Midnight tonight will mark the end of the Whalers campaign
to raise 11,000 season tickets, with the final tally estimated to
be only between 8,200 and 8,500 seats sold. The HARTFORD
COURANT's Michael Arace reports a team announcement on what comes
next -- "stay or go" -- will likely come Thursday and that CT
Gov. John Rowland has already begun negotiating with team
officials. Though both sides have not shared details, public
statements from the past weeks indicates the Whalers are arguing
the team cannot survive under current conditions, while Rowland
contests that over 8,000 tickets sold in 45 days is remarkable
for a team "that hasn't made the playoffs since George Bush was
president" (HARTFORD COURANT, 5/14).
KEY WORD IS "IF": In St. Paul, Mayor Norm Coleman admitted
there were a number of "legitimate ifs," but he remained
optimistic about the prospects of luring the city's first hockey
franchise since the death of the WHA Saints in '76, according to
Jay Weiner of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. Though several
cities -- Cleveland, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Portland and Nashville
among them -- are poised to woo the Whalers should they move, St.
Paul may "be best prepared to catch Peter Karmanos's team." One
of the "ifs," however, is the $39M needed to add 40 suites to the
Civic Center. Coleman favors a plan that would "capture the
annual state income tax of Whalers' players," but unlike a
similar plan proposed for the Jets that failed a year ago, the
money would go directly to refurbishing the arena and not into
the hands of ownership. The other question is, with the Twins
demanding 60 new suites of their own, will St. Paul be able to
fill these suites? Coleman: "It's not a zero sum game. You
figure out ways to grow the pie. You mobilize" (Minneapolis STAR
TRIBUNE, 5/14).
