FANS of junior hockey will be disappointed, but there will be no room for the Western Hockey League in the new True North Centre.
True North has an agreement with the Manitoba Moose that precludes having a WHL tenant, True North president James Ludlow told Winnipeg lawyer Robert Fisher in a Feb. 5 letter. Fisher represents "a group of clients interested in bringing a WHL franchise to Winnipeg."
"That obligation," Ludlow wrote, "combined with the multitude of other events planned throughout the year precludes us from considering a second tenant with dates that could conflict or compete with commitments made to the Moose and other users."
In an interview yesterday, Ludlow suggested there would be a problem with conflicting dates, but Kevin Donnelly, who is to manage the new arena, said it is a matter of protecting the prime tenant, the Moose, who play in the American Hockey League.
"To me, the issue is when you have competitive events in the same building, it isn't healthy for the prime tenant or the building," said Donnelly.
He is currently the president of Winnipeg Enterprises Corp., landlord of the existing arena. When WEC winds down next fall, he is to be the GM at True North. "If your lead tenant is successful, then the building is successful," Donnelly said. "Can anyone blame Ludlow and (Moose owner Mark) Chipman for trying to protect their investment?"
Chipman did not return telephone messages left at his office yesterday.
Ludlow's letter came as a surprise to Mayor Glen Murray, the mayor's press secretary, Donald Benham, said.
"The mayor says, as far as he's heard, junior hockey would be allowed to use the True North Centre," Benham said. "He was clearly told by Mark (Chipman) that junior hockey would be welcome in the new arena."
Premier Gary Doer, interviewed Monday on the plane from Minneapolis to Winnipeg, said difficult decisions like excluding some would-be tenants were among the reasons the province wanted to be a junior partner.
"One of the many reasons we (the three levels of government) were interested in funding only one-third of this project is because we didn't want to be put into a position where we, as a government, had to make the difficult decisions that the private sector must make," Doer said. He said he hoped True North could secure "about 105 dates a year." A hockey season takes about 50 home dates, give or take a playoff game.
Fisher said he was not at liberty to name his clients, but said without a suitable place to play, there was little sense pursuing a franchise at this time.
WHL commissioner Ron Robison said there is only one group in Winnipeg which has consistently maintained an interest in acquiring a franchise: a group led by Winnipeg businessman Jeff Thompson, a former co-owner of the Winnipeg Goldeyes.
"We believe Winnipeg is an outstanding hockey market," said Robison, when asked if Winnipeg would be considered as a future home for a WHL franchise.
"Winnipeg is definitely a city that we see as a viable market in the long term. Presently, we don't view expansion past the 20 teams that we have now and we have considerable interest from groups in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Victoria.
Potential market
"As a matter of fact, we have more than 30 applications for franchises all across Western Canada on file and while we aren't considering expansion at this time, Winnipeg is certainly a city we look to as a potential WHL market."
A group led by Goldeyes owner Sam Katz, interested in acquiring the Brandon Wheat Kings in the late 1990s, abandoned that interest when it became clear that the Moose's exclusivity clause with WEC at Winnipeg Arena would make it impossible for a WHL franchise to play a full season in Winnipeg. The Moose have allowed the Wheat Kings to use the Arena for playoff games. Katz also examined getting a franchise in the U.S.-based Indoor Football League, a level below the Arena Football League, but decided it would be impossible to run a franchise without access to the "ancillary revenues" that come with owning the building.
In two cities in Canada, a major junior hockey team shares an arena with an NHL franchise -- the Montreal Canadiens and the QMJHL's Montreal Rocket share the Bell Centre while the Calgary Flames and the WHL's Calgary Hitmen share the Pengrowth Saddledome.
In two other cases, when an NHL team built a new arena, the old arena was left for the junior team -- the WHL's Vancouver Giants play in the PNE Coliseum, the old home of the Canucks, while the OHL's Ottawa 67s play in the Civic Centre, the old home of the Ottawa Senators. Winnipeg Arena will be demolished when True North is completed.
"Obviously True North is not concerned with the development of top-quality junior hockey in Manitoba," said Bud Ulrich, spokesman for ArenaQuest, a group in favour of a new arena in Winnipeg but opposed to the True North Centre.
"Other cities such as Vancouver and Calgary have housed both NHL and WHL teams for many years. This short-sighted approach would include denial to all hockey that is perceived as a threat to the success of the Moose."
World Junior bid coming
Application to bring 2006 tourney to Winnipeg expected within days
Sat Nov 29 2003 SCOTT TAYLOR - THE INSIDER Free Press
IT looks like we're going for it.
Peter Woods, director of the Manitoba Hockey Association, confirmed this week that there is enough local support to file a formal application for the 2006 World Junior Hockey Championship.
With the 2005 championship in Grand Forks, N.D., critics felt that it might be impossible to convince the CHA to give Winnipeg Canada's blessing, but Woods said the support locally "has been very encouraging," and it's likely Winnipeg will get its bid in by Tuesday's deadline.
"In our meetings, I would say there is a great deal of enthusiasm being shown by the True North people, by the province and the city, by the private sector, and by Sport Manitoba," said Woods.
"I would expect that we'll make a formal bid. I think every one of our potential partners feels good about it."
By the sound of Woods' voice, it seemed that the excitement shown for the project by the directors of the new True North Centre was extremely encouraging. "Considering how Winnipeg did in 1999, raising the bar as high as it did (setting all-time attendance records at the time), I think the people here want this tournament back in a big way," Woods said.
HOWEVER, IF THE MONEY ENDS UP IN THE RIGHT POCKET, THEN ITS OK!
Mother of all garage sales!
Tue Dec 23 2003 Aldo Santin Free Press
Donnelly points to some of the many assets that could be up for grabs if no one comes up with an alternative use for the old hockey barn.
IT could become the garage sale to end all garage sales.
Winnipeg Enterprises plans to sell off the contents of the Winnipeg Arena -- Jumbotron, score clock, ice-making plant, 15,000 seats -- if a developer doesn't come forward with an innovative use for the old hockey barn.
"If the end for this building does not include retaining of the four walls then... everything is up for sale," Enterprises boss Kevin Donnelly said.
Pieces of the old arena will ultimately be offered for sale to local residents, he said, adding some old die-hard Jets fans would get a chance to buy a row of seats or the penalty box for the rec room.
"We're working out the strategy for a memento sale," Donnelly said. "It's been done successfully before -- the Forum in Montreal, Maple Leaf Gardens. It would be challenging, but it would be worthwhile."
The first item up for sale is Select-A-Seat, the Enterprises-owned ticket agency.
A request for proposals for the agency's sale appeared in yesterday's Free Press. Donnelly said a second RFP will be issued in mid-January, exploring alternative uses for the arena building, land and its contents.
The series of sell-offs will mark the countdown to the demise of Winnipeg Enterprises -- the civic-owned agency that owns the Canad Inn Stadium and the Winnipeg Arena. Enterprises' end was set in place when the three levels of government agreed to aid the construction of the new downtown arena. In addition to large contributions of cash for the facility's construction, city hall also agreed to demolish Winnipeg Arena to ensure it wouldn't remain as a competitor to the new downtown facility when it opens in November 2004.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are negotiating directly with city hall to take over the stadium. That left just the arena and Select-A-Seat as active Enterprises assets. While several developers said there would be strong interest in redeveloping the arena site for shopping, there was a public outcry over the waste of demolishing a building that's played a key role in the city's recent past.
Some even suggested it be converted into a giant indoor waterslide.
Rather than pay for the arena's demolition, city hall decided to see if there was another use for the building and ordered staff to issue a request for proposals.
"We've already had offers to come in and crush the whole thing and turn it into another giant retail site," Donnelly said. "But before we do that, we want to see what ideas are out there." Donnelly said the RFP in January will ask potential developers to propose an alternative use for the arena. But he added the deal with True North puts many restrictions on any reuse: There can be no ice-making plant; can't stage any entertainment or sporting events; can't be a seating venue of any sort for thousands of people.
Donnelly said if no one steps forward with an alternative use for the building, then it's likely that other arenas across North America will be contacted to see if they'd like to pick up any of the assets.
"There's not too much use for a score clock of that size other than another arena," he said. "Who could use a Jumbotron?"
HOWEVER, TN MUST ENSURE THERE IS NO COMPETITION!
Cost forces U of W to cut its women's hockey team
Friday, March 26th, 2004 By Ashley Prest Free Press
WOMEN'S hockey is no longer a sport linked with the University of Winnipeg, as the program has been cut after four years for budget reasons.
The U of W women's hockey team was a senior women's team and had received about $14,000 this year in funding from the U of W athletics department. The team was started under the previous U of W administration and did not have Canadian Interuniversity Sport standing.
U of W vice-president (students) Ian Cull, who is responsible for the athletic department, said he had to make the decision to cut the hockey program, based on the fact that it was a lot of money for the university to spend on a program when only a few players on the team were actually students at the university.
"It is unfortunate, but there are places in the university where we can invest that money to give us a greater impact on student life," Cull said, noting the money that formerly funded hockey will be channelled away from athletics into other areas of the university such as infrastructure.
Only seven of the 23 players were U of W students and ages of players on the team ranged from 15 to 29. Their home ice was in Niverville, as the university does not have an arena. The team, which opted to play an exhibition schedule, including some out-of-province tournaments, recently represented Manitoba at the Esso National Senior Women's Hockey Championship March 10-14 in Sherwood Park, Alta., where they placed seventh with a 4-1 record.
Coach Jill Mathez said she was informed by the U of W administration last December that funding for the hockey program had been eliminated, but she waited until the season ended to tell the players. She held a team meeting in the dressing room after their last game at nationals and delivered the news.
"It's the same old story -- there's cutbacks everywhere. But the U of W had been very generous to us through these past four years and we were very lucky to have them," Mathez said. "Unfortunately, there's been a number of girls who have been devastated by the news. Hockey is among the important things in their lives and this is the end of something pretty special."
CIS sports in place at the U of W include men's and women's programs in basketball and volleyball. U of W athletic director Bill Wedlake said all student athletes on these teams are required to comply with the CIS criteria, which include being registered as a full-time U of W student, taking classes worth 18 credit hours in a calendar year, maintaining a 2.0 average (on a 4.0 scale) and being subject to random doping control. Because the U of W women's hockey team was not a CIS program, these requirements did not apply to its players.
The operating budget for a CIS women's hockey program is about $110,000 (not including coaches' salaries), but CIS gender-equity requirements would likely mean if women's hockey was added, men's hockey would have to be added as well, which would double the cost. Wedlake said the U of W administration has made it clear adding hockey is not financially possible.
Sun, March 28, 2004
New league wants in
True North outlines lease requirements for WHA
By GREG DI CRESCE, STAFF REPORTER Wpg Sun
When hockey dreamers meet in a Winnipeg sporting goods store, they talk about the Jets. When one of them is Bobby Hull, they talk about how to bring the Jets and the World Hockey Association back.
And that's just what happened yesterday afternoon at a local sporting goods store as the Golden Jet, now commissioner of the WHA, Allan Howell, the WHA's co-founder, and Peter Young, the WHA's president of hockey operations, looked straight into a row of TV cameras and said their league and the American Hockey League's Manitoba Moose could coexist in this city.
"We can happily coexist with any other organization in town," said the league's co-founder with a nodding Hull next to him. Howell then added that he has received a letter from Jim Ludlow, president of True North Sports and Entertainment, outlining the criteria any prospective WHA ownership group would have to meet if it wanted to lease the MTS Centre.
"We officially asked the True North group for a lease to play here and they have responded in writing saying subject to six conditions -- which were only reasonable business conditions -- they would consider that possibility," said Howell, stressing the Moose do not have exclusivity rights when it comes to hockey in the new building.
A Moose spokesman confirmed Ludlow had sent a letter to the WHA outlining lease requirements.
Wpg Sun March 30, 2004
LATE HITS: Entering last night's game, Brandon's record at the Arena was 11-5 as the home team ... In those 16 contests, the Wheat Kings have attracted an average of more than 5,800 spectators a game ... WHL commissioner Ron Robison, who attended last night's clash, stressed his 20-team league has no plans to expand in the near future. Robison added that a WHL team would only surface in Winnipeg with the OK of the AHL and Mark Chipman, Manitoba Moose governor and chairman of True North Sports and Entertainment. That said, he hoped Brandon could continue its arrangement with the Moose and use the new MTS Centre when the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair fills the Keystone Centre in late March and early April.
Wpg Free Press April 2, 2004
Vancouver, for instance, is a fairly stable team at the moment, one that doesn't appear to have many holes to fill. How can it be less-needy in such a way to still keep the fire burning in the Moose dressing room?
From the Moose perspective, for instance, they'll likely be trying to strategize around goaltending, for one. Knowing that the recent track record of Canucks goalies' health, they themselves will probably need two quality, if not experienced goalies in the near-term future. You only need to examine Alex Auld's recall time in the last two years, and how it's left the Moose vulnerable at times this season, to see the effect.
Another of the intangibles is the battle the Moose wage for respectability in their own market just about every day. Developing players for the Canucks is a nice feather in the organization's cap, but winning would be an easier fix for fans.
"One common thread I seem to find with teams in Canada is that people think junior hockey is above the level of the AHL," Gage explained. "That's the farthest from the truth you could imagine. The ECHL is the equivalent of junior teams."
The Rochester GM related a personal story to illustrate his point.
"When I came into the AHL from junior, my thinking was just like a lot of Canadians', that junior was higher hockey, that I should go right to the NHL," he said. "Of course, it's a disappointment when you get sent down but you think it's going to be a piece of cake. Three weeks later, it's a hard battle to admit and realize the quality of the hockey is not an easy adjustment. The step from junior to the AHL is a far bigger step than it is from the AHL to the NHL.
"When you step back and look at it, all players in the AHL are the biggest or toughest or best all-stars coming in from all over the world. They're the top prospects from the leagues, junior included. They're the heaviest heavyweight or the top defensive defenceman and because they've all been narrowed down to the best, it's great hockey. "But let me say it again, it's not even close, the brand of hockey. The level of the AHL is way over junior."
The Moose don't have to sell that concept to the Canucks, but to sell it to their fans, they need some help from above.
tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca
Sat, November 13, 2004
Stage workers livid
Veteran Arena crew cut out of MTS work
By ROSS ROMANIUK, CITY HALL REPORTER Wpg Sun
Scores of Winnipeg Arena stage-hands are accusing MTS Centre's managers of playing dirty in choosing a Vancouver-based firm to handle their work in the new downtown complex's operations. The 200-member Winnipeg local of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has handled props, lighting and stage rigging for shows at the Maroons Road arena throughout its 50 years. The union is livid True North is now handing its members' work to NASCO.
"It's a pie in the face, an insult to all Manitobans," IATSE's local business agent, B.W. Oja, told The Sun yesterday.
The union is demanding the labour-sponsored Crocus Investment Fund -- a key player in True North Sports & Entertainment, which runs the new complex -- be forced to account for the "out-sourcing" to what's known as a non-union outfit.
Meanwhile, Coun. Harry Lazarenko wants Mayor Sam Katz to explain why the city has poured $14.5 million into the $133.5-million MTS Centre, only to find True North handing skilled jobs to a firm now hiring elsewhere.
Katz was unavailable for comment.
Kevin Donnelly, MTS Centre's head of operations, confirmed True North has made a "business decision" to go with NASCO.
Thu, November 18, 2004
Sympathy orchestra
Players back stage-hands' MTS discord
By ROSS ROMANIUK, CITY HALL REPORTER Wpg Sun
Musicians with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra say they will refuse to perform at MTS Centre if unionized stage-hands are shut out of the new arena. About 200 members of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) are trying to get work at MTS Centre, but the centre has hired a Vancouver firm and its non-unionized workers. The old Winnipeg Arena hired unionized stage-hands and technicians exclusively.
"We'll do whatever we can to help them in their effort," said Tony Cyre, secretary-treasurer of the Winnipeg Musicians Association.
Cyre said the WSO's 65 players -- who performed at the downtown arena for Tuesday's opening gala -- will refuse to take its stage again if IATSE is picketing.
The symphony has performed twice at Winnipeg Arena since the early 1990s, said a WSO musician, who asked to remain anonymous.
MTS Centre narrowly averted the embarrassment of a picket line on opening night by agreeing to let the unionized workers handle a show by magician David Copperfield this Sunday.
But that is a one-time deal. The entertainment complex has agreed only to continue talking to the union about the issue -- and hasn't agreed to cancel its contract with Nasco Services Inc. of Vancouver. Nor has Nasco agreed to hire the unionized workers.
"If we don't come to some reasonable conclusion to this situation, we'll go back out and picket. That's all," said Barny Haines, spokesman for IATSE Local 63 which represents the unionized stage hands.
If that happens, not only will it halt WSO performances at MTS Centre, it could prevent the filming of any movies at the arena. That's because the approximately 250 film crew members belong to a separate local of the same union as the stage hands.
MOVIE CREWS
"If these negotiations break down and they request our support, we will support them," said Olaf Dux, who represents the movie crews. "We won't work at MTS Centre and won't shoot at MTS Centre."
Nasco has hired and trained about 75 Manitobans to work concerts on an on-call basis at MTS Centre. Nasco has refused to say how much they are being paid, but it's believed to be less than the unionized crews made at the old arena.
IATSE Local 63's stage hands and riggers -- who earned hourly wages of $18.75 and $31 at Winnipeg Arena -- will continue to work at venues such as Pantages Playhouse, Manitoba Theatre Centre and Centennial Concert Hall. The union says large arena shows account for a significant portion of their pay and they can't afford to give that up.
Kevin Donnelly, vice-president of True North Entertainment -- which runs the new arena, said he hopes the symphony and film crews don't let themselves become "dragged down into someone else's squabble.
"You can ask other people to join you in your unhappiness," Donnelly added. "But it doesn't amount to a legal position."
In Brief WFP
Thu Nov 18 2004
MTS Centre talks to union
THE MTS Centre has reopened talks with a union that represents stagehands and technicians.
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) had planned to picket outside the new arena on its opening night, Tuesday, but cancelled the protest after management offered an olive branch, according to union president Hart Greenberg.
He said the MTS Centre agreed to reopen talks and it also agreed to use union labour for the David Copperfield shows on Sunday and Monday.
Greenberg said the Copperfield show's crews are unionized, but he wasn't sure if the production insisted on working with union labour and if that was a factor in management's decision to award IATSE the work.
The union's stage technicians, which include carpenters, electricians and stagehands, worked at the old Winnipeg Arena from the day it opened in 1955.
It had been negotiating a similar contract with the MTS Centre for the last 15 months.
But the arena's management decided to hire workers from a non-unionized company in B.C. to do the work, even through the union had offered to match the rival firm's wages.
