The efforts of Turner Sports President Harvey Schiller
to land an NHL franchise are profiled by Henry Unger in the
ATLANTA CONSTITUTION. Schiller will make a presentation to
league officials next month, and "key to his argument" is a
recent survey of metro Atlanta sports fans. In the survey,
60% said they were interested in the NHL; 58% thought it was
important for Atlanta to have an NHL team; 58% are
interested in attending games and 32% were interested in
purchasing season-tickets. Schiller estimates paid
attendance will average 15,000 and said that the team "would
make money from the first year." He states that Turner's
bid "appeals" to the NHL because of the company's track
record handling sports teams and "the possibility Turner
would eventually bid" on the league's national TV package.
Schiller also mentioned Turner's merger with Time-Warner:
"The whole range of everything from video to publishing to
movies to licensing to cartoons, all of those things we want
to bring to the table in terms of launching a new
franchise." He added Turner may bring in a minority partner
if its bid is successful (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 12/11).
