From The Archive: Whalers going to Columbus?

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Whalers Going To Columbus? - Apr 11, 1997/vol. 50, issue 30

If the Hartford Whalers had to leave town, they couldn’t have picked a better time.

The NHL is in the midst of its expansion process, with site visits commencing in the first week of April, and that gives Whaler owner Peter Karmanos a built-in pool of relocation possibilities and chances for a nice, soft landing.

“We’re now into detailed research on the markets out there,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told The Hockey News. “The process we’re going through will be able to serve two purposes.”

That is, 1) decide how many of the six remaining applicants for expansion will be accepted; and 2) which of the others is best suited to be the new home of the Whalers.

Karmanos met with Bettman in New York on March 28, two days after the chairman of Compuware officially announced this would be the Whalers’ last season in Hartford.

Karmanos and the state of Connecticut, led by Gov. John Rowland, were unable to come to an agreement to save the Whale. The state had offered to build a new arena, but the two parties couldn’t reach an agreement on economic viability.

So Karmanos will pay a $20.5-million penalty to escape the final year of the agreement to remain in Hartford and seek greener pastures elsewhere.

“I feel bad,” Karmanos told THN, “we worked hard, but we lost. We failed, and I’m not used to that.”

Karmanos bought the Whalers in 1994 for the relatively modest fee of $22.5 million. Since then, though, the club has reported operating losses of $14.5 million two years ago, $21 million last season, and projected losses of $14 million this season. Throw in the $20.5 million penalty, and Karmanos’ investment in the Whalers amounts to approximately $92.5 million. getting dangerously close to or beyond what the franchise is actually worth. He figured it was time to cut his losses and get out of town.

He is no doubt hoping to make back some of that money with a sweetheart, incentive-laden deal with some other city desperately seeking an NHL franchise.

The smart money is on it being one of the remaining six expansion applicants, although Raleigh-Durham. N.C. is a distinct possibility.

For now, Atlanta, Houston, and Nashville are not considered to house the Whalers. Each expansion applicant there has arena rights locked up and isn’t about to let Karmanos in, not that the NHL necessarily would want him eliminating such prime expansion markets anyway.

However, the same cannot be said for Columbus, Ohio, St. Paul, Minnesota, Oklahoma City. Okla., and Raleigh-Durham.

“I don’t have a first choice,” Karmanos said. “It will depend upon the business deal in each place, and I want to see what the level of interest is.”

All things considered, though, it’s believed Karmanos would like to end up in central Ohio.

“There are 7.5 million people within a 100-mile radius of Columbus,” Karmanos said. “It’s the second most densely populated state in the union.”

The problem, however, is that there is no long-term commitment to an arena. A referendum will be held on May 6 to determine the arena issue. It’s assumed the outcome will be positive, but that still would leave the Whalers without a suitable arena for two or three seasons.

Karmanos is something of an unconventional businessman. That’s how he became as big as he is in computer software. He talks of “finding the biggest building possible that can be fitted with seats and an ice-making plant and making it work for a year.”

The possibility is there for an NHL team to move into Ohio State University’s new arena for 1998-99, but again, it would only be a temporary arrangement. Karmanos also said he would look at the 10,000-seat Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio, and may even examine temporary homes in Cincinnati or Cleveland.

St. Paul is another possibility as civic authorities there continue to pledge support to refitting the St. Paul Civic Centre to NHL standards, but it’s doubtful the Twin Cities are high on the list. The best thing it has going for it is a No. 14 rank amongst U.S. TV markets.

Oklahoma City has already committed to building a new arena with a sweetheart lease/management agree-ment-and it has a 10,000-seat minor league facility that could do for now.

The question there is whether it’s a legitimate big-league market.

Raleigh-Durham is a solid dark horse candidate, a rather attractive and unique market that is committed to building a new arena. An interim home could be 60 miles down the road in Greensboro, which has a new 16,000-seat facility (home to the Carolina Monarchs of the American League).

Columbus has to be considered the favorite, pending the outcome of the May 6 referendum, but Raleigh-Durham shouldn’t be discounted even though the potential expansion ownership group there withdrew its bid.

A final decision on the Whalers’ destination is expected by the end of April, although it may be a week later to allow for the outcome of the May 6 referendum.

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