White Knight Confirmed!
Manitoba NHL Ownership Publicly Declared by Daly

The reaction has been swift to Bill Daly’s statement categorically denying that Winnipeg is the NHL’s exit strategy should the Coyotes run out of ownership options to remain in Arizona.

The NHL is trying to position themselves to be able to say two things later. The first NHL position will be that all the media naysayers were wrong, that this young and exciting team will be just fine in Glendale and that they knew this all along, given the ownership receiving final league approval. The second position for the NHL is the scapegoat route. The NHL can say that Glendale council or even Goldwater Institute killed any reasonable hope that the team could remain in such a beautiful city, playing in such a great arena. It is highly unlikely that the NHL turns on either Ice Edge Holdings or Reinsdorf since the league has so many troubled teams and too few ownerships willing to take them off beleaguered hands. Either way, the NHL has put on its’ Teflon-coated suits as neither outcome to the Coyotes story will have any bad press sticking to them.

So for the media to expect that the NHL will admit that it does have a backup plan could be easily twisted by some into thinking that the NHL will “run out of one of its’ cities”. This is the last thing the NHL wants to be perceived as, even as relocation may in fact occur and occur outside the US.

The media is OFFside if it truly expected anything else but the guarded yet categorically negative response Daly offered to any and all proposed exit strategies. Thus hope remains in Manitoba even in the face of Daly’s more than expected denials.

However, NHL fans in Manitoba received a tidbit of news that might be lost given the hoopla over Winnipeg as a potential NHL-preferred escape route. Andrew Willis’ Globe and Mail article titled “Coyotes eyeing a Winnipeg den?” posted late last night on the newspaper’s website quoted among others, this portion of Bill Daly’s official statement:

“With respect to Winnipeg and Messrs. Chipman and Thomson, we have had ongoing discussions over time regarding their potential interest in owning an NHL franchise [as we have had with a number of other individuals and cities around North America] and potentially bringing an NHL franchise back to Winnipeg. It remains an intriguing possibility and one we would consider given appropriate circumstances, but there is nothing new to report on that front at this time.”

See the full story here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/coyotes-eyeing-a-winnipeg-den/article1516385/

For the casual observer you may have missed the breaking news in that statement. For the rabid NHL fan base, you may have picked up on the fact that this is the first official voice to link David Thomson and Mark Chipman as an ownership group for Winnipeg. Further, by coming from Bill Daly, the NHL acknowledges that the league has “over time” had discussions with the two leaders of True North Sports and Entertainment.

This is the first public declaration that Manitoba’s and Winnipeg’s White Knight has arrived. Further, he and Chipman have had discussions with the NHL regarding relocation and presumably expansion possibilities.

While many reporters took Thomson’s involvement as granted after Al Strachan spilled the beans last October on Hockey Night in Canada’s Satellite Hotstove segment, both Chipman and Thomson stayed mum. The very private Thomson may not be well known to most Canadians but the companies owned by him are the face of the nation including CTV, TSN and the aforementioned Globe and Mail. According to Forbes magazine less than three weeks ago, Canada’s richest person with a net worth of roughly $19.0 Billion is Top 20 in the entire world. ( http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_The-Worlds-Billionaires_Rank.html )

Many comparisons have been made to James Balsillie including Willis' story in the Globe. Balsillie’s net worth according to Forbes is number 421 in the world at $2.3 Billion. In a financial sense Thomson can skate 8 circles around Balsillie’s single lap. But as the saying goes, money can’t buy you everything in life. The reality is that the biggest difference between ownerships has been where Balsillie has been a bull in the NHL gift shop as Chipman is towing the NHL line for the past five or more years running.

Thomson, as the richest potential owner not only in the NHL but possibly in all of North American major league sports, partnered with the follow-the-rules, patient and personable hockey operator in Chipman. The two together redefines the NHL gameplan to put Manitoba and Winnipeg back on the major league sports map.

So while the very real prospect of the Ex-Jets coming back home remains an exciting topic for hockey fans to ponder, it is clear that this ownership group does have the ability to port any of a number of troubled teams to the center of the continent. In a nutshell, Chipman and Thomson provide hockey's version of Winnipeg's "CentrePort" concept. Their involvement by its’ very nature changes the question from if the NHL will return to when and which team.

So, when a team arrives, where would one donate cash to install a bronze statue of Thomson and Chipman sitting stately beside Winnipeg's iconic Timothy Eaton statue in the MTS Centre?

Chris
President, www.myNHLincludesWinnipeg.com
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