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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:45:31 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Saturday, March 17,1979
Canadiens' owners a destructive force Hal Sigurdson Sports Editor
The most destructive force in the National Hockey League today is not the team assembled by the Montreal Canadiens, but rather their thinking.
The attention of their corporate owners, Molson's Breweries, has finally been caught by the deafening silence created by all those beer taps being turned off in Winnipeg, Quebec City and Edmonton. It has finally dawned on them that a favorable vote on merger with the WHA might be a pretty good public relations move.
One suspects, however, that they still have not grasped the idea it should be done under any terms other than those which would assure Montreal dominance unto Armageddon. Now it should be clearly understood Les Habitants did not become an NHL power through cheating. Their formula has been simple —hard work blended with a dollup of enlightened management. Consequently, their stance on rejecting any expansion or equalization formula which means surrendering assets they've worked hard to achieve is understandable. Understandable, but dumb.
Canadiens can get boring
Sooner or later even Montreal fans have to get tired of watching their heroes win by scores of 11-1, 9-0 and 8-3. Watching the Canadiens play the Vancouver Canucks has all the suspense of watching a 200-pound father spank his 12-year-old son. In a lot of towns the Canadiens are no longer the big draw they once were. There's a limited market for watching bullies kick sand in the faces of 98-pound weaklings.
The Canadiens have always insisted you can't legislate parity in any league because you can't legislate against bad management. And that, of course, is true. The NHL always seems to employ a couple of GMs a few bricks short of a full load. And they always seem to wind up trading Montreal a first-round draft choice who turns out to be Guy Lafleur.
That sort of thing can't be prevented, but the Canadiens must be made to understand the rest of the league simply can't allow them to keep an unlimited supply of talent at their disposal when there are teams like the St. Louis Blues around. When the peasants look out from their mud huts and see the gentry pulling up to their mansions in Cadillacs, they tend to reach a rifle and plan revolution.
What's hurting the NHL is not the WHA, but it's own imbalance. Now the Canadiens want to use merger with the junior league as a means to increase that imbalance by demanding every WHA player ever drafted by an NHL team be returned to the team which drafted him.
Montreal has most to gain
Montreal, naturally, has more of those than anyone else. If you are a young hockey player drafted by Montreal anywhere lower than the first round you are almost certain to spend a couple of seasons playing for the Habs' farm team in Halifax. So why not sign a two or three-year contract with a WHA team and reassess your future when it's over?
Now, as a condition of merger, Montreal wants all those players back on a silver platter. Never mind the players' wishes. . .never mind the how much his WHA employer may have invested in him. Not only is that stupid, it's immoral. Can you imagine The Bay's takeover of Simpson's being conditional on Simpson's returning all University of Manitoba graduates to the Bay in Winnipeg?
If those draft choices had wanted to play for Montreal, why didn't they sign there in the first place? If Canadiens wanted them that badly, why didn't they make them an offer they couldn't refuse when they were on the open market.
Unless the NHL significantly alters its merger conditions on player rights, it doesn't really matter what happens next week in Chicago when the governors vote on the issue again. Even if they vote to merge — which they probably will — the WHA clubs couldn't possibly accept those terms. Marc Cloutler, the Jets' marketing man, says season ticket holders have kept his phone ringing steadily ever since the NHL's latest merger proposals were made public. Their message has been almost unanimous.
Offer a 'sweetheart'
"Accept the NHL's deal and we cancel our tickets."
The NHL's offer, in case you missed it, is a sweetheart. The WHA cities get to keep any two skaters and two goaltenders on their present rosters. Everyone else on whom the NHL has the vaguest claim is returned. The NHL teams then protect two goaltenders and 15 skaters and let the four WHA cities pick and choose from what's left over.
The last time the NHL went through that exercise, the result was the Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts. And that happened after splitting the leftovers only two ways. This plan would mean splitting them four ways.
Is that really what the Canadiens want their fans to pay to see eight times a season when they're already forcing them to pay to see teams like Vancouver, St. Louis, Colorado, Detroit and Washington?
Aw come-on fellas. Even if you don't have any pity for the other teams in the league or the four WHA cities you plan on fleecing of $6 million apiece, at least show a little compassion for your own customers.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:45:45 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Saturday, March 17,1979
Canucks prepared to support proposal By REYN DAVIS
Vancouver Canucks are ready to support an expansion proposal because the National Hockey League is prepared to accept the concept of a balanced schedule.
"That means we'll be able to see the Montreal Canadiens as often as anyone else," said Jake Milford, the Canucks' general manager. "That's been the big concern where I come from."
The Canucks were one of the five clubs who killed an expansion proposal in Key Largo, Fla., last week. "The proposal was set up so quickly, we had no time to study it," said Milford. "We voted against it only because we didn't have a chance to review it."
The Canucks are also stumping for a new playoff format in the NHL. Milford said his club was promoting the idea of having the eight highest finishers join eight wild-cards in the playoffs.
Milford was in Winnipeg last night to see the Jets-Cincinnati game in the World Hockey Association. Like most teams in the NHL with an early draft choice, the Canucks are particularly interested in the Stingers' 19-year-old right winger, Mike Gartner, rated by many to be the No. 1 choice in the country.
The terms of expansion —as he understands them — are "quite fair" in Milford's opinion. "What I know I think is fair," he said. An expansion fee of $6 million per club has been mentioned. "That's getting in easy," said Milford. "What's a million bucks these days? Eventually, it cost us $12 million to get into the NHL. They shouldn't feel too bad."
It has been estimated that each WHA club will be required to spend at least $8 million by the time the NHL is ready to accept it. Cleanup costs of folding the WHA, and paying off two clubs —- Birmingham Bulls and Cincinnati Stingers — to go out of business, are expected to amount to more than $7 million.
Today, the Canucks' gross revenues are close to $5 million. "It's a far cry from my days in Brandon with the Wheat Kings," said Milford. "I remember one year I operated the Wheat Kings on a budget of $16,000. Out of that came the salaries. . .including my own."
BENCH BITS: The WHA's chief executive officer, Ben Hatskin, says the league has never enjoyed such a strong position politically. . ."We've got to the driver's seat," he said. "But we're not behind the wheel yet". . .Hatskin believes the NHL's expansion proposal, if and when it's ever made, will be negotiable. . .But how do you negotiate with the NHL?. . ."Most of them are two-fisted drinkers," he said. "If you can catch them before they get drunk, maybe you can accomplish something."
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:45:59 GMT -5
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 1979
'National unity not merely financial* Three PQers rally to WHA's cause
QUEBEC (CP) — In the name of Canadian unity, two Quebec cabinet ministers and a Parti Quebecois backbencher have rallied to the cause of a proposed National Hockey League expansion adding four World Hockey Association teams.
Environment Minister Marcel Leger, chief referendum strategist for the government, says the chance for six Canadian NHL franchises is a chance to show that national unity is not merely a financial matter.
In the wake of the NHL's decision to reject an expansion last week, Leger re cently told the national assembly: "We had a chance to prove that Canadian unity is not uniquely a unity of Canadian financiers, but a unity of Canadian citizens who would have had the chance to have six teams from Canada in the National League."
Leger also said it was scandalous that two years ago federal Justice Minister Marc Lalonde opposed the establishment of a National Football League franchise in Canada under the pretext that such a move would amount to signing the death warrant for the Canadian Football League.
He noted that most CFL players are American, while 95 per cent of the players in the NHL are Canadian. Despite that, Leger told the assembly, Ottawa has done little to help Quebec Nordiques, Edmonton Oilers or Winnipeg Jets enter the NHL. The federal government has said it was prepared to pay Quebec, Winnipeg and Edmonton $5 million each if the cities get NHL franchises.
The provincial government had said earlier it was prepared to pay $7 million toward a $15-million renovation of the Quebec arena. The City of Quebec has offered to ante in $2 million to a 5,000-seat addition for the 10,000-seat arena.
Three of 17 teams in the league are based in Canadian cities. Leger said he found it ironic that "it takes a representative of the government of Quebec to defend Canadian players."
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:46:13 GMT -5
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1979
Bruins promise merger battle
BOSTON (AP) — Boston Bruins will sue the National Hockey League if member teams vote to merge with the World Hockey Association at a meeting in Chicago on Thursday, says Bruins' president Paul Mooney.
"The way it stands now," said Mooney, "we will bring suit, and we have the grounds to do it. To me, it's very interesting that all of the other teams getting ready for the meeting in Chicago have copies of the agenda and the proposal and we don't. It's curious to me the way this whole thing is being conducted." In the past, attempts to merge the two leagues have failed with the Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Los Angeles Kings, Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks .joining to block the move.
Two ready to switch
Mooney, who has led the merger opposition, feels that Montreal and Vancouver are on the verge of switching their position, giving merger proponents the necessary 13 votes to push them over the top. A vote by three-quarters of the 17-member NHL is needed.
"If we vote today . . . we lose," said Mooney. "There's terrific pressure in Canada on both Vancouver and Montreal. If it were just hockey that was involved, there is no way this would be approved."
Mooney says businessmen in Winnipeg and Edmonton are bringing pressure on the NHL's Canadian teams. "Molson's brewery owns the Canadiens," said Mooney, "and all of a sudden the papers in the WHA cities in Canada are knocking them all over the place. They have to be worried that such adverse publicity 'has to hurt the sale of their products."
Property rights violated
The Bruins' president says the merger would violate players' property rights and territorial rights. He says a unanimous vote — instead of three quarters — is needed to change by-laws pertaining to property rights and that'" there's no way we would vote for that." Also, he says: "There's a territorial rights rule with this. Hartford (where the New England Whalers will play) is 80 miles away.
"So you draw a 50-mile circle out from their building, and do the same from ours, and you find that they will be encroaching on our territory," Mooney said. Each team now in the NHL will receive $1 million from the merger, but, as Bruins' general manager Harry Sinden said, "it's $900,000 before we ever get it because payment is in Canadian dollars, not U.S. currency."
Bad business deal
"Then we have to give something like 25 per cent to our players' association so they'll go along with it. That will come to around $225,000. Then we have to pay taxes on the money, which will come to somewhere between $300,000 and $400,000.
"Then we have to give up four players, and let's say we place their value at $50,000 each, which I think is cheap.
"Now take the difference in the gate between what we'll draw playing Winnipeg, let's say, to playing Toronto, and then do that for eight games, and you can logically come to the conclusion that it's going to cost us a lot of money to let them in."
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:46:41 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Wednesday, March 21,1979
Hal Sigurdson Sports Editor
Why can't harmony rule over suspicion?
Nobody asked me, but. . . THE FINANCIAL PLIGHT of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, revealed in this newspaper last Saturday by columnist Barb Cansino, is indeed distressing. A symphony orchestra is one of the amenities any city which likes to think of itself as even modestly sophisticated must offer its residents.
One can fully appreciate the concern of those people who have not yet been rendered tone deaf by Meat Loaf or Kiss over the possibility of losing our orchestra. But what I can't understand is how so many of these concerned citizens seem convinced the symphony somehow wouldn't be in all this trouble if city council wasn't committed to expanding Winnipeg Arena.
If a National Hockey League franchise fails to materialize or the Jets fold, will it be because a few tax dollars were spent on the Centennial Concert Hall? Of course not. But it's that kind of suspicious, parochial thinking that has hurt the development of both the arts and sport in this city.
Are we so impoverished a community that we have to decide on one or the other? Is it against the law to enjoy both hockey and symphony music? Should people who hold season tickets to watch both the Blue Bombers and Rainbow Stage productions be ordered out of town before sundown?
Major reason for woes
That seems to be the logical conclusion of the "Us and Them" mentality. It's also a major reason, it seems here, why a lot of business people in a variety of fields, have trouble taking us seriously as a major league city.
DON'T YOU WORRY about people who are genuinely concerned about all the players the Montreal Canadiens will have to give up if a merger between the NHL and WHA goes through? Is it safe to let these people cross streets unattended?
If the Canadiens happen to draft a player who then signs with New England, how does that make him more Montreal's property than the Whalers'? Last summer the Jets tried valiantly to sign Bill Derlago. Eventually the former Brandon Wheat Kings' centre signed with Vancouver Canucks. If that's the Jets' tough luck — and it is — shouldn't it also be tough TT as far as Montreal is concerned?
One could perhaps make an argument for the Canadiens' loss of people like Marc Tardif and Dale Hoganson. They were part of the Montreal organization and were lured away by the WHA. But isn't that sort of indiscretion the reason why the WHA teams brought into the fold will be required to lay six million clams apiece on the NHL. Isn't that why the NHL will be allowed to gobble up all the goodies on the Birmingham and Cincinnati rosters?
Montreal has won the Stanley Cup the past three years in a row. The Canadiens are receiving a bit of a challenge from the New . York Islanders right now, but is that such a terrible thing? Will Les Canadiens dry up and blow away if they finish second once every four or five years?
Besides, if the Canadiens got back every player on which they hold even the vaguest claim, what would they do with them all? Where would they play them? More important, how would they pay them? Player help should be for the needy, not for the greedy.
DO NOT BELIEVE those reports which say Bill Hughes "resigned" as president of the Canucks because he has wanted to pursue other interests for some time now. For sure don't believe Hughes left because he couldn't accept the club's revised stance on merger.
'Leak' proved his undoing
Hughes didn't even resign. Monday morning Frank Griffiths called him into his office and fired him. Griffiths, the club's chairman of the board, has been growing increasingly disenchanted with Hughes' work in the president's chair, but what really tore it was that "leak" on merger terms which were aired last week on a Vancouver radio station. Griffiths investigated and decided Hughes had been the station's Deep Throat
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:46:55 GMT -5
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, THURSDAY, MARCH 22,1979
MPs back WHA teams in bid to join NHL ranks
OTTAWA (CP) — The House of Commons called on the National Hockey League Wednesday to let World Hockey Association teams from Edmonton, Winnipeg and Quebec City join its ranks.
The Commons gave unanimous approval to a motion by Liberal MP Louis Duclos (Montmorency) urging NHL teams opposed to the merger to admit the three Canadian WHA teams.
Conservative MP Steve Paproski from Edmonton waved across the House to Duclos and nodded his head in approval. Paproski, a long-time supporter of the WHA, has been unsuccessful in moving similar motions.
The motion was timed to coincide with a meeting of the NHL's board of governors late Wednesday in Chicago. Proposed admission to the NHL of the Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques, Winnipeg Jets and New England Whalers was turned down by the league's board earlier this month.
But two of the teams voting against the merger, Vancouver Canucks and Montreal Canadiens, now have indicated they will change their minds and back the move. There was no mention of the New England team in the motion by Duclos.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:47:09 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Thursday, March 22, 1979
NHL merger plan may include rider By REYN DAVIS
CHICAGO — A day of reckoning, at long last. The merger meetings in Montreal, Detroit and Key Largo, Fla., were all disasters as far as World Hockey Association teams were concerned.
They were fruitless exhibitions of pro-expansion owners fighting to stabilize the industry while the anti-expansionists, foolishly thinking the WHA would die, salvaged enough strength in minority numbers to quash all forms of accommodation with the new league. But, hark, a first is at hand.
For the first time the National Hockey League has invited the owners and general managers of four WHA clubs to the same city while expansion meetings are held. The WHA people are bedded down in the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago while the NHL meetings are being held at the O'Hare Hilton, a $12.50 cab fare away. The guessing is that the NHL will pass an expansion proposal today with a rider. . .pending the outcome of any suit the Boston Bruins may file against the league.
Boston's belief is that New England Whalers, some 75 miles down the road in Hartford, Conn., would infringe upon the Bruins' radio and television territories. Winnipeg Jets have their heavy artillery here. The Shenkarow brothers, Marvin and Barry, are in Chicago along with Harvey Sector. Michael Gobci'ty is on the way. And so is general manager John Ferguson, Marc Cloutier, the Jets' executive director arrived Tuesday. Cloutier says Ferguson knows exactly what's contained in the NHL's expansion proposal.
"There will be no surprises," said Cloutier. "If we didn't think we could handle it we wouldn't be here." The format to be followed is simple enough. If the NHL can reach a favorable decision, the WHA president Howard Baldwin will be summoned to the ,0'Hare Hilton to be given a written proposal of expansion from NHL president John Ziegler. –
Baldwin will then return to the Hyatt Regency where WHA owners will study the financial terms while general managers meet to discuss the provisoes regarding players. "We can't negotiate with the NHL," said Barry Shenkarow, a lawyer. "That word is taboo according to anti-trust laws. Let's say the points will be discussable."
The Jets are known to be deathly opposed to rumors that the WHA teams Will be allowed to protect only four players — two goaltenders and two forwards. Ferguson believes a "five-and-two" situation would be best. The five skaters frequently mentioned as the ones who will be protected are centre Terry Ruskowski, left wingers Morris Lukowich and Bobby Hull, and defencemen Barry Long and Scott Campbell.
There is some argument over who owns Kent Nilsson's NHL rights. He once attended Atlanta Flames' camp before his draft year, but returned home to play in Sweden that season. The following year he signed with Winnipeg. Even if the Jets should protect Hull, the 40-year-old retired superstar, there's a distinct possibility that he will be traded to Chicago Black Hawks to comply with his wishes.
Mickey Keating, the assistant general manager of New York Rangers, said Wednesday that his team favors allowing the WHA teams to protect all of their players. "But there are about five general managers who oppose that idea," he said. "They don't care how strong the new teams are. They say "Well, we had to suffer, they can too." But that's the kind of argument that is hurting hockey. Who wants to watch a team being beaten 10-1?" And that precisely, is what is concerning Winnipeg most. Why should the owners spend eight million to put a team in the NHL that won't be as competitive as the one they have now?
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:47:26 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Thursday, March 22, 1979
Et encore, expansion discussion
CHICAGO (AP) — Expansion, a topic which seems to have more lives than a cat with insurance, once again was to be discussed by the National Hockey League's board of governors today.
Proposed admission of the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers, Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets was voted down at a governors meeting in Key Largo, Fla., March 8. But the so-called "dead issue," which fell one positive vote short of acceptance, has worked its way back to the meeting room.
The indication that Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks now will vote favorably on the proposal forced reopening of the talks. The Canadiens and Canucks had been among the five teams which left the matter one vote short of acceptance in Florida.
But officials of those teams offered little indication the proposal is certain to pass this time around. "We have always been in favor of expansion, providing the terms of that expansion are reasonable," said Irving Grundman, executive vice-president of the Canadiens, "but we can't have something forced down our throats."
Draft is major hangup
The Canadiens' major objection to the Florida proposal was over the expansion draft which would stock the incoming clubs. Few details of the draft could be ascertained, but sources said it would be conducted in the following manner: Each incoming club would protect two skaters and two goaltenders. Unprotected players who have been drafted by NHL teams would become property of those NHL teams. The NHL teams then would protect 15 skaters and two goalies, with the remaining players becoming available for selection by the four incoming clubs.
Grundman said the Canadiens would be hurt most by such a draft, since they own the NHL rights to about 30 WHA players — not to mention the dozens of players in the Montreal farm system. "This kind of draft would affect the calibre and quality of the top five or six teams in the NHL," said Grundman, who said his club could not vote in favor of the proposal unless the draft and other details were modified. Canucks president Frank Griffiths expressed a similar feeling. "We wanted to vote 'Yes,' but we required modifications to some of the terms in the resolution presented to us (in Florida)," he said.
Bollard loud and clear
Griffiths would not elaborate, however, claiming he would be "betraying the trust and determination that there be no trial of this proposal before we discuss it." While there was doubt about the votes of the two clubs, there was none whatsoever where Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs were concerned. Both teams, outspoken opponents of expansion since talks began, again will vote "No."
Bruins' president Paul Mooney said Tuesday he would consider legal action against his NHL partners if the expansion was accepted. Maple Leafs' owner Harold Ballard said he would "fight to my last bullet" to defeat the proposal. "I lie awake nights thinking about this," Ballard said in a telephone interview. "I've been working for years trying to pound some sense into these dummies (on the board of governors), but they won't listen.
"No matter which way the vote goes, I'm voting no. I'm convinced we haven't got our own league in shape enough to take on more parasites," said Ballard. The anti-expansion axis also includes Los Angeles Kings, leaving that power bloc two votes short of defeating the issue again. "I'm trying to muster some more votes," said Ballard, "but it looks a little dubious."
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:47:41 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1979
WHA agrees to merger under tough NHL terms
By REYN DAVIS
CHICAGO — Winnipeg Jets and three other World Hockey Association teams have accepted a proposal to join the National Hockey League as expansion franchises for the 1979- 80 season.
In a sudden change of heart within their own ranks, the four WHA teams — New England Whalers, Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques and the Jets — voted to accept the terms of an NHL expansion proposal approved Thursday by a 14-3 vote. Edmonton and Quebec made the most serious, eleventh hour concessions that made the expansion possible.
Both teams had taken hard line positions, particularly concerning first year professionals. However, the four WHA teams, as agreed upon, will be able to protect only four players — two goaltenders and two skaters — while first year pros are not exempt. The terms are much tougher than the WHA had earlier indicated it would accept.
Essentially, the WHA teams have agreed to accept the NHL's expansion proposal with only slight modifications. The financial terms include a $1 million down payment and $4 million to be paid by June 1. An additional $1 million will evemtually be paid, possibly through exhibition game revenues. '
The NHL's board of governors, who had rejected expansionist talks involving WHA teams three times in the last two years — the most recent two weeks ago at Key Largo, Fla. — took 3'/2 hours Thursday afternoon before agreeing to allow four WHA teams into the older hockey league.
In Winnipeg, reaction to the merger offer was guarded. "Of course, being part of the NHL is better for the city," Paul Herriot, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said. "That's the type of thing the city needs . . . to be seen . . . and to be heard across the country." Like many others interviewed Thursday night, Herriot's reaction 'was tempered by two unknown factors: the details of the 20-page merger proposal presented by the NHL and, subsequently, whether the World Hockey Association would accept them or, at least, would be able to negotiate modifications.
Boston had threatened to veto the drafting of players by th'e article' in NHL bylaws that pertains to properties, specifically players. The article stipulates that unanimous approval of member clubs is needed before a team can lose its players. Instead, Montreal Canadiens joined 13 other NHL teams to provide a three-quarters vote that was necessary to make a constitutional change, suspending the article for one season.
NHL president John Ziegler headed up the expansion committee that met soon after with owners and representatives of the four WHA teams that league governors agreed to accept for expansion in time for the 1979-80 season. Ziegler, however, refused to be pinned down on specifics of the revamped agreement. An earlier agreement was defeated at a meeting in Key Largo, Fla., when five teams were reported to have voted against expansion.
Although the five teams have never been identified, it has been reported that Harold Ballard, owner of Toronto Maple Leafs who has been an outspoken foe of expansion or merger with WHA teams, got support from the other two Canadian franchises — Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks — as well as Los Angeles Kings and Boston Bruins.
Canadiens president Jacques Courtois said Thursday's vote "confirms the position of Montreal." "We always said that given the proper conditions we favored expansion." Courtois said Montreal's switch resulted because sections of the original "25 or 30 pages of text" had been revised.
"There were some variations made we found we could live with. It's not perfect as far as we are concerned because it's costing Montreal and a few others more than the other clubs . . . but it's a matter that for the sake of expansion we could live with."
Some Winnipeggers were apprehensive, wondering if the Jets would be giving up too much to enter. "I hope the Jets aren't giving up everything (player wise) to get into the NHL," Coun. Ric Nordman (Independent Citizens Election Committee — St. Charles), a director of the Winnipeg Enterprises Corporation, said. The corporation operates the Winnipeg Arena, the home rink of the Jets.
Fellow councillor and director Eldon Ross (ICEC —Deer Lodge) said he personally was "not terribly impressed" with the proposed merger." I think $6 million is a horrendous price to pay," he said. Entry fee alone into the NHL is expected to cost each WHA team about that amount and does not include other costs. Ross said the two leagues were of equal calibre with the exception of a few teams such as the Montreal Canadiens, leader of the NHL's Norris division which the Jets would join. "Then again, Vancouver and Colorado are in a league of their own," Ross said of two of the NHL's newer and weaker clubs.
Nordman said WHA acceptance of the merger would likely mean the enterprises corporation would be able to proceed with a more elaborate expansion than is currently scheduled for the Winnipeg Arena.
The federal government had promised to provide $5 million arena-expansion grants to Winnipeg, Quebec City and Edmonton if the three cities received NHL franchises. However, Nordman added that the federal grant might not be a certainty if the province does not provide funds as well. Manitoba Sports Minister Bob Banman could not be reached for comment Thursday night.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:47:56 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1979
Fergy agrees teams Worlds apart WHA split jeopardizes plan By REYN DAVIS
CHICAGO—A serious split in World Hockey Association ranks has jeopardized National Hockey League's expansion scheme.
Winnipeg Jets and New England Whalers are ready to go. Edmonton Oilers, and Quebec Nordiques are not. The argument is over the number of players each team can protect. Asked if the teams were "worlds apart", Winnipeg general manager John Ferguson nodded in agreement.
He was quiet and subdued and appeared frustrated as he stood in the lobby of the O'Hare Hilton at 4 a.m., following a marathon 11-hour meeting with the NHL.
It was the first ever meeting between the two leagues after eight years of war. The Jets are close to agreement according to the terms of the expansion proposal. "We knew what the proposal was," said Barry Shenkarow, the Jets counsel and trustee. But the mere fact the leagues met until 4 a.m. indicated how close expansion is.
"We're in overtime," said Ron Ryan, the WHA's executive director. Howard Baldwin, the WHA president and a general partner of New England, said progress was made. He sat beside the NHL president, John Ziegler, at a 4 a.m. press conference. "If we didn't think it could fly we would have left long ago," said Baldwin.
The expansion proposal is 20 pages long. "A lot of time was spent just explaining why certain points were there," he said. Edmonton Oilers' owner Peter Pocklington was not very happy with the meeting's results. "We're caught between the devil and a hard spot," he said. The Oilers entered the meeting with hopes of protecting six skaters and two goaltenders with all of their first-year pros exempt.
But the NHL's deal is "two and two" with no exemptions. "Look, it would cost us eight million dollars to join the NHL and they would take most of my players," he said. "It would take us four or five years to build up a team as good as the one we have now."
Pocklington's argument appears valid. Quebec Nordiques' president Marcel Aubut said that the talks are tougher than expected. "There are many points we can't negiotate," he said, explaining his frustration.
Both the Nordiques and the Oilers have a high incidence of young players, most of whom were first- and second-round draft choices of NHL teams. The Nordiques have three prize forwards, Bernard Geoffrion, Richard David, and Alain Cote, all of whom were drafted by Montreal Canadiens. . .believed to be the chief architects of the terms of expansion.
The Oilers have four brilliant youngsters — Wayne Gretzky, Dave Hunter, Ron Carter, and Doug Berry. Quite obviously, the NHL teams which drafted them want them as part of the price of expansion.
The Jets' situation is a bit different. They have several players whose NHL's rights are owned by no one, and many of them would probably be on the team next season. Those players are goaltender Gary Smith, defencemen Lars- Erik Sjoberg, Mike Amodeo and Bill Davis, and forwards Willy- Lindstrom, Roland Erikkson, John Gray, Bobby Guindon, Bill Lesuk, Lyle Moffat and Rich Preston.
Meanwhile, Ziegler told reporters: "It just was going to take a long time for them to even understand it." He said a good deal of the time was taken "explaining, trying to have them understand what it took to arrive at this, what it means, why we think it's beneficial, why we think it's fair."
Baldwin, while admitting there were problems, refused to be drawn into discussions that might jeopardize the meetings. "I'm not going to get into the actual nitty-gritty of what we're discussing or where the hang-ups are," he said. "It just wouldn't be beneficial to anybody. Asked if there were any new stumbling blocks creeping in, Baldwin replied: "I don't know of any old ones. It's just an awful lot to grasp in a short period of time."
The NHL's board of governors finally gave the expansion* committee clearance to proceed with the talks Thursday afternoon, ending two years of speculation that four — possibly five — teams from the struggling, WHA, which started eight years ago, would join the NHL, leaving North America with one major professional league.
The previous three meetings — the latest about two weeks ago in Key Largo, Fla. — did not produce sufficient affirmative votes to proceed with expansion talks. Today's meeting is not expected to produce a final decision. "We're trying to see where we agree to disagree and pinpoint other areas where we can agree," said Ziegler.
Ziegler's expansion committee has the power to ratify an agreement with the teamsr But if the proposal should be altered in any way, at the WHA's request, it must go back to the NHL board of governors to be approved. And that could take weeks.
BENCH BITS: Temperatures in Chicago Thursday — just about the time the expansion proposal was approved — rose as high as 64 degrees, a welcome respite after Chicago's long cold winter. . .Eddie Johnstone is rumored to be the next coach of Chicago Black Hawks. . .John Ziegler says the NHL's contract with its players would be terminated under the terms of a merger.. .but this he says, is different. . ."This is an expansion of the NHL," he said. . ."We'll never merge, but we'll expand," he said.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:48:15 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1979
Expansion vote outcome pleases most owners Reyn Davis
CHICAGO —"It's great," said the old expansion fighter, Harold Ballard, waddling out of the meeting room while most of his NHL comrades were still inside.
Minutes later a new face emerged. "It's great," said Ed Snider, the pro-expansionist chairman of Philadelphia Flyers. "But what's this?" wondered- Ballard, the president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, looking at all the reporters filling the hallway. "A bible class?"
Ballard and Snider have vastly different views on the subject of expansion, but both men were satisfied that their interests were served by the expansion proposal put forward to four teams in the World Hockey Association. . .Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques, New England Whalers and Winnipeg Jets.
Still, the detestable Ballard cast one of three votes against the proposal, on principle alone. But, despite the support of Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings, they could not stop the proposal from being passed Thursday at long last.
For three years the NHL has been taking expansion votes and beating them with minority support. This time it passed. Suddenly, the issue of expansion is no longer up to the NHL, but the babes of major league hockey — the WHA.
Yield to pressure
It's not a take it or leave it situation. The negotiations cpuld last for weeks. Obviously, Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks had changed their minds.. .undoubtedly under tremendous public pressure.
Even Jacques Courtois, the Canadiens' president, who turned a country against the brewery that owns his team, was praised for his clever manipulaltion of the NHL's constitution.
Boston had threatened to veto the drafting of players by the article in NHL bylaws that pertains to properties, specifically players. The article stipulates that unanimous approval of member clubs is needed before a team can lose its players. Instead, the Canadiens joined 13 other NHL teams to provide a three-quarters vote that was necessary to make a constitutional change, suspending the article for one season. The meeting began at 12:36 p.m. and ended at 3:13 p.m.
The historic meetings between the NHL and WHA began at 5 p.m., and lasted until nearly 4 this morning. NHL president John Ziegler appeared to be greatly relieved by the outcome of the expansion vote.
"Having one professional league in North America will permit us to devote the resources of time, of people, of money, to the further development of hockey, not only at the pro level but from seven years old right up," said Ziegler. "For seven years we have spent a good deal of time fighting between leagues. "1 believe in the consensus that expansion is good for hockey. Now we have a proposal. We think it's fair."
Ziegler said time was the factor that caused the NHL governors who had voted no in Florida to change their minds. He didn't mention the beer boycott. Morgan McCammon, the president of Molson's Canada, called the Jets' executive director Marc Cloutier, to express his delight that the proposal had been passed.
Losses tough to recoup
Could Molson's ever recoup the losses in beer sales caused by Courtois' negative vote in Key Largo? "I doubt it," said Cloutier "but had any other team but Montreal been blamed for killing expansion in Florida, do you really think there would have been another meeting on the matter so soon?" Conditions of the expansion surfaced slowly.
• Each WHA team would need about $9 million between now and the start of the 1979-80 season. • Each WHA team would be obliged to put up $1 million immediately and pay the remaining $5 million by June 1. • Each WHA team must prove it has $1.5 million in working capital to start the 1979-80 season. • Each WHA team would be obliged to pay indemnification money to Cincinnati Stingers and Birmingham Bulls for politely going out of business. Cincinnati would require $3.8 million; Birmingham $2.4 million. • Each WHA team would be allowed to protect only two goaltenders and two skaters. First-year pros would not be exempt. Financial terms appear to be more palatable for the WHA teams than the rules regarding the protection of players. "We won't be lured into expansion by the NHL," said the Edmonton Oilers' owner, Peter Pocklington. "We want our players. We won't be raped."
Jets in Smythe Division?
According to alignment of a would-be expansion, the Jets-would play in the Smythe Division along with Edmonton Oilers, St. Louis Blues, Chicago Black Hawks, Vancouver Canucks and Colorado Rockies.
Quebec Nordiques would join Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Toronto Maple Leafs and Minnesota North Stars in the Adams Division.
New England Whalers would be included in the Patrick Division along with New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Atlanta Flames and New York Islanders.
The Norris Division of Montreal Canadiens, Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals would remain unchanged.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:48:29 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1979
Cincy would shop for another league
CINCINNATI (AP) — Cincinnati plans on having hockey in "the best available league" whether or not four other World Hockey Association teams work out a merger with the National Hockey League.
Neither Cincinnati Stingers nor Birmingham Bulls have been included in the NHL overture at Chicago, which calls for accepting New England Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers.
William DeWitt Jr., vice-president of Cincinnati Stingers, who is hoping the merger is rejected, said Thursday he finds the proposal "a rough deal." "If the terms are as we understand them to be, we're just not interested," he said. "I think when you get to that level of dollars under discussion, you have to be in the market for a sure thing to finance that kind of a deal. It is easier when you are in a town like Winnipeg or Edmonton, cities where the sport is established and the attendance is assured."
He indicated the new NHL teams could protect only one goalie and one skater from draft by other NHL clubs while the existing NHL teams could protect 15 skaters. In addition, he indicated the new teams would have to pay up to $6 million' for an entry fee and not share in Canadian television money for several years.
Cincinnati and Birmingham would also have to be paid an indemnity, estimated at $3 million by the departing WHA teams. DeWitt said that if the merger is approved, "We want hockey in Cincinnati." He said the club, which operates in the new Cincinnati Coliseum, would seek a minor league franchise.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:48:44 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1979
Hockey 'marriage' is on By REYN DAVIS
CHICAGO —The World Hockey Association's four most ambitious teams have agreed to accept the National Hockey League's expansion proposal... in principle.
While details remain to be ironed out before the complex business deal can be consummated, the owners of the four teams — Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques and New England Whalers — left this city Friday afternoon tingling with excitement.
"We have made a major decision," said Peter Pocklington, owner of the Oilers. "We have decided to join their league."
"We have almost got what we wanted," said Barry Shenkarow, the Jets' trustee and counsel. "But it's still too early to celebrate."
The WHA teams have asked the NHL's expansion committee to modify the payment schedules of $6 million per franchise. Under terms of the NHL's expansion proposal, passed on Thursday by a vote of 14-3, the WHA teams would have been required to pay $1 million immediately and the remaining $5 .million on June 1, 1979.
John Ziegler, the NHL president, told a press conference following Friday's meetings that the expansion committee would try to "massage" the original proposal so that it would be still acceptable to the NHL governors.
A meeting of the NHL's governors is expected to be held on Wednesday or Thursday. "Good progress has been made," said Ziegler, "but we're not quite there." Ziegler, cheerful and ever careful not to say anything that could possibly jeopardize or misrepresent the talks, said it has been "no hardship" working with the four WHA teams. "The hardships of working with four clubs are certainly not as serious as the hardships of working with 17," he said.
"They (the WHA owners and general managers) have worked very hard in a short space of time." Ziegler and his expansion committee met with the WHA for 14 hours. One particularly big issue has been resolved concerning players' rights.
The WHA teams will be able to protect only four players — two goaltenders and two skaters. On that subject the NHL was absolutely rigid. The expression used was "non-negotiable." "I didn't sleep at all last night," said John Ferguson, the Jets' general manager. Ferguson had wanted to be able to protect at least one goaltender and three skaters. Ideally, he would have liked to have been able to protect five and two. "But I couldn't see myself jeopardizing the whole deal over one hockey player.
All you had to do was think of what it means to the city to have the NHL. If we're in, the federal government puts up $5 million and maybe the province does the same, and the result will be one super complex for the city of Winnipeg." But what's a building without players? "Don't kid yourself," said Ferguson. "There's going to be good players available."
The Jets' president, Michael Gobuty, called the NHL's proposal "palatable to us."
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:49:00 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1979
Expansion's hidden costs high By REYN DAVIS
Expansion would cost Winnipeg Jets and their hockey fans some rich talent that could not easily be recovered.
The price could be Kent Nilsson or Barry Long or Scott Campbell or.. .shudder to think, all three.
John Ferguson should grieve the deed that's done. Winnipeg Jets, like three World Hockey Association brothers, have agreed to a National Hockey League expansion proposal that would allow them to protect only two skaters and two goaltenders.
Ferguson fought it. But the NHL said no, never would it relax that demand. But why two goaltenders? Why should half the number of players a team can protect be goaltenders when you can-only use one a time.
The thought has crossed some minds that Long should be listed as one of the goaltenders. He certainly stops his share of shots.
Ferguson was able to soften the blow slightly by extracting two guarantees from the NHL. One is that every player from a WHA team who appears among the 15 skaters and two goaltenders protected by an NHL club cannot be traded for two years and must be on that team's major league roster all the time.
And another is that when a WHA player whose rights are owned by an NHL team is not included among that team's list of 17 protected players he automatically reverts back to his WHA team.
The expansion draft is tentatively scheduled for June 13 in Montreal. The Jets would have the first choice of any player in professional hockey whose name does not appear among the protected 17 players —15 skaters and two goaltenders— of each of the 17 NHL clubs, or among the protected four players of each of the four WHA clubs.
Among players who might be available are Rich Chartraw or Pierre Larouche or Cam Connor or Mark Napier of Montreal Canadiens, Robbie Ftorek of Cincinnati Stingers, Dan Labraaten or Perry Miller of Detroit Red Wings, Reg Leach of Philadelphia Flyers or Chris Oddleifson of Vancouver Canucks.
Would Ferguson go for Ftorek? "I really like the way he plays," said Ferguson, "but I can't stand his contract." Ftorek earns a bundle.
The Jets and the other three WHA teams would pick players until they had 15 forwards and two goaltenders. No NHL team would be allowed to lose more than four players in the expansion draft. And, after losing a player, an NHL team would be allowed to protect another, When the NHL held its last expansion draft, the established teams were allowed to protect 18 skaters and two goaltenders, and none of them had the benefit of being able to keep three or four players such as, say, Terry Ruskowski and Morris Lukowich and Markus Mattsson.
In a major concession, the NHL agreed it would permit WHA teams the opportunity of protecting players who were signed as under-age juniors. Among them are Mark Howe of New England Whalers, .Real Cloutier of Quebec Nordiques and Wayne Gretzky of Edmonton Oilers.
Ferguson said he would seriously consider trading some of his top players for draft choices. He mentioned a deal involving one of his "high echelon" players.. .meaning Bobby Hull.
Chicago Black Hawks would love to have Hull back in town. He was the club's chairman in its finest days. Ferguson might be willing to trade Hull to Chicago for the NHL rights to Ruskowski and Rich Preston. Months ago, Preston signed a Chicago contract. It is also possible that the Jets might give up a draft choice "somewhere down the line," to use Ferguson's words, if such a gesture would enable them to keep one of their better players.
One distinct advantage the Jets have over their WHA partners is that they have been extremely busy compiling scouting reports of virtually every player of pro potential in North America.
The results of that scouting program should surface on the ice of the Arena in the coming years, regardless of which league the Jets are members of. And that league certainly appears to be the NHL, which, after 62 years of operation, is about to give Winnipeg the chance to grace its table with an appetite for hockey, as one of the great Canadian cities took it upon itself to prove it belongs
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:49:18 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1979
WHA players' future no longer their own Hal Sigurdson Sports Editor
Last summer Danny Geoffrion, Bernie's boy, sat down to make a decision. He had been claimed in the amateur draft by both the Montreal Canadiens and Quebec Nordiques and now he had to determine in which city he preferred to play.
He chose Quebec City.
Apart from the dollars involved, he much preferred the way the WHA city had treated him. While the lordly Canadiens had virtually ignored him, assuming he would be eternally grateful for the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious pere, the Nordiques had made a point of telling him how much he was wanted and needed in Le Colisee.
From time to time he has let us know he has had no reason to regret his decision. As far as we know he is happy as a clam playing in Quebec City. Or he was.
When the owners of the Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers, New England Whalers and Nordiques either did or did not (choose one) accept the National Hockey League's harsh terms for expansion Friday in Chicago, they could well have decided young Danny will be playing in Montreal next season. Whether he likes it or not.
Obliged to return?
Under the marriage terms they have accepted or apparently soon will, all players whose names do not appear on the WHA teams' brief protected lists will be obliged to return to the NHL team which originally drafted them. Now WHA and NHL officials can sit around smoke-filled hotel rooms and wheel and deal to their hearts' content, but whatever gave them the idea they had the right to tell Danny Geoffrion how he should lead his life? Or anyone else, for that matter?
And why shouldn't Danny Geoffrion stand up and say, "Hold it, guys, I don't want to play in Montreal." And why shouldn't he then hire himself a smart lawyer to argue that a whole bunch of the terms agreed to by both leagues are against the laws of two countries?
Why shouldn't several players unhappy over this unexpected upheaval in their personal lives follow exactly the same route?
It's entirely possible this shotgun marriage between hockey's two socalled major leagues may open a whole new can of legal worms. We must assume that had Geoffrion wanted to play for the Canadiens he would have signed with them in the first place. As far as anyone knows, he has signed no documents since then indicating a change of heart. Two or three dozen players figure to be in roughly the same situation.
Lukowich a Penquin?
How about Morris Lukowich of the Jets, for instance? Luke has had two opportunities to go to work for the NHL Pittsburgh Penguins, first when they drafted him as a graduating junior and again last year when his employers in Houston went out of business. He declined both opportunities with thanks. Now, if his name doesn't appear on that short list of Jets' protected players, he may be forced to sample the glories of Pittsburgh and the Pleasure Bar after all.
Unless he, too, hires himself a bright lawyer.
We do, after all, have a legal precedent to tell us hockey barons can't despatch the hired help thither and yon on mere whim. When the Detroit Red Wings signed goaltender Regie Vaclion as a free agent, the NHL tried to send Dale McCourt to Los Angeles as compensation. McCourt- called a cop and a federal court judge ruled he didn't have to go to LA after all.
Why shouldn't we expect a similar judgement if several WHA players choose to go to court to battle merger terms which may well tell them they will now have to play in cities they have already rejected?
Meanwhile, couldn't the deep thinkers of the NHL and WHA come out of their Chicago summit meeting with something more enlightening than a definite maybe on our hockey future? Just before noon yesterday merger was definitely on. Less than three hours later it was definitely off. An hour after that we were led to believe that though the marriage had broken up, a reconciliation was expected momentarily.
Do we publish this stuff in the daily journals or leave it for the next Harlequin Romance? Should these guys schedule their next meeting in Camp David? Will Maggie sue for infringement of copyright?
Before the meetings began, the Oilers told us they would listen to a fair business proposal, but wouldn't stand still for rape, Friday they came out of their meetings slightly disheveled, but seemingly unsure whether to announce whether they were in love or getting ready to press charges.
And if they don't know, how do they expect the rest of us to figure it out?
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:50:24 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1979
Yes, it was worth the price John Robertson
The Winnipeg Jets of the N a t i o n a l H o c k e y League. . . Has a sweet, satisfying ring, doesn't it?
A lot of people in high places in hockey said it couldn't be done. Only last week no less a hockey authority than Bobby Hull said it would NEVER happen. But it did. Hell freezes over!
Harold Ballard eat your heart out! Right now, it's just so many words on paper. It hasn't even begun to sink in. But I know exactly when the full impact will hit, and if you are any kind of hockey fan you will feel it tingle all the way up your spine, when it does.
The scene will be the newly-expanded Arena, minutes after gleaming new escalators (hear that, Sterling?) whisk thousands of fans up to those new seats in the second deck. And just as they settle in their pews, the PA announcer will step into the spotlight and announce: "Ladies and gentlemen, here to play our Jets tonight for the first time ever in a scheduled National Hockey League game, the defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens!"
I don't care what NHL team precedes the Canadiens into town. We'll know that WE have arrived, when Les Canadiens arrive. Guy Lafleur. . .Larry Robinson. . .Jacques Lemaire. . .Ken Dryden. . .Serge Savard. . .Bob Gainey. . . Six reasons why it was worth the price, ANY price, to get into the NHL.
I know that's easy for me to say, since I didn't put up a dime, but no matter how outrageous the ante, it just didn't make sense for Michael Gobuty and Co. not to pay it. When you're in the NHL you know the league isn't going to fold under you tomorrow, or next week, or next year. The Jets had no such guarantee, had they and the other WHA clubs elected to remain on their own, no matter how tempting it would have been to take all those millions they will give the grasping NHL owners, and spend them in the amateur free agent market signing every junior prospect in the land over the age of puberty.
In many ways it was a shotgun wedding. And perhaps the NHL moguls didn't even have the decency to kiss the WHA first. But not to have a wedding at all, would have invited financial disaster, perhaps for both leagues. Player salaries are outrageous enough, without yet another frantic bidding war — and this would surely have been the vituperative aftermath, if the NHL and WHA had decided their goals were simply incompatible. Could the Jets and the rest of the WHA teams have held out for a better deal?
My spies tell me, no way. The NHL held air the aces. The WHA, by comparison, was already disunity personified, with four of its partners committed to leave at the first opportunity. Birmingham and Cincinnati could not have been expected to continue to operate indefinitely, waiting for the other shoe to fall.
How would you like to have been trying to promote hockey in either of these cities, since merger talks began — s i t t i n g back watching your league partners negotiate your own death?
The WHA could have paid lip service to defying the NHL, as a united group, but would have been whistling through the graveyard trying to make the blult stick. And in the final analysis, it came down to this: The WHA owners decided they would rather trust the NHL, than trust each other, even if it meant getting their collective pockets picked.
And since Michael Gobuty assures me we ARE in the NHL — with only a few details to be worked out to make it legal — don't you think it's about time we stopped the boycott against Molson's?
Molson's did an about-face, didn't they? They used their influence with their corporate offspring, the Montreal Hockey Club, to get them to vote FOR expansion. And if they handled things badly in the first instance, they've surely paid a big enough price by now.
I am told by people who should know that the Canadiens were the pivotal force in getting the rest of the NHL clubs back to the bargaining table, and that they told the rest of the NHL owners quite bluntly that it was a matter of Canada's national unity suffering if they didn't. . .And not just a matter of plunging Molson's beer sales. Never were truer words spoken.
And when the 14 U.S owned-teams look northward, as they did last week, and saw our House of Commons members vote unanimously in favor of the principle of expansion, they got the second stage of the message loud and clear. The majority of the NHL teams may be American-based and American-owned, but the raw material comes from up here. So be nice neighbors, and invite us over to play.
So what say we forgive and forget about boycotts, because without Molson's behind-the-scenes lobbying and strong-arming on our behalf, Winnipeg would not be in the NHL today.
All of which brings me to a very painful subject. Now that we ARE in the NHL, isn't it about time the yahoos in our midst got it through their ultra-thick heads that bilingual PA announcements at Jet games are common courtesy, when a game is being piped back to Quebec on television?
Don't these fools realize that this boorish behavior plays right into Rene Levesque's hands down in Quebec? Don't think some PQ member isn't going to make a very big deal out of the fact that the french language was booed here yesterday, ergo we hate the French and don't give a damn if Quebec separates?
And before these bigots start flooding me with "go back to Quebec" hate mail, unsigned of course, I'd like to remind them that I've paid my dues fighting for English language rights in Quebec — and that every time some bunch of yahoos out here takes the brass knuckles to the French language, the people who really suffer are the non-Francophone minority in Quebec, because we are giving Rene Levesque license to take away even more English rights in retaliation. Think about it, will ya?
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:50:44 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Tuesday, March 27, 1979
Player wishes must be met
PALM BEACH, Fla. (CP) — If National Hockey League owners take a stand-pat attitude in their negotiations with the NHL Players' Association, there's a good chance "merger or expansion, whatever they want to call it," won't take place, says NHLPA executive director Al Eagleson.
Eagleson, here with his family during the school break, said in a telephone interview Monday that his weekend meetings with NHL president John Ziegler and Bill Wirtz, chairman of the NHL's expansion committee, met with the expected results.
"They weren't happy when they left," Eagleson said in a telephone interview. Ziegler and Wirtz made the trip to Florida after expansion talks with four World Hockey Association franchises broke off Friday.
The key to expanding the NHL to 21 teams with the admittance of the four WHA teams —and subsequent dissolution of the WHA as a factor in professional hockey — is a satisfactory agreement with the NHL Players' Association.
Advised of changes sought
Eagleson said that he explained the NHLPA's position is that the discussions with the WHA are, in all respects, "a merger, not expansion and that we might be required to start anti-trust action against them unless we can come up with some satisfactory changes in the collective bargaining agreement."
He said Ziegler and Wirtz were advised the changes the players' association would request would include: • The right for a player to be a free agent, just as exists in major league baseball. • Changes and increases in the players' pension plan, medical plan and dental plan. • Fifty per cent of all money paid into expansion (or merger) was to be paid into the NHLPA pension fund. Eagleson admitted "they seemed a little upset" by his initial demands.
"But they understood my position. And they are also wise enough to know we're not kidding," he added. "I doubt they'll finalize an agreement with the WHA unless the NHL Players' Association agrees.
"I'm also certain the NHL Players' Association has at least three allies," he said, referring to Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings and Toronto Maple Leafs — the three NHL franchises believed to have stuck to their original stand opposing expansion with the four WHA teams at last week's meetings in Chicago.
The NHL board of governors is expected to reconvene this week to either approve or disapprove changes being proposed in the original expansion program after marathon meetings broke off Friday without reaching a decision on accqmmodation of the WHA franchises.
It was widely accepted then that the major concern was financial and that it was likely most areas of disagreement would be cleared up over the weekend as general counsel for the two leagues dissected the 20-page expansion proposal point by point.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:51:01 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, Wednesday, March 28, 1979
Expansion odds said improving
NEW YORK (CP) — The odds are getting better that the National Hockey League will expand to 21 teams next season with admittance of four World Hockey Association clubs who each would put up $4,625,000 as down payments, it was learned Tuesday.
The NHL's board of governors will be asked to approve some modifications in the expansion agreement at a meeting tentatively set for Friday in New York.
Sources close to the negotiations gave a more optimistic picture on expansion after private talks among the governors, the WHA and lawyers that have been going on since the NHL approved last week an expansion plan which was not entirely satisfactory to the WHA.
Payment breakdown
It was learned that the $6-million figure for a WHA franchise in the NHL would be broken down into two stages — the $4,625,000 before getting in and $1,375,000 in the future without any interest penalty. The time period for the final payments is left open.
The Canadian WHA clubs to be admitted — Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers and Quebec Nordiques — would make their payments in Canadian dollars with no discounting of their $6-million entry fee.
For business purposes, the NHL places the Canadian dollar on par with the U.S. dollar in the transactions. The Canadian dollar is worth about 85 cents U.S. The fourth WHA club to be admitted — New England Whalers —would make its payment in U.S. dollars.
Sources indicated that the NHL doesn't want to place punitive financial conditions on the four WHA clubs that would weaken the new franchises from the start. Money is not that much of a problem despite the fact that the two clubs in the six-team WHA which would fold under expansion must be compensated for their losses.
Birmingham Bulls and Cincinnati Stingers, which would go out of business, would be compensated by the four WHA franchise owners getting into the NHL.
Room for maneuvering
Compensation costs have been reported as high as $6 million for the Bulls and Stingers but there is obvious room for manoeuvring in this area when all the paper transactions involving players, debts and so on get down to the nitty-gritty.
"The odds are getting better all the time that we will be a 21-team league next season," said one knowledgeable source who requested anonymity because of the ticklish negotiations.
As in the case of any union bargaining, you don't give away your bargaining position by disclosing details before negotiations are completed and an agreement between the two sides is made final, the source said. But there were some details he felt could be publicized to give a fairer picture of expansion and its chances of being realized.
After the board of governors acts on the modifications, the expansion agreement must be approved by the NHL Players Association. The source did not see any insurmountable difficulty between the owners and the players despite the posturing of Alan Eagleson, the NHLPA's executive director who has said the association would seek half the $24 million in WHA entry fees.
The source said the main point is that the NHL players want one senior major hockey league with the WHA in it. The NHL also wants to keep its good relations under the collective bargaining agreement with the players and not take new hard-line positions. In that context, the meaning is clear that everything is negotiable with the NHLPA.
Unchanged in the modified agreement to be presented to the governors is the question of how many players each WHA club would be allowed to protect.
Each expansion club would be able to protect two forwards or, defencemen and two goalies. The new expansion clubs each would start out with two quality skaters, the source said, noting that it took the expansion Washington Capitals five years to have two quality players.
Draft set for June
"They'll be competitive," the source said of the WHA entries. An expansion draft would be held in June to fill the new rosters. But one key point remains in the agreement— the right of NHL owners to reclaim players in the WHA they consider their property. Again, there would be all kinds of negotiations between club owners as player rights are eventually bargained for and paper shuffled some more.
NHL negotiators have been going over the WHA lists player by player, examining positions of various owners, as they strive to end seven years of rivalry between the two major leagues that at times developed into a bitter battle for top players and led to anti-trust action by the WHA against the NHL, settled out of court in 1974.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:51:15 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 1979
NHL gives final OK to merger with Jets, 3 other WHA teams
NEW YORK (CP) — National Hockey League's board of governors approved a revised expansion proposal today, accepting four clubs for next season and effectively ending the turbulent seven-year history of the World Hockey Association.
New England Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers — four of the six remaining WHA teams — will join the NHL, increasing that league's complement to 21. The other WHA teams, Cincinnati Stingers and Birmingham Bulls, will cease operation.
Montreal Canadiens vice-president Irving Gnindman said the governors had voted in favor of the proposal. "Now, we have to go back officially to the WHA and the WHA has to officially accept. We feel they will."
It was not immediately known when the proposal would be presented officially to the WHA.
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Post by JETStender on Feb 4, 2009 23:51:34 GMT -5
Winnipeg Free Press, FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 1979
Bulls rookies sign for $3.4 million
LONDON, Ont. (CP) — The Free Press says five Birmingham Bulls rookies have signed four-year contracts worth a combined total of $3.4 million with the World Hockey Association club that will cease operations if a proposed expansion of the National Hockey League is approved —as expected today in New York.
The newspaper says in Thursday's editions that the five 20-year-old players — Rob Ramage, Craig Hartsburg, Pat Riggin, Gaston Gingras and Rick Vaive — and their agent, Bill Walters, agreed to the contracts in Atlanta on Tuesday.
Available for NHL draft
Bulls owner, Toronto sports entrepreneur John Bassett, agreed to the new contracts in Quebec on March 1. Under the proposed expansion, which will see four WHA cities — Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec and Hartford, Conn. — join the NHL for the 1979-80 season, the five players would be available in the NHL's amateur draft, since they were still eligible to play junior hockey this season.
Birmingham, along with Cincinnati Stingers, will go out of business. The Free Press says the key to the multi-million-dollar deal was the signing of the five players by Bassett, but that it was equally important they sign with a WHA club that will go out of business.
The newspaper said with Birmingham out of business, the players will be free for the NHL amateur draft on June 15 because the contracts carry notrade, no-sell clauses between the Bulls and WHA or NHL teams.
The signings also come in the wake of reports that part of the expansion proposal calls for the NHL to honor all WHA contracts of players they either protect or acquire as a result of expansion. Under terms of the expansion, the four WHA teams would be allowed to protect two skaters and two goaltenders from their present rosters. The remaining players would either become free agents and become available in a common expansion draft or return to the NHL team that holds their rights through the amateur draft or has owned them at one time or another since 1972.
After the expansion teams declare their protected lists, the NHL teams must then decide which 15 skaters and two goaltenders they will protect. No first-year pros on present NHL rosters will be included on the protected list or will be available in the expansion draft.
Price will be costly
The NHL teams drafting the five junior-age Bulls players will have to pay dearly because the contracts go with them to the NHL, the newspaper quotes Walters as saying.
The Free Press says Ramage and his defence partner, Hartsburg, would receive $1 million each over the four years of their contracts while the other three players would split the remaining $1.4 million.
Last fall Walters negotialed $50,000 conlracls for Ihe five players to skip their final year of junior eligibility and sign with Birmingham.
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