also voted no last Thursday. Like the Canadiens, the Canucks insist they really favor joining the two leagues. In fact, Canucks' board chairman Frank Griffiths would have us believe he loves us even more than Morgan McCammon. The only reason he voted negatively, he says now, is because the Thursday proposal was a bad deal for the WHA.
He was merely saving us from the lust of his fellow governors, presumably because he feared the WHA people wouldn't be bright enough to say no to their impending rape. Sure, Frank.
Still you have to hand it to Griffiths. Both Montreal and Vancouver voted no on merger. Both the Canucks and Canadiens have parent companies doing business in Winnipeg. In the Canucks' case it's radio station CJOB. For seven years, both CJQB and Molson's Manitoba have been staunch supporters of the Jets.
But today you don't hear about any organized effort to tune out CJOB. You do, however, hear certain CJOB personalities advocating a boycott of Molson's beer. Is that what they call chutzpah? Or is it unmitigated gall
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:43:12 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Tuesday, March 13,1979
Canucks clarify stand
VANCOUVER (CP) – Merger talks between the National Hockey League and the World Hockey Association will be revived soon, chairman Frank Griffiths of the NHL Vancouver Canucks said Monday.
"It's more a matter of days than weeks," Griffiths said about further negotiations on a subject the NHL said last week was a dead issue.
Vancouver was one of five NHL teams — Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings were the others —to vote against a proposed merger which would take in WHA teams from Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec City and New England.
"I expect the talks to be alive again this week," Griffiths said. "We (the Canucks) aren't against taking in the four cities. "In fact, we're for it, but not under the terms proposed at the (NHL) governors' meeting in Florida.
We want the Canucks' position to be a fair one. We can't have partners who are second-class citizens." NHL governors meeting at Key Largo, Fla., last week turned down a 17-page merger proposal when there were only 12 votes in favor and five against. A 75 per cent vote in favor was necessary to implement the proposal.
Griffiths said the terms of the most recent proposal were not equitable and Vancouver would not support a merger with the WHA until the document is re-polished —"then we'll support it."
The Vancouver chairman said he was upset over events in Florida because he had flown five times to New York previously to help draw up merger terms with the WHA. He said what he thought he was supporting and what was out before the NHL governors in Key Largo were two different packages.
"A rump group of owners rewrote the whole thing, into the early hours, the night before the meeting," he said. "We were presented with a-17-page typewritten document and were told we could vote only yes or no. "No amendments and it had to be done right away.
"We (the Canucks) refused to vote for something that can't be changed. And we weren't going to be party to an agreement that would permit the other people (the WHA) to say we were rubbing their noses in it."
Griffiths would not give details about which items in the document the Canucks wanted altered. He said he was confident, however, that a revamped NHL proposal could be approved at the next NHL board of governors meeting, slated for Chicago, Mar. 22. Then it would be up to the WHA to accept or reject the idea.
It was reported in Florida that last week's proposal included the four WHA teams paying the NHL $6 million each for entrance, the same fee the Canucks paid when they entered the NHL as an expansion team nine years ago.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:43:25 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1979
Fergie 's counter offer
If terms of a proposed expansion can be modified to allow World Hockey Association teams to protect five skaters, general manager John Ferguson believes Winnipeg Jets could have a competitive team next season in the National Hockey League.
Ferguson says the Jets would adamantly refuse to agree to the NHL's prescribed conditions that would permit incoming WHA teams to keep only four players — two goaltenders and two skaters
Ferguson expects an expansion proposal will be approved next week at a meeting of NHL governors in Chicago. - "We would spend the next four or five days negotiating that proposal," said Ferguson.
Under the terms of the NHL's expansion proposal revealed Wednesday, the WHA teams would be obliged to give up their players to the NHL teams who hold their rights.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:43:40 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1979
Expansion: like a quilt; all want patch built in
NEW YORK (AP) — National Hockey League president- John Ziegler said Wednesday night a number of obstacles remain to be ironed out before the NHL can expand to include four franchises from the World Hockey Association.
Ziegler has called a meeting of the NHL's board of governors for March 22 in Chicago and discussions will be held on a proposed offer of admission .to Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques, Winnipeg Jets and New England Whalers.
"There is not yet a formal proposal to be put to the governors," Ziegler said Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden after watching Atlanta Flames down New York Rangers 6-4. "And further, even if a proposal were accepted by the governors, the WHA may say to us, 'That's very nice, fellows, but we're not interested.' " Beyond that, Ziegler said, negotiations must be held with the NHL Players Association, which is empowered by the collective bargaining agreement to claim breach of that contract if a "merger" with the WHA were to take place.
NHLPA executive director Alan Eagleson said in Toronto on Wednesday night his association would want to negotiate for "half of the proceed^ from the sale of four NHL franchises." "And if that figure is $24 million, then we're talking $12 million — all of which would go directly into the players' pension fund. The owners know what we want, and if they want expansion badly enough, they know we're after major concessions."
But Ziegler said the governors still are seeking concessions among themselves on matters regarding finances, player rights, scheduling, and the alignment of the teams if expansion is accepted. "It's like a quilt," he said. "Every team has a patch they want built in — and it's a very slender thread that -holds the quilt together." •
The Montreal Canadiens are an example. The Canadiens are one of five teams that voted down an expansion proposal at a governors meeting in Florida last week. "That proposal contained many-items that related to equalization and parity that would adversely affect the top six clubs in the NHL," said Canadiens' managing director Irving Grundman in a telephone interview Wednesday. "You can't legislate parity. We (the Canadiens) have the most to lose in a waiver draft.
"It's very simple for people who have nothing to lose to agree to anything that might be offered," Grundman added. "But I don't think we can change our minds if there is no change in the proposal." But, as Zfegler said Wednesday night, the draft of a new proposal has not been completed because each of the 17 NHL clubs has sets of conditions it wants included in the document.
"You're negotiating with 17 people," said Ziegler. "It s not one person negotiating with 17. It's 17 people negotiating with 17 people. , "For every issue you've got a different view, and you ve got to extract a contract of compromise." "My hope is that we'll be able to come to some expectation of consensus (among the governors) and get something out in writing for the governors to review before the meeting takes place."
Earlier Wednesday, radio station CKNW in New Westminster, B.C., without identifying its source, reported that rights to WHA players previously drafted by NHL teams would become the property of those NHL teams. Professional players under 20 years of age — the legal drafting age by pro clubs — would be put up for grabs at the NHL draft in June.
The station said each expansion team would be permitted to keep two goaltenders and two skaters before the remaining players reverted to NHL teams. The new teams then would participate in an expansion draft — with each selection costing $125,000 — of the remaining players.
Each incumbent NHL' team would protect 15 skaters, two goaltenders and first-year pros from that draft, the report said.
The station also said expansion teams would have to provide proof of a cash reserve of $1.5 million. Ziegler refused to comment on the radio report.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:43:57 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1979
Fergie's terms two and five By REYN DAVIS
If terms of a proposed expansion can be modified to allow World Hockey Association teams to protect five skaters, general manager John Ferguson believes Winnipeg Jets could have a competitive team next season in the National Hockey League.
"We would have 10 quality players for sure, maybe more," said Ferguson. "We could live with that." Ferguson says the Jets would adamantly refuse to agree to the NHL's prescribed conditions that would permit incoming WHA teams to keep only four players — two goaltenders and two skaters.
"Why would we want to be put in a position in which we would be stagnant?" he asked. "For sure, we would refuse." Ferguson expects an expansion proposal will be approved next week at a meeting of NHL governors in "We would spend the next four or five days negotiating that proposal," said Ferguson.
Under the terms of the NHL's expansion proposal, revealed Wednesday, the WHA teams would be obliged to give up their players to the NHL teams who hold their rights. In the Jets' case, the following players would be affected:
• Goaltenders — Joe Daley (Minnesota) and Markus Mattsson (Islanders). • Skaters — Barry Long (Detroit), Kim Clackson (Pittsburgh), Scott Campbell (St. Louis), Terry Ruskowski (Chicago), Rich Preston (Chicago), Kent Nilsson (Atlanta), Morris Lukowich (Pittsburgh), Glenn Hicks (Detroit), Bill Lesuk (Washington), Lyle Moffat (Toronto), Paul Terbenche (Colorado), Steve West (Washington), Dale Yakiwchuk (Montreal) and Paul MacKinnon (Washington).
The NHL teams who claim the players would then have to protect them among their frozen 15 skaters and two goaltenders or they would go into a dispersal draft in which the Jets would have the chance of reclaiming some.
However, if the Jets are able to protect "five and two", as Ferguson hopes, he could keep the best players on that list. In addition,'he would be able to protect all of the following, if he so chose. • Goaltender — Gary Smith. • Skaters — Mike Amodeo, Lars-Erik Sjoberg, Peter Sullivan, Bob Guindon, Roland Eriksson, Willy Lindstrorn, John Gray and Bill Davis.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:44:10 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Friday, March 16, 1979
Hope amid chaos?
NEW YORK (AP) — People thought they had read the final story on the issue of National Hockey League expansion to include four World Hockey Association clubs.
And NHL President John Ziegler, quite frankly, thought he and his governors had made the final statement on the matter. "It's a dead issue," he said in Florida last week after the league voted down the tiresome issue.
But here we are again, back at square one, talking about next week's NHL meeting at Chicago, and talking about how this time, the expansion may well go through after all. Well, what the heck happened, Mr. Ziegler?
Ziegler, sitting in a posh executive suite at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night, provided the details. "I met with the press probably 15 minutes after the meeting," he recalled. "When the motion was defeated, people were very quick to ask for adjournment. My judgment was that there was nothing to indicate there was any hope. It had to be considered a dead issue. "But I think people went back home and said, 'What the heck just took place here?'
"Then, Friday, I had a very detailed, analytical conversation with Gordon Gund (vice chairman of the Minnesota North Stars). We were reviewing what had taken place, and Gordon and I still thought it might be workable. "Gordon then reviewed with Vancouver their position, since they were one of the clubs that voted against expansion. And I called Frank Griffiths (chairman of the Canucks) and, after talking to him, I felt there was hope.
"I spent the weekend talking with a lot of people. There was a lot of difference in opinion, but there was enough positive indication that (NHL board chairman) Bill Wirtz and I concluded the indications were such that at least it was Worth another meeting; so we decided to try to come up with a resolution on the issue that would put a sufficient majority in support of it.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:44:25 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Friday, March 16, 1979
Second thoughts led to more talks BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
The backing and filling continued as the National Hockey League board of governors prepaped to meet in Chicago next Thursday to consider another proposal for a merger with four of the six members of the World Hockey Association.
Prospects of an NHL-WHA union were pronounced dead by NHL president John Ziegler after the latest plan was rejected at a board meeting in Key Largo, Fla., last week and were resurrected within three days.
The Key Largo formula fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required for acceptance by the board of the plan to admit the four WHA franchises — Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec and New England — to membership. The other two WHA cities, Cincinnati and Birmingham, were not included in the deal.
News of the breakdown in negotiations for the third time in as many years brought a flood of unfavorable comment, particularly from the three rejected Canadian cities, with criticism directed especially at the three Canadian NHL members — Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver — all opponents of the Key Largo proposal.
But while Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard remained a steadfast opponent of any accommodation with the WHA, spokesmen for Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks quickly responded that they had voted against the terms of the Key Largo agreement rather than against the principle of a merger.
And Ziegler, explaining why the issue had resurfaced so quickly, said there had been enough second thoughts among his board members to warrant reconsideration. "We don't have a new resolution," he said, responding to reports that a new and detailed set of proposals had been worked out. "We don't have all the points ironed out."
But the NHL president said he hopes to work out a consensus in advance of the Chicago meeting. Among possible bones of contention were the status of players taken from NHL rosters when the WHA was formed in 1972, division of television revenues and the terms of the expansion draft. Meanwhile, some of the WHA members greeted the news of the revived merger talks with limited enthusiasm.
Peter Pocklington, owner of Edmonton Oilers, said he was interested in joining the NHL only on "even terms" and indicated that he was prepared to open negotiations with European leagues for some kind of affiliation if he and his fellow-owners were treated as "second-class citizens" by the NHL
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:44:40 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Friday, March 16, 1979
Sinden predicts WHA in
BOSTON (AP) —General manager Harry Sinden of Boston Bruins predicts the National Hockey League will admit four World Hockey Association teams at a meeting March 22.
The merger was considered dead a week ago when NHL owners voted against it. Only five votes were needed to kill the plan, but Sinden now says one of the opponents is changing his mind. Sinden didn't name the team, but suggested it may be Vancouver Canucks.
Boston, Toronto, Los Angeles, Montreal and Vancouver were teams that opposed a merger last week.
Sinden said NHL president John Ziegler wouldn't be preparing for another vote on the issue unless he was sure it would be passed. Reports indicate the WHA initiation fee would be $6 million per team, with franchises in Cincinnati and Birmingham not being absorbed.
The Bruins have opposed a merger with the WHA because, Sinden says, "in order to maintain a major league skill level we cannot exceed the number of teams the player supply will support."
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:44:59 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Friday, March 16, 1979
Horrible Harold safe from fans' furor John Robertson
Ah! People power!!!!!
A renewable resource of awesome proportions, costing virtually nothing but a little plain old-fashioned anger. One short week ago, Horrible Harold Ballard came swaggering out of the NHL meetings in Key Largo, Fla., to gleefully announce that the NHL governors had driven the final nail into the WHA merger coffin. "We socked it to them," brayed Ballard, "right up to the old elbow."
Ballard's Bunkeresque attitude toward the WHA didn't startle anyone. Every time he opens his mouth on the subject of merger, WHA owners turn the other cheek and brace themselves.
But as furious as you get against Ballard, how do you retaliate from 1,500 miles away? His Tiger-Cats come in here in the fall, but they're already such a dreadful group of misfits that the Bombers are considering letting the fans in free and charging them to get out.
So what do you do? Bring your dog to the game and let it Oski—Wee—Wee on Horrible Harold's spats? It happens every spring. The Maple Leafs run to sap. ..and Harold Ballard does Idi Amin imitations.. .at the expense of the WHA.
But do you want to hear my definition of a really bad winter?
To suffer through 112 days of below-zero weather, and on the 113th, to be rejected by the Vancouver Canucks. Any self-respecting hockey team which even thinks about merging with the Vancouver Canucks should immediately be given penicillin shots.
Send in the Clowns"
The Canucks are the only team in hockey whose fans come to every game armed with whips and leather boots, so they can lash each other awake.
In Winnipeg, it's.. ."Here come the Jets." In Vancouver, it's.. ."Send in the Clowns." So there we were, seven short days ago, rejected as expected by Harold the Horrible.. .bitten by a pack of junkyard dogs from over the mountains.. .and used as a hydrant by Molson's Canadiens.
The last one was what unleashed the pent-up fury of the masses, and Molson's is still begging for mercy. Now 1 don't know who really owns Molson's, but I'm willing to concede — on the basis of unfolding events of the past week — that it is a dummy corporation. They are just one big happy family. . .like the Borgias
It confounds me that a brewery which makes such good beer and employs such good people as Spider Mazur at the local level, can suffer from such an advanced case of toys in the attic.
They should declare the head office boardroom a rock garden.
Instead of whining and moaning about how they were misunderstood, and running around holding frantic secret meetings with the WHA to try and wriggle out of this self-imposed mess they're in, it's about time somebody up there in the Molson hierarchy came out front and did something to at least partially restore their credibility.
And now, here's the solution
The solution is so easy I'll offer it to them for nothing. Lay all the cards face up on the table.. .in this manner: Are you ready, fellows?
Because if you buy this, even I will stand in line to buy a front-end loafer full of Molson's, and I don't even drink any more.
Here's what you announce: "As of 9 this morning, we have just replaced Jacques Courtpis as president of the Le Club du Hockey Canadian. "The first duty of our new president, Jean Beliveau, will be to inform the board of governors of the National Hockey League that our team will vote emphatically in favor of merger with the WHA.
"Of far more consequence, we realize what a hardship it will be on the four new clubs to be competitive in the NHL, and in fairness to the fans at the Forum, as well as fans in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Quebec City, we further propose the following:
"We will immediately waive all claims to the 30 players in the WHA, now in the WHA, now on our negotiation list. We will further insist, since we feel that these players are our property within the existing realm of the NHL, that no other established NHL team be allowed to claim them from any WHA team.
"We will recommend, as a further show of good faith, that Hockey Night in Canada expand its telecasts right now, to show WHA playoff games to all of Canada, and especially in our own cities so our fans can become familiar with the WHA players. We will gladly sponsor the telecasts, if they lack a sponsor.
"Because so many good hockey fans in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Quebec City eagerly want to see the Canadiens, we further propose to play at least three pre-season exhibition games in each city next September, to help spur season-ticket sales for the new clubs.
Habs should do all possible
"Although we cannot guarantee that other NHL clubs will support our vote in favor of merger, we will exhaust every resource to make it possible, and make public our every move.
"Molson's sincerely regrets what has happened in the past. And we ask ail of our, customers who may have boycotted our products during the past week, to reconsider and watch us try to make amends.
"We believe that the hockey club we own is in a unique position to be a tremendously positive force for Canadian unity. What better way to promote a better understanding of Quebec throughout the rest of Canada than to send out as our goodwill ambassadors a unique blend of our two cultures, merging together so magnificently that the Montreal Canadiens have become the envy of the hockey world.
"To this end, we will further lobby to have the NHL realign its existing divisions to form an exclusively Canadian division, comprising Winnipeg, Edmonton, Quebec City, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. "And if this is achieved, Hockey Night in Canada will take on a new meaning and hockey as our national game will become a reality at long last."
If Molson's could pull this off, everyone would win. But I'm betting they don't have the corporate guts to even try.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:45:13 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Friday, March 16, 1979
Beer drinkers switch brands By REYN DAVIS
Most of John Slota's customers are sports-minded. They have their fun in Maginot Arena, then go to his place — The Windsorian — to talk it over before heading to their homes in Windsor Park.
But lately they have changed.
The beer they drink is Labatt's. . .by a margin of 5 to 1. "Normally, it's 1 to 1, but today we sell five bottles of Labatt's to every one of Molson's," he said. "I won't have to order any Molson's for the weekend. I've got enough."
The situation is the same at John's other place — The Pandora Inn in Transcona. Slota's customers are angry. They have boycotted Molson's, blaming the brewery for the National Hockey League's recent rejection of an expansion proposal to include three Canadian cities — Winnipeg, Edmonton and Quebec City —and Hartford, Conn.
But, now that expansion talks have been revived, has Sloan seen any switching back? "Not yet," he said. "And I doubt if I will. It seems to me that these people want to be satisfied before they'll go back."
By no means is the boycott general in Winnipeg. Rick, the bartender at the Gordon Downtowner, says he's noticed no significant change in the drinking tastes of his customers — "split right down the middle, half older folks, half the adult education crowd."
But over in St. Boniface, in the clubrooms of Norwood Branch 43 of the Royal Canadian Legion, the" patrons — most often between the ages of 40 and 50, are angry "Usually, it's pretty close to even around here," said Merv the bartender. "Now everybody drinks Labatt's."
The boycott has been the favorite topic of discussion around the Downs Motor Inn, according to "Ma" Henning, the manager.
"There's been some dropoff," she said. "But I expect it to blow over in a couple of weeks." Joan Neufeld manages the bar at The Highlander, the curling complex. She reports a drastic drop in Molson's sales.
"Molson's usually goes good here," she said. "A dozen cases a night is not uncommon. Now maybe I'll sell a case in an evening. They'll say 'anything, but a Canadian.' Everybody is upset." Still.
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