Dan Craig is obsessed with ice.
If you let him, he'll go on and on about its texture, its how it bonds, the time needed for it to mature. But his perfectionism has paid off. His rink at the Coliseum is known as the best in the National Hockey League.
Now he has a new challenge - getting the arena in shape for the World Figure Skating Championships, which officially begin Sunday with the qualifying rounds.
Craig, the arena's operations manager, says there's a huge difference between the surfaces preferred by skaters like Doug Weight and Elvis Stojko.
"Hockey players like a hard ice because they can work up the speed they want," says Craig. "But that ice would be dangerous in figure skating. They need a softer ice because it gives them stability so they can hold their edges better," particularly when landing jumps.
And as any Canadian kid who has skated on a spring day knows, ice gets softer when it gets warmer. Through trial and error over the years and by working with former world champs Donald Jackson and Kurt Browning, Craig has figured out that skating surfaces should be precisely six degrees Celsius warmer than those used in hockey.
(The best temperature for hockey ice is -9 to -10 degrees. For skating it's -3 to -4.)
Adjusting temperatures will be a breeze compared to the havoc skaters picks will cause to Craig's rink.
"They're landing on picks, that's their stability. But that means they can leave divots an inch deep, even more." Since the Coliseum ice is normally only an inch thick, the rink had to be reflooded and doubled in thickness.
As for the holes in the ice, Craig knows exactly where the trouble spots will be. "You've got to remember they'll be performing for the judges, nobody else.
So if they jump, that's where they'll do it. They'll land there," he says, pointing to the judges' stand at midrink.
His eight-member crew is ready to make emergency patches if a hole is particularly bad. Otherwise, the Zambonis will be out every hour around the clock, maintaining the surface.
Until competition officially starts, Craig's biggest worry is keeping the ice white - it was specially painted with a powder that covered all the hockey lines and goal cages. And at this particular moment, he's not very happy.
"Who's been walking on the ice with dirty shoes?" he bellows, after spying a trail of mucky footprints leading across the rink.
"You see with figure skating, you want the ice as bright as possible so things show up well on the TV cameras. I don't want any marks on it. That shows a lack of professionalism."
The Coliseum has been turned upside down for the world event. All the ads around the rink had to be taken down to make way for the figure-skating sponsors. Even the sponsor's name on the giant time-clock had to covered over.
Nearly 1,000 seats were ripped out to make way for the judges' seats and TV anchor booths.
Craig doesn't expect to get much sleep over the coming week. "I'm running on adrelaine. But you know what, I'm having the greatest time. This is such a great show for Alberta. I'm going to be sad when it all ends."
And busy. Minutes after the gala ends, his crew will be back at work. There's a sold-out old-timers hockey game 48 hours later and that means goal lines have to be repainted, the ice reflooded, all the seats put back and booths ripped out.
Private companies going public must issue a preliminary prospectus, a document which must reveal, among other things:
* where the market for the securities will be, i.e. will it sell on a stock exchange.
* who the insiders are, which means identifying anybody with more than 10 per cent of the stock, as well as officers and directors.
EDMONTON - The Edmonton Oilers fan who dumped his drink on Calgary Flames assistant coach Guy Lapointe drew a 30-day penalty Monday in provincial court.
Crown prosecutor Clif Purvis said Raymond Howarth, 27, made the city look bad when he reached over the glass Nov. 23 and poured a rum and Coke on Lapointe's head.
"This incident was televised. It has given the city of Edmonton a black eye," he said.
"Unfortunately, others will or may judge Edmontonians as a result of his activities."
The Whitecourt lumber equipment operator, who will serve his jail sentence in the local RCMP cells over 15 weekends starting Saturday, was also fined $1,000 after pleading guilty to mischief.
Purvis said he has a record for similar crimes, with convictions for two previous counts of mischief as well as impaired driving and assault.
"Mr. Howarth is not a stranger to this type of activity involving alcohol and stupidity."
He and six friends spent the game drinking and yelling out comments from their seats behind the Flames bench.
The group was being ejected by Coliseum staff four minutes before the end of the game when Howarth soaked Lapointe.
Lapointe took a swing at Howarth. Flames forward Sasha Lakovic climbed the partition to try to get into the fray.
The league also fined the Oilers $20,000 for failing to have enough security "to prevent, frankly, idiots like Mr. Howarth from conducting themselves in this fashion," Purvis said.
NHL commissioner Bettman wasn't talking Wednesday after Oilers' owner Peter Pocklington said his hockey club was going on the stock market.
Bettman will wait to see more of the details first, but he is not going to stand in the way of any restructuring by the Oiler owner.
"The league will work with the Oilers on anything that assures a continual successful operation in Edmonton," said NHL VP of public relations Arthur Pincus.
Bettman has known of the Oiler stock plans for some time. His history on matters like to is that he keeps a low profile until team ownership details are hammered out.
Ultimate approval of the stock plan will depend on a vote by the other 25 teams. The next scheduled NHL board meeting isn't until June, but members might voter earlier than that on a conference call.
The league opened the door for stock options when they let Florida Panthers' owner Wayne Huizenga put his hockey club on the market. It started at $10 a share, now it's over $30.
"In just three months, it's tripled. I'm not going to promise our stock will triple like the Panthers did. People also bought into some hotels and resorts and some pizzaz that goes with the hockey team," said Pocklington, who wouldn't say how much his shares would cost.
Huizenga's lost a bundle in the NHL's smallest building (14,703 Miami Arena) with virtually no revenue coming in except ticket sales. He needed a cash infusion to keep his hockey team going until he gets his new rink in Sunrise, about 40 minutes away from the downtown arena. "I think he's lost about $50 million in his three years there and might lose another $15 million this year," said Pocklingon.
Option C best route for Puck
CAM COLE
Journal Sports Columnist
Here's why I think it happened ...
Option A -- taking in a handful of limited partners -- was unworkable. As a rueful ex-associate of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner once said: "There's nothing quite so limited as being a limited partner of George's."
Option B -- selling up to 45 per cent of the Edmonton Oilers to a single absentee investor -- was dangerous, because anyone that close to majority control would only have to sit back and wait for the inevitable next financial jackpot the team got into, and pounce. The Oilers would be in Albuquerque, Walla Walla or Newport News by this time next year.
So Peter Pocklington took the least distasteful of the three paths open to him, Option C -- he put all his sports and entertainment holdings into one as-yet-unnamed basket, fastened it to the end of a hook and lowered it into the public pond.
He confidently awaits bites and says he already has more than $20 million worth in something called "special warrants." With all my heart, I hope he does.
Meanwhile, we anxiously await the curveball. We don't know when it's coming, we're not even sure that it is. But we all have the same scouting report. Peter Puck has shown remarkable versatility in his career as a pitcher of business deals -- the high hard one, the screwball, the spitter -- but his bread-and-butter pitch has always been the low curve, just out of the strike zone.
That probably explains why there was a healthy skepticism in the All-Star Lounge at the Coliseum when Puck announced his plan Wednesday to sell public shares in his sports and entertainment properties -- divesting up to 45 per cent in order to reduce his debt load at the Alberta Treasury Branch by, if I'm doing the arithmetic correctly, $40-50 million.
"What I'm announcing today will form the basis for a new kind of relationship with this community," Pocklington said. "It will take some getting used to, for all of us, but the potential is tremendous."
He's got the part right about it taking some getting used to.
I'm not capable of determining whether it's a good deal or a bad deal, so don't ask. What we need here is a "forensic accountant."
Short of one of those, you can take at face value the figures you'll see in the prospectus, "90 to 120 days" from now, or you can laugh out loud at them, and either reaction might be well-founded.
Those who claim to have inside information say Pocklington -- whose business life has been dedicated to the principle of showing nobody anything -- never would have agreed to any scheme that would force him to open his books unless the Treasury Branch had a bazooka pointed at his head.
"It's not a coincidence," Pocklington agreed. "I don't like debt any more than they like it. But I don't carry $15 million in my jeans and that's what I had to put into the Coliseum upgrade.
"One of the things this will do is cement this team in one place, in a small market. Maybe if we get into another little drought -- and we're bound to, because these things go in cycles -- this will help us through it."
It will, if people buy into it.
But the image I can't quite conjure up, try as I may, is the one of Mr. and Mrs. Fan looking in their bank account, finding $1,000 there and saying: "Hey, I know: let's help old Peter reduce his debt load while investing in a sure-fire winner."
Pocklington referred to it as an opportunity to "own a piece of the rock," though it was unclear whether he was likening the new company to Gibraltar (solid) or Alcatraz (escape-proof).
I must be getting old, because I'm starting to think Pocklington really does want to keep the Oilers in Edmonton, and this is his best chance. I'm in that room, nodding my head when Puck says he's doing this because interest rates are so low, it's the perfect time to renegotiate the mortgage. I'm listening to him describe the resurgent Oilers, the list of Pavarottis and Domingos he's booking into the Coliseum, the success of the Triple-A Trappers -- and I'm thinking: "He's right.
"They're on a roll."
He's invoking the name of Conn Smythe, who built Maple Leaf Gardens in the middle of the great depression by paying laborers with stock in the business, and I'm thinking: "Good one, Peter."
"Last year, during the (Save The Oilers) campaign, many people told me that if I wanted the community's support, maybe I should offer the community a chance to own some of the business," Pocklington said. "I've thought about that long and hard. Today, I want to announce that it's going to happen."
He shrugged off the prospect of having to open his sporting enterprises' books with: "It's already pretty much of an open book. Everyone knows what every player makes."
But not everyone knows what owners make. Not even close. By some accounting methods, Pocklington was still making money on the Oilers even in his worst year. By some accounting methods, the Florida Panthers lost $52 million their first three years of operation with a two-bit payroll and spectacular results.
Somewhere in between, no doubt, is an accurate figure.
To those who claim to smell a rat, Pocklington said: "Then don't buy in. There's risk in anything. The only assurance I can give is that we're profitable and this company will start with a strong balance sheet."
Pocklington will hold the majority of the shares in the company. Pocklington will make the decisions at the NHL level.
"But let me say clearly that this will not be Peter Pocklington's company. In every sense, it will be the shareholders' company and I will be fully answerable to the shareholders," he said.
All I know about being answerable to shareholders is what I see at the Edmonton Eskimos' annual meeting when the football team releases a profit-and-loss sheet with expense items like "Other costs." You could hide an elephant there, if you were so inclined.
I don't know which way Puck is inclined. I rarely have. I'd love to see this thing work, if only because it stands to reason that if enough citizens own a piece of the Oilers, the club will be around a good, long time.
But cut this out and stick it on your fridge for future reference, just in case the stock deal doesn't go. The owner said Friday the Oilers should make a $4-5 million profit this season.
"Unfortunately, it took some debt to get us where we are," said Pocklington.
That's why he has to put it up for sale. The debt, that is. He's keeping the hockey team.
April 15, 1997
NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!
By TERRY JONES
Edmonton Sun
DALLAS - So you think you're a friend of Ken Hitchcock from all those days in Sherwood Park and Edmonton and at the sporting goods store and ...
Forget it.
He doesn't know you. Never met you. Doesn't want to hear from you. Even if you've got tickets, don't even think about it.
"I'm changing my name for the next two weeks," says the coach of the Dallas Stars.
"It's us versus them. Cities and friends are out.
"I'm not going to return phone calls, messages at hotels.
"I'm going to do everything I can to hate Edmonton and the Oilers and that's going to be tough but that's the way I'm gonna be."
Hitchcock may be secretly delighted that his first experience as a coach in the Stanley Cup playoffs is against the Oilers, what with the way they've played against Dallas and with the way they've played lately. But that's the team.
You get the idea it's the Edmonton part that bothers him.
Two weeks ago he was at the Coliseum to register another Dallas Stars win over the Oilers to complete the regular season. And he said it didn't even cross his mind that this would happen. Neither, he says, did it occur to GM Bob Gainey, who was scouting playoff opponents.
SWEATERS AND STICKS
"Our focus was on Chicago and St. Louis and Phoenix and Anaheim. We didn't even think of Edmonton.
"Bob went and scouted up there but he wasn't even looking at Edmonton. He was looking at the teams Edmonton was playing."
Two weeks ago Hitchcock came to town with six Dallas sweaters and four autographed sticks to give to friends for charity auctions. And he's left as many as 60 tickets for friends from hockey, golf and the sporting goods business. But not this time.
Edmonton is where he grew up. Sherwood Park is where he coached his midget AAA team to an incredible record of 575-69. United Cycle is where he used to sharpen Mark Messier's skates, when Mess was a kid and later as an Oiler. Edmonton is where Hitchcock grew to be 466 pounds.
He's described our city in the past year to his new friends in Dallas as a hockey heaven and tells them of how visiting players "race for the newspapers - it's like the centre of the hockey universe."
But this week he's painting the place as a hell, and to hell with you.
Well, the guy is a big softie. About half as big as he used to be - but still a softie. If you were one of those Northlands Coliseum security guys who used to sneak him in to watch the Oilers play in the Stanley Cup playoffs in the past, maybe he can find a way to sneak you in for old times' sake. Or maybe not.
"I was let into more than a few games by security people," he admits now.
As a coach he couldn't resist watching that Edmonton team win five Stanley Cups.
"As a coach I just loved their passion. Their cockiness. Their abrasion.
"That team played the game for the right reasons. And when the playoffs came around, they had another gear and they knew how to shift to it and step it up, really step it up.
"It was a whole other gear that nobody else played at.
"Today everybody talks about the talent of that team. But as a coach watching them, I admired their passion most."
All that stuff flooded home in the last 48 hours for Hitchcock. And he hates it. Or so he says.
"At the start I was a fan and at the end I was a friend of most of those guys. I remember when they went to a seventh game in the Stanley Cup final against Philadelphia, I drove eight and a half hours all the way from Kamloops, B.C., to be at that game.
"I remember shifts from that game in slow motion. I remember where I sat. Fifth row behind the net - where Grant Fuhr played - in the first and third periods."
We sat in his office at the Coppel, Texas training centre of the team, a half-mile down the street from the Dallas Cowboys training camp.
He looked out the window.
"This place remind you of anywhere?" he asked of the community I'd driven through in a rent-a-car to find the place.
WALK IN THE PARK ...
"Sherwood Park," I said of where I've resided for the past 23 years.
"Exactly," he said. "I tell people that all the time. I live here with 35,000 other people. It's the same size as Sherwood Park, the same kind of people ... I tell people from Edmonton that all the time when they ask me, `What's it like living in Texas?' I tell them it's like living in Sherwood Park."
But for the next two weeks he's here to tell you that Sherwood Park is a horsebleep town and that Edmonton sucks and that he hates the Oilers and that he wouldn't buy a tricycle from United Cycle and that the Riverside golf course is a pasture and ...
Yeah, and back at you, good buddy.
For the next two weeks it's probably mutual.
April 25, 1997
ONCE AN OILER, ALWAYS AN OILER
By TERRY JONES
Staff Writer
DALLAS - There's a sign on the door in the Edmonton Eskimos dressing room: "Once An Eskimo, Always An Eskimo."
Maybe the Edmonton Oilers ought to get the same sign made for their room.
It's been totally obvious, with the Oilers back in the Stanley Cup playoffs this year, that once an Oiler, always an Oiler.
That was telegraphed by Mark Messier's call to the Oilers dressing room Sunday night after the greatest/latest comeback in Stanley Cup playoff history and Kelly Buchberger's overtime goal to win it.
And it was just as obvious yesterday at the Oilers practice, where there was something of a celebration of Wayne Gretzky's ninth playoff hat trick from the night before in New York.
Messier said the Rangers had just returned from their afternoon game in Florida Sunday, and the first thing both he and Gretzky did was dial in the Oilers game.
"When they won it, I had to get on the phone and see what was going on in their dressing room," said Mess, who makes the point that he was born and raised in Edmonton. But he says it's mostly about people.
"I've been following them even closer this year because Kevin Lowe is there," he says. "And, of course, Slats is so good. I mean, he's done it again. Nobody is better than him.
"They've got a lot of good young players there. I really like that (Mike) Grier. I like him a lot."
Messier says nobody had told him about the Stanley Cup banners they unveiled for the 99th and 100th playoff games in the Coliseum, one of which features him hoisting the Cup. But he says he's delighted.
"That's great for the people there, too. It really looked like that building was shaking."
Lowe enjoyed Messier's call to the locker room, and being an ex-teammate of Gretzky, Messier, Esa Tikkanen, etc. in both New York and Edmonton, you know what series he's following.
"You could tell on the phone how excited Mark was by that comeback and our win in that game," said Lowe.
"A big part of it was probably being an ex-Oiler. But another part of it was his love for the game, too. Everybody was excited by what happened in that game.
"It's the same with all the guys, though," says Lowe. "You talk to any of those guys and they all remember the Edmonton years, besides their accomplishments and the Stanley Cups we won, as the best years. The Edmonton years were the years we all enjoyed the game for the pure fun of it. I think that all kind of kicks in again watching this young team."
Sather was almost giddy after Gretzky proved yet again that he's not ready for retirement just yet.
"Mario Lemieux is the big deal and Wayne sees the opportunity to steal his stage," laughed the Oilers boss. "How often has that happened! He's the best."
Sather says the way Messier reacted after the Oilers' big win was typical.
"He was as excited for us as the guys who were playing.
"Those guys are all great guys. And those guys haven't forgotten one thing that happened in Edmonton.
"When I was coaching them at Team Canada's training camp in Whistler, they'd sit around and remember things I said verbatim. Things I just can't remember for the life of me."
You can take the boys out of Edmonton, but you can't take Edmonton out of the boys.
May 8, 1997
Passion packs punch in the Coliseum seats
JOHN SHORT
Sports Commentary
EDMONTON - Painted faces.
Parties on the bridge outside Peterpuck Palace. Billboards all over town carrying messages such as : "Oilers Are The Greatest!"
Spontaneous cheers from the seats.
What is staid Edmonton coming to?
Before he settled in Wednesday night as ringmaster of the festival that greets paying customers, Edmonton Oilers marketing director Stew McDonald uttered an educated impression of the reason why this community, in these playoffs, seems more involved than at any time in our NHL history.
He also came up with the perfect word -- "passionate" -- to describe the love-in that greeted NHL commissioner G.B. Bettman as he swept in through the northside doors for what may have been the second-last game of a totally-unexpected run toward the future.
"We saw it building, the passion, in the middle of the season.
There were fans in the seats with painted faces and tattoos for what might have been considered a routine midweek game against, say, the New Jersey Devils in February.
"Around our office, we had a growing sense that Edmonton was showing its real personality and we thought it would be good to get in on it, keep it going, if we could.
"Before the start of the first round of playoffs, there were a couple of big staff meetings, with everybody involved from marketing and sales, public relations and ticketing departments," McDonald continued.
"It seemed like a good idea to follow exactly what the fans were doing.
"I've been in Edmonton for 10 years and this level of passion is the best I've ever seen."
He's probably right.
For what it's worth, I include the wild and joyous times in 1984 and 1985 when the Oilers were winning their first two Stanley Cups.
They were great adventures, but there is considerable evidence that the bulk of our citizens had no idea how hard it was to win the hockey championship of North America, or how hard it would be to even dream of winning it again after the owner's economic deformity made it expedient to disband that original Gretky-Messier-Fuhr-Kurri generation.
Now we know, and we're having fun again although it was no great pleasure to watch referee Don Koharski insist, as he so often does, that the game was scheduled for his personal glorification and the obnoxiously-priced tickets are sold exclusively to friends and family who want to see him strut.
The biggest problem with Koho's philosophy: other participants, including nominal superstars such as Doug Weight, Sandis Ozolinsh, Patrick Roy, Peter Forsberg, Ryan Smyth and Curtis Joseph have to settle for roles in a high-priced chorus.
This time, at least, he's strutting in the playoffs.
It's a sight the Edmonton public has not seen since 1992.
The odds may be against the Oilers upsetting Colorado and remaining alive much longer on the road to the Stanley Cup.
Seems to me the public will be able to live with any disappointment that emerges because they have been treated with respect by the Oilers' staff and admiration by the players.
Shortly after Edmonton was admitted to the league, former defenceman Al Hamilton described Edmonton's collection of silent, forbidding observers as "the jury."
A few years later, as the Oilers were eliminating the Detroit Red Wings en route to the another title, Craig MacTavish listened to a few younger players expressing discontent that fans at Joe Louis Arena in the decrepit downtown area of Murder City were much more supportive than the folks at home in the Great White North.
"One thing about our fans," MacTavish said, "they show up to watch us play."
In the last year or so, he could not have made the same claim. Crowds fell off, partly because the team was weak but mostly because there was no backlog of community goodwill large enough to overcome the poor play and irresponsible ownership.
Fortunately, those days are gone. The Oilers are back in the hearts of Edmonton's sport-loving public. The painted faces and tattooed limbs make the point.
- Edmonton Journal
May 9, 1997
LOUD AND PROUD!
FAN NOISE FUELS THE FRANCHISE
By TERRY JONES
Edmonton Sun
It's not often the fan in the stand is the story in sport. But you are. All 17,099 of you. You're almost as good a story as the squad.
While Edmonton is going crazy for the story these kids are writing this Stanley Cup season, you were the talk of the dressing room going into Game 4 tonight.
Has there ever been a crowd so loud?
Harry Neale of Hockey Night In Canada has watched a lot of hockey games in a lot of buildings. And that's him asking that question, not me, not the mayor, not the chamber of commerce.
"I've always said there's never been a crowd as loud as Chicago Stadium. I've always said it was worth the price of admission to go to Chicago Stadium to watch the warmup, listen to the national anthem and leave," said Neale.
"When they played the last game in Chicago Stadium I took my then 10-year-old boy because I figured a young hockey fan, just once, had to go see that.
"But I don't know if I've heard a crowd any louder anywhere than that crowd in the Coliseum for Game 3."
IT'S NEVER BEEN BETTER
Has there ever been an Edmonton crowd so loud?
"Nope," said coach Ron Low. "Never.
"I was here for the last three Cups. I never heard it like that. And they could have quit on us two or three times and they didn't. They were great. They were fantastic."
Neale said he thought it might happen when Colorado scored early.
Low said he stood behind the bench thinking Chicago Stadium during the national anthem.
"It's like people always said. The little hairs on the back of your neck stand up."
So what has happened here? Before the playoffs started, we told the players that it was night and day, the difference between the crowds here in the regular season which are like 17,099 press box seats. But this is off the dial.
"It might be that they appreciate hard work," says Low. "And a lot of people who were here the whole season watched these guys grow up.
"There were nights when they booed them," he said of the tough love from the cheap seats.
"On a lot of those nights they should have been booed," he said. "Some nights they were too hard on them. But maybe that's not bad either."
There's a study to be done on town and team in which Edmonton and the Oilers may be Exhibit A. I swear that the economy is affected by the success or failures of this franchise.
We've written a lot during these playoffs of the steps the Oilers have taken during the post-season and what they might mean for next year and the year after that. But we really haven't examined what has happened in the stands.
"I've talked to a lot of people who bought tickets to keep the team in town," says Low. "And you talk to those people now and they wouldn't give them up for all the tea in China. And that's fantastic."
This is a team which a season ago drew a crowd of 8,429 for a Dec. 18 game against the Ottawa Senators.
This is a franchise which had lost almost all of its corporate support because of the relationship between business leaders and owner Peter Pocklington.
This is a franchise which needed Cal Nichols and his Friends Of The Oilers to reclaim the team for the town, to sell the 13,000 season tickets, the board signs and the suites to satisfy the NHL demands for the small-market Canadian subsidy.
"It makes you feel good," says Nichols, "so very, very good."
Can you imagine this town without this team today?
This is a formerly arrogant organization - much like today's Colorado Avalanche outfit, actually - which had lost an entire generation of fans.
This is a franchise which used to haughtily boast that this was a hockey town and sneer at suggestions that they had to get with it and give the fans "game presentation." Now they're pressing to lead the league in game presentation.
Nobody has called the place The Library lately. And when was the last time you heard the phrase Edmonton Mausoleum?
"I don't know how to compare it," says GM Glen Sather of the scene.
"All I know is right now there is no building better. Everything about the place is electric now.
"And the city ... you can just feel how the whole city was ready for this to happen."
LOWE GETS THE LAST WORD
The last word on the subject we reserve for injured defenceman Kevin Lowe, the old warhorse who played in the first Oilers regular-season game and has been a member of the team for every playoff game the team has ever played.
"What made me happiest was to see Gary Bettman walk away with a taste of Western Canada hockey," said Lowe. "That has to plant a seed in his head.
"And it's a nice time to be doing a public share offering," he winked.
Pocklington a small fish among hockey owners
MARK SPECTOR
Journal Hockey Writer
EDMONTON - So you wonder why Peter Pocklington can no longer afford to operate as the sole owner of an NHL club. He's got lots of money, right?
Exclusive of the bank loans, Pocklington is still a small minnow in a large tank of fat cats when it comes to the other 25 NHL owners.
You've got communications magnates like John McCaw in Vancouver or ITT, which owns the New York Rangers.
You've got Disney in Anaheim, and the man they call Dollar Bill Wirtz in Chicago.
Wirtz rakes up to $1 million per game out of the airplane hangar that is United Center.
"It's pretty scary. There's just no bottom to their pockets," said Cal Nichols, the Gasland owner who helped Pocklington as one of the major players in the Friends of the Oilers.
"That's what you're competing against, and I think in the end, that's what beat Peter.
"Here he is, a single private owner, and nowhere to go to get other resources to play the game any longer."
Florida owner Wayne Huizenga is a one-man ownership team but his resources are endless.
Huizenga makes anyone's list of the top 25 richest men in America, as does George Gund in San Jose.
No, this is no beer league despite Anheuser Busch's owning the St. Louis Blues and Molson's running the Montreal Canadiens.
The type of ownership consortium folks are talking about for the Oilers is exactly what they have in Calgary.
Even that group, including Tim Horton's owner Ron Joyce and big-time investment banker Murray Edwards, may soon be too small to stay in the NHL.
"That's no windfall -- how long are they going to be able to hang in there?" Nichols asked.
"I know there are some pretty well-off guys in there but they didn't get that way by being silly with their money. There may be a point in time where they throw their hands up as well."
As the search for local ownership of the Edmonton Oilers kicks off, here's a look at the type of cash it takes to sit down at the NHL's table.
Anaheim Mighty Ducks -- Owner, Disney Sports Enterprises, Inc., chairman and CEO Michael Eisner. Disney, whose riches speak for themselves, also owns the Anaheim Angels baseball team.
Boston Bruins -- Owner, Jeremy M. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Delaware North Companies, Inc., a giant in food service, retail, sports facility ownership and management, airport services, etc. He owns Sports Services, which handles the concessions at the Edmonton Coliseum. His companies manage all visitor services at Yosemite National Park, Kennedy Space Center, seven major league baseball parks, countless airports and international sporting events like the Olympics.
Buffalo Sabres -- The Knox family still is the majority owner in Buffalo. Its money goes all the way back to the F.W. Woolworth chain of department stores. Minority owner John Rigas, a communications magnate, has come on board as well.
Calgary Flames -- Owned by a nine-man consortium, with five businessmen owning 15.12 per cent each, and four others owning 6.1 per cent apiece. Anchored by investment banker Murray Edwards, who could be worth as much as $250 million, the group includes Tim Horton's owner Ron Joyce, mechanical engineers and brothers Daryl and Byron Seaman.
Chicago Blackhawks -- Owner, Bill Wirtz. Big family money here. Wirtz's father Arthur bought the Blackhawks in 1954, having already purchased Chicago Stadium in 1936. Wirtz and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf built the new United Center, a $100-million-plus investment, without help from the taxpayers.
Colorado Avalanche -- Owner, Ascent Entertainment Group. It's a publicly owned (NASDAQ) entertainment and media company that holds interests in on demand multi-media entertainment, professional sports franchises, major motion pictures and television production. Ascent also owns the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association.
Dallas Stars -- Owner, Thomas Hicks. He is the CEO of a Dallas private investment firm which, since its formation in 1989, has consummated more than $6 billion in leveraged acquisitions.
Detroit Red Wings -- Owner, Mike Ilitch. The largest of the Ilitch family holdings is Little Caesar's Pizza, a North America wide chain.
Florida Panthers -- Owner, Wayne M. Huizenga. He owns the Blockbuster video store chain, Pro Player Stadium (formerly Joe Robbie), the Miami Dolphins, and a controlling interest in the Florida Marlins.
"He's not a man, he's a corporation," joked Pocklington.
Hartford Whalers -- Owner, Peter Karmanos. Founder of Compuware, one of the leading computer software companies in the world.
Los Angeles Kings -- Owners, Philip F. Anschutz and Edward P. Roski, Jr. Anschutz, owner of The Anschutz Corp. of Denver, made the majority of his money in the railroad business. Roski is a real estate man, owning and presiding over one of the largest privately held real estate companies in the United States.
Montreal Canadiens -- Owned by Molson Breweries. Plenty of cash on tap here, with the Molson Centre and Molstar Communications all falling under the umbrella of this major Canadian brewery.
New Jersey Devils -- Owners, John J. McMullen and John C. Whitehead. McMullen moved the Colorado Rockies to New Jersey in 1982. Owned baseball's Houston Astros and operated the Astrodome until selling in 1992. Also a former limited partner in the New York Yankees. Made his money building ships and operating a shipping line. Whitehead was a U.S. Deputy Secretary of State during the Reagan Administration. He was once a senior partner in Goldman, Sachs and Co., a big-time investment banking and brokerage firm.
New York Islanders -- Owner, John Spano. This 32-year-old Texas millionaire just tied up his acquisition of the Isles in January. He dropped $165 million -- that's $75 for the team itself and $90 million for the cable rights.
New York Rangers -- Owners, ITT Corp., Cablevision Systems Corp., Sheraton Corp. Two major league telecommunications outfits and a not-so-small hotel and resort chain. How else can you afford a $38-million payroll?
Ottawa Senators -- Owner, Rod Bryden. A real estate man, Bryden was also the CEO of a computer systems company.
Philadelphia Flyers -- Owner, Ed Snider. Owns Spectacor, a major arena management company, as well as two cable channels, and operation of the CoreStates Center and the CoreStates Spectrum.
Phoenix Coyotes -- Owners, Richard T. Burke and Steven M. Gluckstern. Burke made millions in the U.S. health care business, while Gluckstern is a major player in the insurance and reinsurance industries.
Pittsburgh Penguins -- Majority owner, Howard Baldwin. An original WHA owner with the New England Whalers. Owns Baldwin Entertainment group, the reason why the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Sudden Death was shot in Pittsburgh. He's dabbled in a lot of sports franchises, and this self-made millionaire has recently brought new investors into the Penguins fold.
St. Louis Blues -- One of the rare group-ownership teams along with Calgary, the team lists 19 companies among its investors, overseen by a seven-person board of directors. The headpin company is Anheuser Busch, which brews Budweiser, and partners range from banking interests to Purina dog food.
San Jose Sharks -- Owners, George and Gordon Gund. Perhaps the richest of NHL owners, the Gunds are a Cleveland family who did well in the banking business and have moved on to films and other investments. George was originally a partner in the California Golden Seals.
Tampa Bay Lightning -- Owner, Takashi Okubo. Deep Japanese pockets here, making the Lightning the only major sports franchise controlled by interests outside of North America.
Toronto Maple Leafs -- Owner, Steve A. Stavro. His business roots are in Knob Hill Farms food stores, a mega-chain which began with an open air fruit stand in Toronto's east end in the '50s. He's big into the horses as well -- big enough to be named North American Breeder of the Year in 1993, a first for a Canadian.
Vancouver Canucks -- Owner, John E. McCaw. McCaw came in as a partner with the Griffiths family which had owned the Canucks forever. Now McCaw's the man, heading up Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Canucks and Vancouver Grizzlies of the NBA. He made his million in cellular phones and communications.
Washington Capitals -- Owner, Abe Polin. Polin also owns the NBA's Washington Bullets.
He took over his father's plumbing and construction business and went with it. Now he's looking at moving his two clubs into the new MCI Center next year to maximize his investment.
Oilers - Local Sugar Daddy - June 28, 1997
Are you worried that it's been almost a month since Peter Pocklington announced the Oilers are up for sale and no local white knight has galloped forward to save the day?
The lack of a public declaration that Businessman X is ready to step forward as a local saviour doesn't particularly surprise Harry Ornest, and it's not because he thinks there's no one to take over the team.
It's because the 73-year-old Edmonton-born former owner of the St. Louis Blues thinks a potential buyer would not likely publicly announce an interest in the team prior to the bidding process taking place.
People who consider themselves potential buyers will want to take a good look at the books before making any decisions, he says.
"I'd go in and ask 'em to show me the last five years worth of cancelled cheques," says Ornest, who bought the failing Blues from Ralston Purina in pre-inflationary 1983 for $12 million US and sold it as a profitable team in 1988 for $19 million.
"And I'd want to see the contract they got with the Coliseum and go over it with a fine-tooth comb."
The first stop for a potential buyer would be Midland Walwyn, the brokerage firm handling the sale. It has put together a prospectus on the team, outlining its assets. But the document is being handled out to potential buyers only on a highly confidential basis.
Midland Walwyn spokesman Peter Kahnert wouldn't reveal whether any interest has been expressed in the team so far, local or otherwise.
"Even if there was, I wouldn't be able to tell you. Confidentiality is very important in a transaction like this."
Kahnert cautioned against expecting something to happen soon. The firm doesn't expect to make any major public announcements until the fall when a deal may be finalized.
"It's not as if there's anything pending. It's still very early in the sale process."
But that's not stopping people from talking about it.
While Pocklington and others maintain the Oilers have little hope of profit in such a small market and with players' salaries likely to leap next year, a growing number of people, including Ornest, believe new owners could make money under the right circumstances.
"There are no small markets," says one local lawyer, "only small owners."
"You can make money with this franchise," Oiler's president and general manager Glen Sather has said. He is generally regarded as the best manager in the league and more than worth his $1-million annual stipend. "We're past the struggle point. We've got maybe the youngest organization in the league. To me there's nothing but upside to this deal. I really do believe that."
"The Edmonton Oilers have an excellent hockey team," agrees an envious J.R. "Bud" McCaig, Trimac chairman and part owner of the Calgary Flames, a team that has been losing money steadily for three years despite Calgary's much touted affluence and corporate headquarters. "The Oilers have gone through their rebuilding process."
Sather would like to see the Oilers bought by syndicate of local businessmen similar to that which owns the Flames, a syndicate that would not buy the team just as a "cash cow."
Harry Ornest and others, however, point out that the new owners need not do so badly from the enterprise. Ornest likes the idea of someone coming in, buying the team outright, then putting 49 per cent of it up for a public share offering.
A consultant who used to work for the provincial government as an investment adviser cites the example of the Florida Panthers, who have raised close to $400 million Cdn by selling 49 per cent of the organization's equity in public shares.
Allowing for a smaller market than Miami, and for the fact that Panthers owner Wayne Huizenga threw about $100 million worth of real estate into the package to kick-start share sales, the consultant thinks Edmonton could "conservatively" raise at least the $70 million US price of the team by selling shares.
"It's a bargain," he says. "People would line up to buy the shares and the new owner would in effect have a team for free. If he had to he could sell it down the road to the Americans for a big appreciation. It's the ultimate leveraged buy-out."
On two occasions, once in 1986 and then earlier this year, Pocklington attempted to raise cash in this manner but on both occasions made no progress.
"It won't go through if you got lawsuits coming out of your ears," says Ornest, who suspects both bids ran into difficulties because of the lingering legal squabbles between Pocklington and the provincial government over money loaned to Gainers.
Pocklington's Vancouver-based financial adviser Richard Groome, however, says the bid failed because the Oilers could never be a going concern in Edmonton.
Ornest and others disagree and suspect that with someone other than Pocklington owning the team (Wayne Gretzky is the impossible dream owner), Edmontonians would rally to buy shares to save their team.
"You'd have it so that the guy who buys a season ticket also buys a piece of the hockey club," says Ornest, getting excited at the idea. "If I was younger I'd come up there and put that package together myself!"
So who might do it?
The lack of obvious names has many fans worried. Ron Joyce, 68, owner of the Tim Horton's Donuts chain, part-owner of the Calgary Flames and reportedly one of the 10 richest people in Canada, added to the concern when he said he could think of no one in the country who might be interested.
Joyce, who made a failed bid several years ago to bring an NHL team to Hamilton, said he briefly considered divesting himself of his Flames shares in order to buy the Oilers, "but I'm not getting myself into that at my age."
There's no shortage of names being volunteered - national corporations like Molson's Breweries, Labatt's, and media owner Conrad Black - but many are simply not in the running.
Molson's already owns the Montreal Canadiens and under National Hockey League rules cannot own another team. Labatt's is now owned by a Belgian brewer that's not interested in sports ownership and is currently trying to divest itself of the Toronto Blue Jays.
And although Black's company, Hollinger Inc., controlling owner of the Southam newspaper chain, is reportedly part of a group investigating a National Football League bid for Toronto, a source close to Black said, "Although he's certainly got the ego for it, Conrad's never shown any interest in owning a sports team. He's got enough risky ventures to worry about anyway."
Locally, the names of Brick furniture owner Bill Comrie, computer software magnate Bruce Saville and Crystal Glass owner Ed Bean continue to be bandied about.
Comrie has yet to personally say he isn't interested, but several people close to him doubt he is, having lately divested himself of the unprofitable B.C. Lions and a San Diego junior hockey team.
Saville says he isn't at all interested. The team, he says, has "priced itself out of the market."
Bean, who at one point said he would "think about it," later declared: "My pockets aren't deep enough. They've got have some big guy come in and take half of it, then maybe they could get some other guys to come in."
Asked if he might be one of those guys, Bean said, "I don't want to be the first to commit."
He further suggested Edmonton Northlands might come forward as the "big guy" taking half the team.
But Northlands chairman Alan Skoreyko said the non-profit group hadn't the cash, and he doubts the NHL, which prefers private ownership, would allow Northlands the option.
And Mayor Bill Smith, who once actively pursued bringing the Olympic Games to Edmonton, has stated several times the city certainly would not be interested in dipping into its $495-million investment fund to prevent team from leaving town.
But this week he did hint at a contingency plan with Economic Development Edmonton to secure the team in case a local buyer can't be found. It would involve a public share offering.
Just the thing to keep the issue percolating if no one else answers their phone.
Oilers - The Doomsday Scenario - June 28, 1997
From the moment Peter Pocklington stood in front of the cameras in the stiflingly hot upper room of the Edmonton Coliseum and announced he was putting the Oilers up for sale and going fishing, there have been those who didn't quite believe it could be true.
Pocklington, for instance, has never made any secret of his man-sized ego, and of his various pursuits, ownership of an NHL team seems the one most capable of providing the necessary nourishment.
Through the Oilers, he has acquired senior membership in a club that has grown to include the new captains of corporate America - mega-millionaires like Blockbuster video founder and Florida Panthers' owner Wayne Huizenga or media mogul and newly created Atlanta franchise holder Ted Turner.
Is it really conceivable that at the relatively youthful age of 55, Peter Hugh Pocklington is, as he claims, about to leave the company of kings and fade into obscurity?
Or could this all be another Peter Pocklington play? There are those who think it could be. There are those who think it couldn't be otherwise.
In 1993 and 1994, Pocklington was issuing dire warnings about the team leaving Edmonton.
At that time, he was negotiating for a deal on the Coliseum. He got the deal and Pocklington Financial Corp. was granted full use of and revenue from the building year round in return for putting $16-million towards the renovations and paying $2.8 million a year in rent.
Many felt then that Pocklington got the better of the city and Northlands, that his deal-making skills had once again prevailed.
"I've spent the last seven years making tough decisions to put the team on a sound economic footing," Pocklington said at his early June press conference. "When all else failed, I sometimes played hardball."
Is the current bid to sell the Oilers, together with all the accompanying talk of Americans at the gate, another instance of Pocklington playing hardball?
"Peter's pulled more rabbits out of hats than any individual in Alberta," says Doug Ford, a public relations consultant who worked for Pocklington companies for many years. "I wouldn't bet against him now."
Veteran litigation lawyer Norman Simons, who has sifted through a good many contracts and chased a good many assets in his career, has never dealt with Pocklington but holds him in deep regard.
"I think he's done marvellous things and taken a lot of crap," says Simons. He suspects Pocklington is in the process of executing "a head game of magnificent proportions."
"He's called the bluff of the Treasury Branch," speculates Simons, who has been following the case from afar. "This is 99 per cent psychology."
Simon's hypothesis goes as follows:
Pocklington had no intention of selling the Oilers, but the ongoing legal costs incurred by the Alberta government's pursuit of its various law suits against him regarding loans made to the Gainers meat packing plant in the 1980s were starting to take their toll.
As his debts grew, Simons speculates, Pocklington sought concessions from the Alberta Treasury Branch, to whom he now owes what he indicates is a figure of around $80 million Cdn.
But late last year, then provincial Treasurer Jim Dinning appointed a blue-chip board of directors for the Treasury Branch, chaired by Marshal Williams, former chairman of TransAlta Utilities and chairman of the Alberta Financial Review Commission, a 1993 body that helped engineer the provincial government's debt reduction strategies.
The board's much-publicized mandate was to put the ATB on a sounder financial footing, toughening policies created by the previous administration. It appointed Paul Haggis as its $200,000-a-year superintendent and CEO to do this.
Haggis, 44, is known as a by-the-book banker who is best remembered as the man Metropolitan Life Assurance sent into Edmonton to downsize and streamline Metropolitan Trust in 1990.
Simons speculates that Haggis went into the Treasury Branch, looked at the accounts and put pressure on Pocklington to reduce his debt. Pocklington responded to this by announcing the Oilers were up for sale.
Simons views this move as more than a bluff tactic, for it puts Pocklington in the kind of win-win situation in which he revels.
Haggis and his board are now put into the position of making the next move. If they continue to press for prompt payment, Pocklington is forced to go into receivership.
In that case, under the terms of the Coliseum agreement, the ATB can then sell the team to the highest bidder if no local offer comes forward in 60 days.
If the Oilers were sold to, say, Houston, Pocklington's debts would be paid, and, after he paid capital gains tax, he might even be left with a profit of a few million dollars.
And the ATB, and its owner the provincial government, would be left with the political fallout that would come with the loss of one of Alberta's two NHL teams.
Or, Haggis could back down and restructure Pocklington's debt. Pocklington could continue with a reduced debt load as the full owner of the team, or as a part owner with another individual coming in and buying a share.
Simons speculates that full or part ownership of an NHL team on its way to another Stanley Cup is what Pocklington most desires.
Simons also thinks the Treasury Branch would be reluctant to foreclose on the Oilers because, if worse comes to worse and no local buyers are found, it could be cast in the role of the agency who lost the Oilers for Edmonton.
"It's a staring game between Pocklington and Haggis," says Simons. "And who do you think's going to blink?
But an investment consultant who worked for many years with the Alberta government and doesn't share Simons' admiration for Pocklington isn't so sure it would have to work out that way.
He agrees with the rest of Simons' hypothesis, but thinks the ATB and its owners in government are anxious to be rid of the troublesome entrepreneur and will not give in. He also doubts the ATB would want to be seen as caving into Pocklington at a time when it's trying to get its own house in order after a $124 million loss in the last fiscal year.
Another lawyer, a bankruptcy and receivership expert, thinks the ATB and Pocklington might be in the process of brokering a new deal whereby part of the team is sold to pay down the debt and some of the debt is forgiven.
This would be the wisest path for all involved, says the lawyer, because it avoids the complications, expense and delays of receivership, problems he doubts either creditor or debtor would want to endure.
Officials with the ATB, of course, won't comment on the matter, citing confidentiality of customer accounts.
Pocklington, between golf games, is asked whether he is angling to keep all or part of the team. On the record, he denies it to the hilt. Off the record? Well, off the record is off the record, and we must abide by that.
Oilers - The Doomsday Scenario - June 28, 1997
Ever since Wayne Gretzky was traded by Edmonton to Los Angeles in 1988 and proceeded to become the Hollywood ambassador for the sport, Americans have taken to the game like Ducks to Disney.
What was once a Canadian sport has become weighted towards the south to the tune of 20 teams to six, with four more American teams coming soon.
Regional cable TV networks, merchandising blitzes, large-scale migration of northerners to the sunbelt and backing by corporate owners with the proverbial deep pockets have taken up where Gretzky left off.
Southern hockey ownership, which started off slowly and hesitatingly, has found its pace. Anaheim, San Jose, Phoenix and Florida all played to close-to-capacity crowds this past season, contributing to record league-wide attendance (17 million fans) for the second year in a row.
The point has now been reached where Atlanta, a city that lost the Flames to Calgary in 1980 because of poor revenue is - seventeen years, a burgeoning population and the sponsorship of Time Warner-owned Turner Broadcasting later - among the latest crop of four American expansion teams.
The Atlanta Thrashers take to the ice in their 19,000-seat arena in 1999, and Turner Sports president Harvey Schiller is predicting they will do in hockey what Turner's Atlanta Braves did in baseball.
"We want a hockey franchise that everybody in America will love," he says.
Columbus, Ohio, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Nashville will also be lacing up their skates during the next four years.
Meanwhile two groups snubbed by the NHL for expansion, the Gaylord family (newspapers, Opryland) in Oklahoma City and Chuck Watson and Bob McNair (oil and gas) in Houston, are hungrily eyeing the only existing team currently up for sale, the Edmonton Oilers.
Could it happen? Could the team that did more for Edmonton's sense of itself than all the cultural festivals lumped together become somebody else's Stanley Cup contender in 1998-99?
The agreement struck between the Oilers and Northlands and the city over the management of the Coliseum stipulates that the team not be sold to outside buyers.
But if no local buyers can be found to pay the stipulated price of $70 million US, then the local sale provision becomes moot. Hello, Oklahoma Bombers.
Since Peter Pocklington announced on June 5 that the team was for sale, this doomsday scenario has become alarmingly relevant. And it is a scenario that Pocklington himself - who insists he wants to keep the team here - has done little to discourage.
He says the team lost $7 million in the past season. There are reports out of the Pocklington camp that offers of up to $110 million US had been received from American cities, notably Houston, where two groups of mega-millionaires are wrestling over the chance to bring NHL hockey to that city.
Pocklington also said that Ron Norrick, the hockey-mad mayor of Oklahoma city, had phoned him two years earlier enquiring about buying the team, saying, "I'll fight to the ends of the earth to get it here."
Pat Quinn, coach and general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, has joined in the refrain.
"I would say that the Canadian investor would look at the team and say he wasn't interested," said Quinn, "But it might look like a bargain to a U.S. buyer."
Asked to consider the future of both the Edmonton and Calgary franchises, Quinn said he hoped they would stay, "but I have a bad feeling in my stomach."
Richard Groome, the Vancouver stockbroker who worked with Pocklington in his attempt to put 49 per cent of the Oilers up for a public share offering earlier this year, said it was the gloomy financial prospects entailed in keeping the team local that prevented the offering from proceeding.
"Everybody tried, but it wasn't meant to be," said Groome. "It's very difficult for a team to make money in that town."
And while the NHL's New York-based commissioner Gary Bettman continued to make the appropriate comments about the league being determined to keep the team in Edmonton, there is some skepticism.
Chuck Watson, who with Bob McNair lost the expansion bid for an NHL team in Houston because they don't have a new arena in place, said something that had an ominous tone for those who hope a way can be found to keep the Oilers in Edmonton.
"Mr. Bettman told me Bob and I should continue our efforts to bring the NHL to Houston," said Watson, "and we intend to do that. We have an indication from the NHL that the league ... will be supportive in our attempts to pursue other options."
Edmonton, it seems, is the only other option out there right now.
If it comes to the point where there are no local buyers, then the NHL board of governors can be expected to look kindly on Houston as the team's new home. The Texas oil town has a market area of slightly more than four million, and is the biggest American city without a team.
Harry Ornest, 73, the Edmonton-born former owner of the St. Louis Blues, says he has no doubt that the 24 American owners of the 30 NHL teams would prefer the Oilers play in Houston than Edmonton.
He points out it would mean fewer distant road trips for southern teams, would create a healthy Dallas-Houston rivalry, would stimulate even more interest in hockey in the lucrative sunbelt, would eliminate the $2.5-million that the large market teams collectively pay as a subsidy to small-market Edmonton, and generally put more money in the pockets of the other owners.
"If I was still an NHL owner," says Ornest, who lives in Beverly Hills and is a part owner of Hollywood Park racetrack, "it wouldn't bother me a bit if they left Edmonton. I'd be thinking as an American, not a Canadian."
Rain-soaked fans deserve ovation
JOHN SHORT
Sports Commentary
You know those City of Champions signs? The ones that mark highway entrances to Good Old Ourtown? The ones that caused so much controversy when they were put in place several years ago?
We should make them bigger. A lot bigger. Big enough to have room for about 10,000 names.
I'm thinking of the committed customers -- almost half of the original crowd of 26,010 -- who sat through the downpour Thursday night at Commonwealth Stadium after the British Columbia Lions opened a 31-3 lead over the Edmonton Eskimos in the first 30 minutes.
Those stubborn, soggy citizens saw a stimulating second half of football, which may have been reward enough for them, but it seems to me everyone of them deserves something special for the remarkable display of loyalty to a team and a tradition.
Amazing fans
Frank Morris, who graduated from a remarkable CFL career as a player to become probably the best talent scout of all-time, needed only a few words to sum up the scene. "Look at those people," he said, peering through the rain from the warmth and security of the press box. "If this doesn't prove Edmonton is a great sports town, I don't know what does."
National recognition of this community's commitment to sports first surfaced in the 1980s, when the Eskimos dominated the CFL and the Oilers opened their Stanley Cup run. Playing all their home games before full (or nearly full) houses, both teams did more than collect championships. They also carried large numbers of all-time superstars which led them to serious consideration as the best teams of all-time.
It was much easier to be both a consistent customer and dedicated fan in those glorious days.
Tickets were priced more reasonably, allowing families to attend. Team rosters, here at least, were relatively stable. As a result, the public had several years in which to pick its favourite players and cheer every move.
We now know it was remarkably beneficial that Eskimo fans rarely were required to pore over attendance figures in other centres and concern themselves with television demographics, marketing techniques and, ultimately, the survival of the league.
Eventually, the league's hardships extended to Edmonton, forcing general manager Hugh Campbell to come clean about major financial setbacks. His intelligent approach paid dividends. The situation is far from perfect but the Eskimos, as usual, are the best and most stable franchise in the CFL.
Things changed fast
In the so-called Good Old Days, it was not necessary for Oiler fans -- there was a large overlap between the groups, of course, and still is -- to worry about the rapid salary escalation and rising ticket prices. Those elements dropped the team out of serious playoff contention and for many years kept the owner on the lookout for new ways to drop word that he might move the valuable franchise to a larger, wealthier community.
Only last year did the hockey turnaround really take shape. General manager Glen Sather somehow kept a handle on costs while designing a quick, exciting team that won a playoff series after a five-year drought.
As prospective local buyers line up to look at a prospectus designed to complete the sale of the Oilers, Sather proves his confidence (and his competence) by moving steadily forward. Without any notable fuss, he added depth, size and toughness last week when free-agent Bill Huard came over from the Dallas Stars.
It has become common knowledge that Sather and Campbell are good friends who have shared some management techniques. They also share the conviction that Edmonton is the best place in Canada to run a sports franchise. If not, they would have accepted offers to take their expertise elsewhere.
Thankfully, for all of us, they didn't.
- Edmonton Journal
MARCH 13, 1998
Slats on the end of an era
Jim Matheson
Journal Hockey Writer
Q: What about turning over the club to the local ownership group after this was Peter Pocklington's baby going back to the late days of the World Hockey Association?
A: This is sad for me because we've been friends and he's been great to work for for 22 years. I think he's been maligned to say the least in Edmonton. In my mind, that's not right for a guy who kept hockey in Edmonton for a lot of years under trying circumstances. He's asked for nothing less than the new ownership is getting. He just wanted a chance to survive.
Q: What bugs you most?
A: That people don't know all the little things Peter's done, all the donating of money. Keeping it quiet, in a lot of cases. The scholarships to all the University of Alberta hockey players. The $5 million he gave to the Jamie Platz YMCA. He bought a breast imaging machine for the Cross Cancer Clinic when they couldn't afford it. Setting up the Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic. All the Junior Achievement dinners he's put on for kids. They've raised millions. The program's for inner-city kids.
Q: How hard do you think this is on Pocklington, not owning the club after so many years? Harder than he's letting on?
A: For sure. Peter's mentally as tough as anybody I've ever met but it's been a tough, tough time. A lesser person would have collapsed under this.
Q: What do you think Peter will be doing if the sale's official today?
A: If I know Peter he'll look at the positive side. He'll try to find something that's constructive and exciting to do. He won't sit back and be depressed with this. He'll get on with his life. It'll be like a guy going through withdrawal for a while, like getting divorced because he was married to this team for 20-some years. But he's a tremendously positive thinker.
Q: I'm sure it was difficult for Peter not to go to the last couple of home games knowing they were his last as owner?
A: You bet it was. That's why he stayed away. I think he did it on purpose.
Q: Do the people still hold it against him because of the Gretzky sale?
A: If so, they're foolish. If they still do, they didn't understand what was going on in hockey at that time. The way salaries were going. It was a way to keep the team in Edmonton. Even when we had our budget meetings, we'd give him the realistic business point of view of how much we had to raise ticket prices and Peter was always the guy who said, 'No, no, we can't do it that much. We have to lower the price for the upper blues.' Even though he knew when we were doing the budgets, he'd be losing money doing it.
Q: And the local investors if they get the team?
A: We've already recommended we up the prices for next year. There's no way you can get around operating an NHL franchise these days with the U.S. markets we're battling against and the U.S. difference in the dollar... it's a fact of life, we have to raise prices. We raised them 17 per cent last year but that was the first hike in five years.
Q: Assuming the local group succeeds in buying the Oilers, does that help stem the tide? If Edmonton goes, wouldn't Calgary? And Ottawa? Has this saved hockey in Canada, for now anyway?
A: Absolutely. This is the best thing that's happened to hockey in a long time. They've stepped forward and saved small market teams in Canada. Now if Ottawa can come up with some tax breaks, and I'm not holding my breath....
Q: You're also never stemming the difference in the U.S. and Canadian dollar. It's a killer, right?
A: Absolutely. We have to increase our revenues somehow. We plan on operating our own television package next year. We'll produce, direct and sell the ads. Now we have to sell advertising to the large corporations. All those banks that don't advertise, Bank of Montreal, CIBC, Treasury Branch. Canadian Western Bank. These guys will have to spend media dollars on our TV to create more revenue. We have to sell the name of the building and operate it.
Q: Do you think Peter will stick around Edmonton next winter or move full-time to Palm Springs?
A: He'll stay around here.
Q: Pocklington got a kick out of hanging around the dressing room. Now what?
A: He loved the players and his association with them. He had good friendships with them and he respected their space. He also hasn't meddled with the internal operation of the team as far as which players come and which ones go and the decisions on how to operate the team. He's been very professional.
Q: Do you think Peter would still like to be part of the conglomerate in some small way as a minority owner?
A: Yeah.
Q: Do you think they've frozen him out?
A: No, but in the scheme of things I think it's better to have a clean slate. The deal they've structured is such that they want to walk in with a whole new ownership and that's what they've done. Nothing wrong with that. I don't think they're slighting Peter.
Q: Are you tempted to buy in?
A: No. Why? Because I don't have that kind of cash.
Q: Everybody keeps wondering why some people like Gretzky and Messier didn't try to help out financially with the local group for old times' sake? That's against the rules isn't it, even if it sounds wonderful.
A: You can't have part of the ownership of a hockey team and still play in the NHL. The Oilers or any team. There's ethical rules that prevent one guy from owning, say, parts of 15 teams. That's not even players, that's rich guys.
Q: And you've never owned a piece of the Oilers? That's been the rumour for years.
A: No I haven't.
Q: How difficult will it be to work with a group of people, rather than just one guy? Presumably the owners would nominate a liaison with you, but do you have any idea how it would work?
A: No idea at all.
Q: Does the prospect of 12 or 13 or 14 owners concern you at all?
A: Depends on how involved they want to be with my job.
Q: Do you have to set ground rules with them?
A: I'd think that's what will happen. But they also have the right to know what's going on. They've spent a lot of money and put a lot of effort into it and I have to respect their thoughts and what they want.
Q: How much byplay have you had with, say, Cal Nichols, who seems to be the spokesman for the owners
A: I've spoken to Cal two or three times over the last six or seven months. Jim Hole two or three times. The others hardly at all.
Q: Did the owners want an assurance that you'd be there when this deal got done?
A: No, but I assumed that. I'd say it's a safe assumption on everybody's part depending on what the rules are. I have a certain management style and I'm not going to change it."
Q: What if you gave them a tentative budget and they suddenly said that's too much? Do you want it down on paper how much you've got to spend?
A: I can operate on any budget. I don't anticipate any big problems dealing with these guys.
Q: But you've got to be tired of operating on a shoestring?
A: Absolutely.
Q: You'd like some breathing space?
A: Well, we need to charter more. We need to be versatile enough to make changes if the opportunity is there. Lots of times we had chances to make a trade and couldn't. It wouldn't have been a waste of time to talk to Peter but I was given a budget and that's what you operate under. I can't go back and say, 'Look, I need another $7 million or $10 million to do a deal.' I assume these guys will operate the same way."
Q: Are the financial restraints with these guys going to be any worse than they were the last 10 years?
A: No. But as far as I'm concerned it's got to be better. We've been fighting for survival. But we've still developed a great farm system. We've drafted a lot of good kids who've turned the corner and parlayed them into people who can play ... we've got some strong ingredients here.
Q: But the feeling is these owners scraped hard to just get the purchase price. Will they have anything left to run the team the way you want?
A: I'm worried about that. Sure I am.
Q: What if a team makes an outlandish offer for Doug Weight, along the same lines as the one Carolina made to Sergei Fedorov, where there's all that up-front money. Do you match the offer even if the owners are going to blanch?
A: We match. That's the only way you can defend against the other people. You have to be prepared to match, no matter how much the other guy offers your guy.
Q: Are you leery that everybody knows how tough it was to get this group together to keep the team in Edmonton and that other teams will know that the Oilers definitely don't have a pile of money to work with and they can take advantage? Or is that too cynical a thought?
A: No, that's not too cynical. We have to decide pretty quickly how these owners want to go. How do we know that these owners won't just say, 'Look, sign these people on our team. Go after a couple of free-agents. Keep Curtis (Joseph).' I don't know, yet, which way they want to go. If that's what they want ... great."
Q: I guess you have to find out from these owners whether they want to win or just be competitive. There's certainly a difference.
A: I don't think you have to spend $50 million US to put a good team together. It's more than money. There's chemistry and talent. But you have to get a good return on your money. Say you've got a guy who you feel will get 40 or 50 goals ... it's so expensive to sign these guys. If they don't keep producing, you get stuck with them and can't do anything about it.
Q: What about the theory that you stuck with Peter all these years because he was a friend and now you can be a free agent if you want and you can go to the highest bidder. You don't have to stay, do you?
A: I consider myself one of the assets of the organization. I'm not going into this with the idea that I'll leave. I wanted the team sold, the team to stay in Edmonton and the team to be successful.
Q: How many offers have you had to leave over the years?
A: Quite a few.
Q: Every day a new owner was jumping on board, but it's a pretty unwieldy group isn't it? Wouldn't the NHL rather one guy own a team?
A: Of course, but nowadays you've got huge corporations that own these clubs. That's the wave of the future. It'll be large television conglomerates. It's a vehicle for people who own cable companies. It's a time filler, owning a hockey team and putting it on for three hours. It's a lot cheaper than buying 80 movies to show.
Q: Can you ever convince the new owners there'll be revenue sharing some day like in the NFL?
A: Is it going to be 80 degrees in Edmonton in January? I doubt it. It's like saying are the salaries ever going to go down. You look at Pavel Bure. If he gets 50 goals this year his salary next year has to be the average of the top three salaries in the league. It's like a domino game. One tips over and they all go down.
Q: How do you talk to the other owners and not get them to see the big picture?
A: I've tried. They all give me good lip-service at the league meetings, about just giving their kids automatic 10-per-cent raises as per the collective bargaining agreement and yet when group-two free agents become stars, their agents say 'Well that guy on that team makes $5 million, so your guy does too because he's as important.' When we were trying to sign Doug Weight and Jason Arnott a few years ago you guys (media) were leading the troops, 'You gotta sign them, you gotta sign.' The owners give in. That pressure doesn't bother me, but really the owners are driving up their own costs to watch these players play. Somebody has to pay the bills and you just lost one owner because of it.
March 13, 1998
Local investors bid to buy Oilers
Bob Weber
The Canadian Press
Edmonton -
A group of local investors took a first step toward keeping their beloved hockey team in town when they submitted a bid to buy the Edmonton Oilers on Friday, just hours before their midnight deadline ran out.
The announcement capped weeks of huddling by lawyers, accountants and a collection of local millionaires ranging from real estate developers to gas station owners.
The group had until Friday to table an offer to buy the team for $70 million US, or about $102 million Cdn. Houston businessman Les Alexander has offered $82.5 million US but plans to move the team to the United States.
The local group has more hurdles to clear.
"We have crossed one finish line, only to start another race," John Butler, lawyer for the group, told a packed news conference.
Under National Hockey League rules, any new buyer can borrow no more than half the purchase price. That means the local group had to raise at least $51 million Cdn on its own.
The bid now has to be approved by Alberta Treasury Branches, the government-owned bank that holds the Oilers as security on loans to current owner Peter Pocklington.
Before Treasury Branches accepts the offer, it must be approved by Edmonton Northlands, the civic agency that operates the Edmonton Coliseum, and Economic Development Edmonton, which has spearheaded the local effort.
Except for the purchase price, the local bid had to match Alexander's. That means the bidders had to provide a $5-million US non-refundable deposit and have a cash deal that will close by May 5.
NHL spokesman Arthur Pincus has said the league will examine the offer, investigate the bidders and then make a recommendation to its board of governors. It's not known how long that would take, or whether it could be done by May 5.
The biggest question raised by the deal is whether the local group is indeed saving the Oilers or just buying some time.
Owners also have to prove to NHL brass that they have enough working capital to cover rising player salaries and other costs that have killed NHL franchises in Winnipeg and Quebec City.
Another potential stumbling block is a lack of an arena-rental agreement between the locals and Northlands. But both Mayor Bill Smith and Northlands general manager Al Skoreyko predicted the rent issue can be resolved.
On the power pray
The nuns who adorned a statue of Jesus with a hockey stick to help save the Oilers are deflecting shots of sacrilege.
But despite receiving a barrage of complaints at their cloistered west-end monastery Thursday, the hockey mad Sisters of the Precious Blood are unrepentant about praying for the Oilers' salvation. And they won't take the stick down until the season ends.
Councillors feel left out of the game
Today's deadline for purchasing the Oilers has arrived with city councillors feeling like they've been left out of the parade.
Several city councillors say they've been frustrated in the past 30 days by having to react to various proposals for city financial support for the local buyers' bid when no one from the buyers' group has officially asked them for anything.
March 14, 1998
Local investors bid for Oilers
Jac MacDonald
Journal Staff Writer
Edmonton - It was a lucky Friday the 13th for Edmonton hockey fans as the local investors' group
delivered its offer to purchase the Oilers hockey club along with a $5-million US deposit.
"This is going to be a great day for Edmonton. As of this afternoon the Edmonton investor group delivered an offer and the required deposit to purchase the Edmonton Oilers," spokesperson Cal Nichols told a packed news conference.
"Our belief from the start was that Edmonton was going to be a much better place with the
Oilers than without them."
The group of 17 individuals and companies unanimously decided late Thursday night to proceed with its offer to buy the team.
Most of the investors were at Friday's news conference, including Bruce Saville, chair of Saville Systems, who carried hockey skates over his shoulder.
In announcing the bid, Nichols said the best option for the long-term preservation of a small- market NHL franchise like the Oilers is to have a broad base of private ownership.
That means the group will work towards a public offering of shares in the hockey club in two or three years, with the proceeds going to pay down debt, he said.
The group's lawyer, John Butler, said the group will begin work immediately to obtain NHL approval and to complete documentation.
"We have crossed one finish line only to start another race," Butler said.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman could not be reached for comment Friday, but in a news release he called the announcement "a very positive development" for the city and the league.
