The 2010/11 season is shaping up to be a wet dream. AHL Hartford Wolfpack should be officially sold in the coming week(s) and will be taken over by former Whalers owner Harold Baldwin. The Wolfpack are scheduled to be renamed the Conn. Whalers with the teams purpose of making a run towards entering the NHL. New ownership has the finances and the blessing of the city/state govt. to refurbish the XCEL Center, "The Mall", to make it into a more viable NHL arena. The AHL Whalers will have to draw people to their games inorder to properly kick start the NHL relaunch and from the initial buzz the community seems to be all in for the long haul but obviously only time will tell. Also, down south in Danbury, the Danbury Whalers will kicking off it's inaugural season in the minors. Seems the Conn. masses can't get enough of America's team. First off, this week is Whalers Fan Fest in Hartford with the main event being a Whalers Reunion dinner and auction with a lot of old skoolers comng back to Insurance City. Next up will be the outdoor game in Feb. with a ton of All-Stars being courted to suit up in what is an officially approved NHL event. The outdoor game will mark the 25th anniversary of the NHL All-Star being held in Hartford with many of the then participants being asked to attend and/or play. Amongst the names potentially to attend is Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemuix but best of all could see Ulf suiting up in green on one side and Cam Neely suiting up on the other side, oh baby ! Here is a great recap from an online interview/Q&A session with former owner Harold Baldwin. http://www.courant.com/sports/hocke...hartford-whalers-chat-0811,0,3589711.htmlpage
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bwZbWZhAaM"]YouTube- The Hartford Whalers "Brass Bonanza"[/ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=35YoyS75kCo&feature=related There is just so much wrong with this clip.
* Gordon * Shanny as a Whaler * Jamie getting the start over Tommy * The guy's Cosby sweater at 0:51 * When fighting wasn't poo-pooed * Sportschannel (I actually miss it) * Shouldn't of let in 3 * Andrei Nikolishin being called the Russian Gretzky * Weak 5-Hole I'm sure you'd add Mike being on the bench but I'm a sucker for the guy, always liked him. Great video and some good memories.
Howard Baldwin was on 1080 AM Hartford this morning, sweet interview. WolfPack to become Conn. Whalers in the next 2/3 weeks or deal is dead AHL has given the greenlight to new ownership and name change Play in the mall for at least the next few years If new arena gets built it will be next to Rentschler Field Had a proposal for expansion rejected in '06 Ran the numbers of Canes, would of turned a large profit in Hartford Team will only be called HFD Whalers if in NHL so as to not tarnish it's history * Howard was seriously on it, he's on a mission and his goal and business plan are sounding good. Season tickets are up already with no official announcement being made, good initial signs out of Hartford... especially as they've drawn flies the past two years. The Rangers killed Hartford off, let's hope things start to pick up.
Whalers merchandise among NHL's top seller. http://www.courant.com/sports/hocke...dise-sells-0814-20100813,0,5343324,full.story
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVR_ZvyZf5M"]YouTube- Whalers Reunion and Fan Fest in East Hartford[/ame]
I was hoping for MLS in Hartford for a while, but now I believe it's going to be the NHL coming back soon. I've lost a lot of interest in the NHL over the years, but Howard Baldwin is doing a great job of reinvigorating the market and I can't wait. The Fan Fest was incredible.
Lets remember why the Whalers left Hartford. The downtown arena was an small pocket of safety that was frankly encircled by a ghetto back in the day. Gun shots, screams for help, sirens and helicopters with powerful spotlights hovering over the city were common place after dark. Today the city has morphed into something a lot better, cleaner and nicer. I know Ziegler gave up on the city one time when he couldn't get a flight out of town one night and was stuck at the airport. There was no rooms at the one Sheraton at the airport and finally had to rent a car and drive into Springfield staying at some downmarket motel the airline found for him. He had a hatred of the place ever since. Hartford has made a good transformation into a nice city, I hope the Whalers come back under Bettman.
What are the odds that PHX screw the pooch and the NHL allows a return of top level hockey to Winnipeg? Would that require the NHL HQ to admit the sunbelt experiment is/has been a failure? As an outsider, I miss the old teams, the Jets, the Nordiques, the Whalers! Its just not the same with the Predators, the Thrashers, the coyotes etc.
The odds are very good that they could go to Winnipeg. The league is very hesitant to approve a relocation of the Coyotes, perhaps for the reason you say---for the last year they have been trying to engineer a sale of the team to someone willing to keep the team in Glendale. During the bankruptcy auction last year Jim Basille was the most credible investor willing to buy the team and had the support of the bankruptcy judge (he wanted to relocate them to Hamilton Ontario), but the league vetoed it. The only credible investor (Reinsdorf) willing to keep the team in Phoenix would only agree to do so if they get an annual cash subsidy from the City of Glendale. The league 's preference is to keep the team in place, but they have had a year to find someone to keep the team in Phoenix and nobody has stepped up. If this persists, they will be moved in time for the 2011-12 season. In the vein of this thread, I bring the Coyotes up because if this Hartford guy is serious--the Coyotes are there for the taking.
Thank you for your thoughts, its very hard as a relative new-comer to the sport to understand the nuances of who/why/where & when franchises move cities. Any info is good. As for the AHL CTWolf-Pack...they are perhaps becoming the AHL Hartford Whalers in the near future no? - Any more news on this, it's too close to the start of the season surely for this to happen in 2010....tickets and merchandise have to be printed/bought/ordered. Do the hockey fans of Hartford, CT not 100% 'get behind' the Wolf-pack because they still yearn for the Whale or is it because the Wolf-Pack are the Ranger's AHL affiliate team? Will/would Hartford 'get behind' a re-branded CT Wolf-Pack -> Hartford Whalers in the AHL? Just curious as to the ins& outs of the situation. cheers hockey fans CS.
I was a DIE-HARD Whaler fan, but never got into the Wolf Pack. Always seemed like a schlocky organization that didn't fit this city, and I never liked the Rangers anyway. But I remember when Howard Baldwin owned the Whalers and did things right, and completely support him. I will go to games to support him. AHL hockey is honestly not that entertaining, but if Howard wants to bring back the NHL, that's enough motivation for me to be there.
The Wolf Pack drew well for an AHL team in their early days. They could routinely draw 8,000-10,000 on weekend night games. They sold out the Civic Center during the 2000 Calder Cup Finals. Sometime in 2004ish, when the Civic Center mall got torn down, attendance went downhill and MSG seemed to give up on the market. New ownership and management to reinvigorate the market is much needed. Going to Pack games in the past couple of years was downright depressing.
The toughest part is going to be getting the public to support the team this season and next. Most of the city seems ready and willing to bring in the Whale but they know even without the WolfPack name the $$ is still going to the Rangers. The Rangers really screwed up in Hartford and people are very unwilling to go out and support a team that is essentially the same. This is going to be a tough journey but if the people come out and support the Conn. Whalers then Bettman will listen. Baldwin is going to get a promotional campaign kicked off soon for the relaunch of the Whalers, aka WolfPack, just have to hope people can suck up their hate of the Rangers and show up in good faith for the Whalers and Howard.
It's official ... The dream lives on ! http://www.courant.com/sports/hockey/hc-baldwin-wolf-pack-0920-20100920-5,0,4627592.story
Straight from the man himself.... [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncWG_gGiYsI"]YouTube - Connecticut Whale press conference with Howard Baldwin[/ame]
nice article that sums up last night and the overall push towards the NHL... http://www.courant.com/sports/hockey/hc-jacobs-column-0921-20100921,0,4573614.column