I don't think their for sale and I wouldn't recommend making an offer.
Posted on 05/06/2017 8:47:31 AM PDT by Steven Scharf
From wiki in part, "The Hartford Whalers were an American professional ice hockey team based for most of its existence in Hartford, Connecticut. . . from 1972 until 1979, and in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1979 to 1997. . .
In 1997, the Whalers franchise relocated to North Carolina, where it became the Carolina Hurricanes."
This has to be the hair brainest crazy idea I have ever heard from a government offical. Not satified with just pouring money into failing arenas, this guy want to sink government money into a losing hockey team that is actually in a growing area.
Hartford-West Hartford, CT Combined Statistical Area is the 37th largest in the US 2016 pop estimate: 1,476,637, 2010 pop: 1,486,436 −0.66%
Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC Combined Statistical Area is the 29th largest in the US 2016 pop estimate: 2,156,253, 2010 pop: 1,912,729 +12.73%
As you can see one is growing and the other is not.
I now know why my multiple great grandfather William Kelsey who was one of the founders of Hartford, left to settle his own town nearby.
(Cavet: I hate hockey)
Some additional fuel as to why there has to be something in the water in the Connecticutt River.
NBC Connecticutt
State’s Budget Deficit Could Reach $5 Billion Over 2 Years
Income Tax receipts plummet adding more than one billion to two year budget shortfall.
New revenue state estimates show Connecticut’s budget deficit problems continue to worsen.
The current fiscal year is now projected to end June 30 with an approximate $394 million shortfall while the following two fiscal years are now predicted to have deficits of $2.3 billion and $2.7 billion respectively.
The estimates were released Monday by the budget offices for the General Assembly and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
...
Published at 4:00 PM EDT on May 1, 2017
I like hockey but otherwise agree with you. Hartford is a decaying, crime-ridden craphole run by insane democrats in a state run by insane democrats. I mean, c’mon! - when a company (GE) runs to Massachusetts, how effed up is the place?
Hey Steve,
Why do you think the rest of us care? If CT goes under financially, so much the better for the few remaining conservatives who live there.
I don't think their for sale and I wouldn't recommend making an offer.
I’ve heard variations of this idea, in other cities in which their teams have threatened to move, or actually have moved away. The proponents of this say that the community ownership of the team is the answer, that then it could never move, etc.
If I recall correctly, the Green Bay Packers ownership model was grandfathered in by the NFL; the NFL no longer permits such ownership.
I don’t know if that applies to other sports, or NHL hockey specifically, but it does seem that ownership groups headed by multi millionaires and billionaires are the norm in sports ownership today.
Do the sports leagues actually prefer to have some larger than life bombastic owners, such as Jerry Jones, Mark Cuban, and the late George Steinbrenner????
I don’t follow hockey, so don’t know the back story. Why did Hartford lose the Whalers? Poor attendance, team losing money, inadequate arena?? Would any of those same factors face the team if they were back in Hartford?
[New revenue state estimates show Connecticut’s budget deficit problems continue to worsen.]
They need to keep electing Democrats including Malloy.
And when he dies, have him stuffed so they can still vote for him.
I feel so guilty feeling joy that CT has not changed in the years since leaving it’s idiocy.
A recent trip back there featured resident targeyed advertising evidence of how far that state standard of living has fallen -
Numerous Hartford capitol highway billboards promoted Pawn shop locations, Cremation $999 specials, and Jewelers that paid cash for Rolex watches.
In 1991 Gov Lowell Weicker and democrats rammed a new state income tax down citizen’s throats with the promise it would have a sunset expiration date and solve immediate budget problems.
CT is now in worse fiscal shape than ever before.
As William F Buckley said during that period,
“As a long time state resident, I’ve come to the conclusion that Connecticut is politically retarded.”
FCT
Maybe this guy, instead of committing deficit plagued governments to buy a hockey team, why doesn’t he work to put together an investment group to buy the team?
Win/win situation? The team comes back but is owned privately and will not be a drain on governments in Connecticut if they lose money????
Bookmark
Maybe they can play in the Yard Goats new over-priced stadium
(let me know if you want on or off the ping list)
Hello Houston, Texas! Why the 4th largest city in the USA, with lots of yankee transplants, doesn’t have an NHL team is beyond me. The Houston Hurricanes has a nice ring to it.
never mind the fact the NY metro area already has three hockey teams in existence...
Good point about Houston.
Almost all the major cities in America have the big four professional sports : major league baseball, NFL football, NBA basketball, and NHL hockey.
Houston should be high on the list for NHL expansion or relocation of an existing team.
>
As William F Buckley said during that period,
“As a long time state resident, I’ve come to the conclusion that Connecticut is politically retarded.”
>
Unfort., the retards procreate or, worse yet, move
Hartford is just far enough away from New York, that it’s not really considered part of the NY metropolitan area, is it??
Though hockey fans there would certainly make a road trip to NY to see hockey if they desired.
Hartford is relatively close to Boston too, I believe, so those fans could go to Bruins games on a Boston road trip.
Besides that,The population of Connecticut has changed since the Whalers left Connecticut so there would be No fan base to support a team.
This Idea should be dropped by our politicians.They have bigger things they need to do to clean up the mess they have created here.
i live less than an hour from Hartford and ten minutes from Danbury in NE Westchester...there are tons of Rangers fans Danbury and that SW part of Connecticut- they won’t be changing their allegiance...
bringing the team back to Hartford from NC is sheer stupidity...
Their competition in that town was rigorous - the 1972 era Boston Bruins, a powerhouse of historic proportions (Orr, Esposito, etc.). Additionally, they had to contend with a new Bruins’ farm team, the Braves, who early on in their existence were drawing 10,000 a night in the old Boston Garden.
I wouldn't call that Whalers’ team inept (remember, this was in the early days of the WHA), but the level of play was so far down from what Boston fans were used to seeing on an almost nightly basis it was ridiculous.
The Whalers, of necessity, didn't last very long in Boston, so they opted for Hartford. I don't know if anyone in the Boston area mourned the move, or even cared.
The reason, I suspect, they were founded in Boston is because the town, always hockey mad, was deemed one of the best places in North America to bring forth a new hockey franchise. Ordinarily, they'd have been right, but (1) the Braves franchise had not yet gotten of the ground, and (2) there were serious questions about the viability of the new league. Sure, they had some stars to offer - J.C. Tremblay, Ricky Ley, Johnny MacKenzie, a few others of note (including an emerging young star from the Indianapolis Racers, Wayne Gretzsky), but certainly not enough to fill houses on a regular basis.
The Whalers, in my estimation, did not make it in Hartford because it's not a Major League city. It's sandwiched between Boston and multiple New York franchises who are at once competing for that area's entertainment dollar.
That franchise moving back to Hartford from Raleigh is a non-starter. They can't afford it, will not be able to afford it in the future, and will doubtless invite bankruptcy and possible dissolution down the road.
These guys, hopeless dreamers all, yearn for a time that never was, and doubtless never will be.
Spare us all, and kill this idea before it goes any further.
CA....
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