With the announcement this week of the National Hockey League (NHL) returning to Winnipeg (the Atlanta Thrashers relocating to Winnipeg), we can all be reassured that our strategy to bring Hartford back to pre-eminent status as a hockey market works. This announcement could be a brass bonanza for Hartford.
Like Hartford, Winnipeg was an original World Hockey Association city. Like Hartford, Winnipeg was one of four WHA franchises that merged with the NHL in 1981. Like Hartford, Winnipeg lost its NHL team in the mid-‘90s. And like Hartford, Winnipeg developed a plan and a passion to get back to the NHL.
If it can happen there, why not here?
Winnipeg sent a message of success to the NHL. Their American Hockey League franchise, the Manitoba Moose averaged more than 8,000 fans over the past two years and more than 7,700 for the past four years. We salute their efforts to showcase the fan and corporate interest in hockey in their market, and congratulate the management of True North Sports and Entertainment for successfully returning the City of Winnipeg to the NHL.
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 7, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The National Hockey League (NHL) and SLG Entertainment, LLC led by Stan Lee (Chairman, POW! Entertainment, LLC) today announced their unprecedented partnership to form Guardian Media Entertainment, LLC (GME). This partnership creates the platform from which to launch Stan Lee's vision for his latest superhero franchise, The Guardian Project, which will encompass the creation of 30 Guardians (one to represent each NHL® team) as a new series of superheroes, with a creative concept that organically and authentically incorporates various NHL elements but is not set in the world of hockey.
"I have always believed that every great plan starts with a great story," says Mr. Lee. "In the creation of GME and its unique and unprecedented relationship with the NHL, I truly believe we have the perfect combination from which to launch 30 new superheroes and excite young fans around the globe."
"To paraphrase Robert Kennedy, others ask why and Howard Baldwin asks why not.
Mr. Baldwin, founder and owner of the Hartford Whalers as a young man in the 1970s, has returned to the city to get involved in hockey once again. After years of negotiation, Mr. Baldwin's sports marketing company will take over the business operations of the city's American Hockey League team, the Hartford Wolf Pack.
Mr. Baldwin's long-term goal is to build so much support for the minor-league team that the National Hockey League will welcome Hartford back. To that end, the name of the team will be changed to the Connecticut Whale, which recalls the NHL team that left Hartford in 1997 — cue the banner with the green broken heart — to become the Carolina Hurricanes. In addition to the name change, Mr. Baldwin promises to market and promote the team vigorously.
Just that will be a major boost for downtown Hartford. Wolf Pack attendance has dropped from more than 5,000 fans a game four years ago to 4,188 fans last season. Mr. Baldwin, a skilled promoter, has unveiled plans for a 10-day outdoor hockey festival at Rentschler Field in February, which will feature, among other events, a celebrity All-Star game."
Click here to read the rest of The Hartford Courant's editorial on Howard Baldwin's plans:
AEG, Whalers Sports and Entertainment, and Madison Square Garden are proud to announce a new partnership whose goal is to return Hartford to its rightful place as one of the nation’s premier professional hockey markets.
As a Wolf Pack supporter, we hope you will join us in our attempt to accomplish this goal, as your participation is crucial to the success of hockey in Hartford. As we work together to rebrand your team in such a way that pays respect to the work that has been done over the past thirteen years under the Wolf Pack/MSG leadership - but also harkens back to the early 70’s, 80’s and 90’s when the team played under the Whalers’ banner – we hope we earn your continued support because it is extremely important to us.
We all have one common interest:
- We love hockey!
Everything we do going forward is intended to be in the best interests of each and every hockey fan in the region. The ultimate goal is to make this the number one hockey market in the nation!
We have assembled an experienced team, committed to making the vision become a reality. In the next few weeks, we will be sending you more information on exactly how you can play a major role in taking professional hockey in Central Connecticut to the next level. In the meantime, please log onto WhalersSports.com or HartfordWolfpack.com for constant updates.
We value your continued support and thank you very much. Working together, we will write Connecticut’s next great hockey chapter!
Some people probably wondered
what the big “W” with a whale’s tale painted on the field at Dodd Stadium stood
for.
Howard Baldwin hopes it
stands for the Hartford Whalers’ second coming.
The former owner of the
National Hockey League franchise took his traveling promotional show to Norwich
on Friday as he continues to try to build support to bring the team back to
Connecticut.
Baldwin bought the Whalers
with a group of New England businessmen in 1972 before selling his shares in
the franchise in 1988. Peter Karmanos, then CEO of Compuware, took control of
the franchise in 1994, and three years later moved it to North Carolina where
it became the Carolina Hurricanes.
Baldwin left New England for
Pittsburgh, where he ran the Penguins in the late ’80s, and started Baldwin
Entertainment in Los Angeles where he eventually spent the last 20 years.
But Baldwin is back and pushing
hard to get controlling interest in the American Hockey League’s Hartford
Wolfpack.
“We’re kind of in a waiting
period,” Baldwin said. “We’ve had discussions, and, hopefully, something will
pop, but I can’t put a timetable on anything because I’m not in control of it.
I would like it to happen.”
In the meantime, Baldwin and
former Whaler Bob Crawford have embarked on bringing the team’s name back to
life through fanfests and appearances throughout the state.
“The only way you’re going to
get people interested again is by doing things, whether it be (at Dodd Stadium)
or the winterfest or summerfest. How else can you make it happen? You won’t
make it happen by doing nothing,” Baldwin added. “You’re never going to get the
NHL’s attention unless they see people interested in hockey again.”
Tim Gassen has had a special place in his heart
for the World Hockey Association since its fledgling days in his hometown of
Indianapolis, Ind.
Gassen was an avid follower of the Racers and
fortunate to witness the start of Wayne Gretzky’s legendary career, which ended
in Indianapolis with a nondescript game against the New England Whalers on a
Thursday night. The following morning, the skinny 17-year-old was traded to the
Edmonton Oilers, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Despite the departure of The Great One, Gassen
loved his Racers throughout their five WHA seasons (1974-79) and then spent the
last 30 years as a freelance journalist, writing more than 500 stories for
newspapers and magazines worldwide and working on Hollywood and independent
film sets, dramatic documentaries and music productions.
But Gassen’s strong feelings for the rebel WHA
never ceased, even after the Whalers, Oilers, Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg
Jets merged with the National Hockey League in 1979. Gassen, a self-proclaimed
“child of the WHA,” said the consolidation of the two leagues wouldn’t have
happened without the efforts of former Whalers managing general partner Howard
Baldwin, now the CEO of the new Whalers Sports and Entertainment group.
“I’ve been a little too busy at times, kind of
like Howard, but without the money to get a lot of the stuff done,” said the
chuckling, 49-year-old Gassen, a native of Columbus, Ohio, who lives in Tucson,
Ariz. “There wouldn’t have been a merger without Howard Baldwin. He is a guy
with a lot of ideas, and I like to tell people, ‘Don’t ever bet against Howard
Baldwin.’ ”
Full Transcription of Scott Gray's WTIC 1080 Sports Commentary on 7/28 regarding Howard Baldwin and the Whalers.
Yesterday I visited the Hartford Whalers offices on Trumbull Street in Hartford. I’m in. I drank the Kool-Aid. They weren’t exactly the Hartford Whalers offices, they were the offices of Whalers Sports and Entertainment,
but they’re just a block away from the old Hartford Whalers offices and
the walls are adorned with Hartford Whalers history, including team
photos dating back to the early days of the World Hockey Association.
“The WHA was like Russian Roulette”, recalled Whalers Sports president
Howard Baldwin, the former managing general partner of the Hartford
Whalers and founder of the WHA New England Whalers, “I remember taking
the Minnesota Fighting Saints payroll down to their locker room in cash
in a brown paper bag just to insure their players would go out and play
against us.” To say it was a blast from the past would be an
understatement. I first met Baldwin thirty six years ago in a stairwell
no more than a hundred yards from his new twenty first floor
headquarters. He was twenty eight, I was younger. Always the promoter
he took advantage of the chance meeting to try to sell me on what, at
the time, amounted to little more than a concept that would eventually
become one of the most beloved and marketable brands in National Hockey League
history. I’m not sure if either one of us knew what we were doing at
the time, but somehow we’re still around. Yesterday was like stepping
through a time warp. There we were again, on Trumbull Street, Howard
still selling. And now he’s about to have a product to sell. My
reservations after the June 2nd Rentschler Field press conference
announcing next month’s Whaler-Fest and the February Hockey Fest at
“The Rent” surrounded the lack of a product beyond February that would
leave Howard with nothing to sell but nostalgia. Within weeks, perhaps
days, Howard will have that product. A deal is in the works for
Howard’s Whaler Sports to take over marketing control of the AHL Wolf
Pack, which will remain a New York Rangers farm team
but with the Whalers name and the new logo of the Connecticut Whalers,
which will bear a very familiar look. The NHL currently sells Hartford
Whalers items at it’s stores and on line and it would be wise of
Baldwin and Hartford to keep that logo with the NHL until such time as
we can reclaim it as an NHL market. It’s that kind of understanding of
the inner workings of the league that make Baldwin a necessary element
in piecing together an NHL future for Hartford. As I did thirty six
years ago, without regret, in an office building on Trumbull Street, I
again bought what Howard was selling. I drank the Kool-Aid. Tomorrow
I’ll tell you why, and I’ll offer my boldest prediction ever about the
NHL in Hartford. With a comment from the sports world, I’m Scott Gray.
Scott Gray at WTIC spoke about Howard Baldwin and his efforts to bring back the Whalers during his Sports Commentary on WTIC News Talk 1080. Below is a full transcription of the segment and the link to the audio clip.
The twenty first floor offices of Whalers Sports and Entertainment
on Trumbull Street in Hartford are populated with heavyweights in the
sports industry representing more than a century of sports marketing
success. They’ve ripped up roots as far
away as Pennsylvania, Florida and California to take up full time
residence in central Connecticut. They came here to help Howard Baldwin
fulfill a promise he made to himself long ago to return the National Hockey League
to Hartford. Their presence here alone is testimony to the advances
Baldwin has made toward that end. “There’s money in the bank, there’s
fuel in the tank”, says one local businessman who has already thrown
his considerable influence behind Baldwin’s efforts, which will soon
reach the first level of fruition when Whalers Sports assumes marketing
control of the local American Hockey League team,
giving Baldwin a means of proving his faith in Hartford as a hockey
market is justified. Local businesses will not only be critical to the
success of Baldwin’s efforts, they will be the primary beneficiaries of
it. The new offices are adorned with memorabilia from Whalers history,
including reminders of how important a major league franchise can be to
the community at large. On the conference room wall is an oversized
mock up of a one hundred thousand dollar check once presented by the
Hartford Whalers foundation to the UConn Children’s Cancer Fund, which
lost a major benefactor and a major resource when the Whalers left
town. Another poster shows Whalers players advising young people to
“Get high on sports, not drugs”. The impact of such a presence in the
community can be enormous, similarly the impact of losing that
influence can be devestating. I warned of the spiral effect that losing
the Whalers would have, a downturn that would impact not just the once
vital Civic Center, but soon the entire Hartford downtown and
eventually the outskirts and surrounding towns. I wasn’t wrong. The
businessmen who remember the boom of the Whalers years and are now
eager to be part of the effort to return that economic engine to the
region know I am also not wrong when I say the spiral effect of the National Hockey League’s return would be similar, in a positive way. Howard Baldwin and the impressive team
he has assembled, complemented by a full time staff of office,
marketing and public relations personnel, have already made major
strides toward returning our status as a major league market, including
earning NHL approval for many of their Whaler-Fest and Hockey-Fest
events, a clear message from the league that it has not forgotten about
Hartford, it’s potential and the hockey hotbed it once was. A skeptic
as recently as three weeks ago about the ability of Baldwin’s efforts
to reap a level of reward that was once inconceivable here, I am now
prepared to go on record with a prediction we can have the National Hockey League
and the Hartford Whalers back on our ice within three years. Tomorrow
I’ll tell you why I believe it, how it can happen and what your role
will be. With a comment from the sports world, I’m Scott Gray.
The biggest obstacle to Howard Baldwin taking over operation of the American Hockey League affiliate in Hartford has been lifted.
Is it a done deal? No.
Will the deal get done in the next few weeks? There is little reason to believe it won't.
When Northland Investment Corp., Hartford's biggest landlord, announced
late Thursday that it is transferring its interest in operating the XL Center to its partner, AEG,
there was no mention of the building's primary tenant. When Northland
spokeswoman Mary Coursey said the move is "to allow both firms to focus
on their core businesses," she was talking about real estate for Larry
Gottesdiener's struggling company and about management of
sports/entertainment facilities for AEG.
