The NHL ownership group includes True North which built the MTS Centre after decades of talk. Fans will get another taste of NHL pre-season hockey on Septembr 24, 2009

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You probably heard these before. Or maybe you are asking these questions yourself?

“There is still no tangible (public) evidence that a serious well-heeled ownership group from or for Winnipeg exists.”

“Up to now we can legitimize their (the group’s) silence and I'd say the conditions are not yet ideal for our presumed group.”

“The optimum time for it (the group) to reveal itself will very soon be upon us (after the Coyotes auction is settled and NHL hopefully wins)”

The evidence is on this website, Myth #3: No Ownership Group (over 30 items, many with Mark Chipman, the group’s prime communicator, directly speaking on video or audio and quoted in many articles about the group’s plans for the NHL in Winnipeg):

http://www.manitobamythbusters.com/php/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=77&MMN_position=108:101

Would you as a respected businessperson from our city make these types of public statements, or have people make statements about your supposed-NHL desires without correcting them, if you were not certain that you could move ahead and buy a team?

NHL fans would be OFFside to think this publicity is to be sought after.

Who in the right mind would set themselves up for a public horsewhipping later? Especially in a town who lost the NHL already?

On the other side of the puck, thankfully, there is very little similar evidence for cities competing with Winnipeg, notwithstanding Jim Balsillie and Hamilton. So we have more to "hang our hat on" than most NHL fans around North America that, like us, continue to hope for the NHL to move to town.

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The second quote paraphrased: "Conditions are not yet perfect for our ownership group." This would be the group’s collective timing. Who knows what the group’s perfect timing is for their situation? And rarely in business does opportunity happen along when the perfect situation and timing occurs. Business owners know this reality all too well.

Certainly having several teams with no options to keep the team in their city would be great news for Manitoba. A bidding war totally in the buyers’ interest could begin. Is this situation reasonable to expect, considering these owners are trying also to time things to avoid that exact above scenario? Hardly, considering the NHL will pull out all the stops to maintain franchise values.

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The optimum time for the ownership to reveal itself completely is when that Grand Day with the Grand Announcement arrives. Why would you come forward any more, until you have good news to share? Anything less, would bring constant harassment from fans, media and their own staff in their own businesses. And it sets up oneself to that horsewhipping later should plans fall through.

Jet fans remember MEC and Spirit of Manitoba. A lot of fans were as angry with John Loewen and Izzy Asper for not following through and buying the team as at Bettman and the levels of government who stood by and did essentially nothing. Who wants that legacy on their tombstone?

If any NHL offer, that Winnipeg is offered XYZ team, goes public (unlikely, based on NHL history with decisions made behind closed doors at every turn), then you can expect a huge impromptu public rally at Portage & Main, while the ownership group "deliberates". Gravely close to the scene from the 1990’s when Spirit of Manitoba towel-threw. Needless to say, by agreeing to take a team like the Coyotes would help the NHL out of a difficult bind. So to say, "no thanks" after years of lobbying the NHL to consider Winnipeg again, it just might cut our city off for good with the league or at least this Commissioner. And if the ownership group rejects the public offer, you can also expect "disruptions" near the MTSC and at potentially at AHL Moose games. To be clear, any and all disruptions are not being advocated, but knowing what fans here have gone through in the past makes it entirely possible.

Talk about being between a puck and a hard place when that NHL offer arrives! There is considerable pressure to relocate a team on the NHL’s behalf to save face and avoid mounting losses that the league amasses in Phoenix and soon to be other locales. There is also a lot on the line for the ownership group including their own face-saving, the city’s legacy and perhaps a one-time-offer to name a few. Let us just hope both sides are reasonable when it comes to price, divisional alignment and timing.

So based on the raucous result either way if the NHL offer goes public, it will remain secret. The ownership group would communicate secretly with the NHL throughout negotiations. Once all the details are hammered out and the deal is signed, only then we will know that the NHL and the ownership group have been working together over the past weeks and months.

And if the ownership's secret answer were "no thanks" to the NHL’s secret offer, then none of the fans in Winnipeg would be ever the wiser. Would the ownership group still be intact after that point and continuing to work towards the goal of bringing the NHL to Manitoba? Only they know that answer.

In the end, the benefit of the doubt of the group’s existence, financial ability and motivation should be given to the group Mark Chipman speaks for. They have already come forward publicly many times as this website demonstrates. And no one in this city would ever do so lightly, given obvious past transgressions relating to the Jets. That just might be the truest test one could find for such a group for Winnipeg.

If you differ in opinion, skate hard to the Manitoba Mythbuster Forum at www.mbmbforum.com

Chris
Chair, Manitoba Mythbusters
www.ManitobaMythbusters.com
www.myNHLincludesWinnipeg.com

~ The Reality May Surprise You! Excite You! ~