http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...geid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1086819010582Brave new World on horizon
After a 25-year absence, the World Hockey Association plans to start up again this fall in eight cities
MICHAEL CLARKSON
SPORTS REPORTER
The Toronto Toros are back. Well, maybe.
The Toros will join the resurrected World Hockey Association for a second go-round if they can iron out a lease to play at the SkyDome before July 10, when the league has its entry draft.
Hamilton will also have a team for this fall if they can work out an agreement with Copps Coliseum, home of the AHL's Bulldogs.
Six other cities who already have arena agreements were granted franchises yesterday Halifax, Quebec city, Detroit, Dallas, Orlando and Jacksonville.
The WHA could have up to 12 teams when it starts its schedule Oct.29.
But if Toronto gets in, it could be the cornerstone of an upstart league which hopes to eventually challenge the NHL for players and fans, just like its predecessor did in the 1970s before four of its clubs merged into the NHL.
Enhancing the WHA's chances of getting off the ground and staying afloat is a very possible NHL lockout, which might allow the WHA to steal players and fans from the big loop.
Unveiled yesterday, the WHA's business plan is fairly ambitious. Each team has a $15 million (U.S.) salary cap, including $5 million for a marquee player, although that doesn't necessarily mean they could produce that much cash.
Restaurateur Gino Naldini, co-owner of Gino's Pizza, is owner of the prospective Toros and believes his team could average at least 8,000 fans a game (the club's financial break-even mark) in a GTA market which includes the Leafs, the AHL's Roadrunners and four Major Junior teams.
The Roadrunners, a farm affiliate of the NHL's Edmonton Oilers, did not break even last year at Ricoh Coliseum, drawing about 4,600 fans a game.
"I consider the AHL a farm system. Our calibre will be a notch above that," said Naldini, co-owner of the Vaughan Vikings, a Provincial Junior A team.
Ticket prices for the Toros will range between $35 and $80.
"There are millions of fans in Ontario who cannot afford to attend a Leafs game," Naldini said. "We will offer a quality product for the price."
WHA commissioner Bobby Hull, the marquee player of the original WHA in 1972, believes there are enough fans in the GTA to support the Toros.
"And they'll get to see more skill hockey than the NHL features right now. We'll have a lot of smaller, skilled players, not a lot of big, one-dimensional guys," said the Golden Jet.
To encourage more offence, the WHA will have no red line, no-touch icing, touch-up offsides and three-on-three overtime.
The cavernous SkyDome, which has staged ice-skating shows in the past, would be reconfigured for hockey and have a seating capacity of about 14,000. Naldini said the SkyDome lease is close to being finalized.
Some skeptics see the WHA as high risk, especially without a TV contract.
Mario Frankovich, Hamilton's owner-in-waiting and CEO of an investment firm, admits there have been some failed upstart pro sports leagues in the past, "but we have enough committed owners and the uncertainty of the NHL's (collective bargaining agreement) is a unique opportunity for us."
Frankovich, of Waterloo, says his club would not necessarily compete with the Bulldogs for the Hamilton market but instead would target fans from western Ontario and the Niagara region.
"That is an area of 2.5 million people," said Frankovich, who says he would need 10,000 fans a game to break even and will charge between $15 and $50 a ticket. "I'm doing this for the love of the game and because I think it makes good business sense."
The original Toros played out of Varsity Arena and later Maple Leaf Gardens from 1973-76 under the ownership of John Bassett, with Frank Mahovlich as their big name.
Naldini says the WHA's success does not totally depend on there being an NHL lockout.
"(The lockout) would be positive for us if it did happen, but the idea for this league was started four years ago," he said.
The Toros are talking to some current NHLers about the possibility of signing contracts and are also talking to several coaching candidates, including Ted Nolan, former NHL coach of the year with Buffalo in 1997.
For those unfamiliar with the WHA, here is a brief history:
The World Hockey Association was created in 1972 when Dennis Murphy and Gary Davidson founded the league that would change professional hockey forever.
Stodgy NHL executives, smoking cigars and drinking scotch, sat in their offices and snickered at what they considered the folly of this new league. They had no fear that two literally unknown individuals from California would have any impact at all on the National Hockey League. Imagine their eventual surprise when, in many ways, the WHA revolutionized the game of professional hockey as it was being played then.
For a short while the NHL looked down upon the WHA. However, it would eventually incorporate many of the new leagues ideas into its own. One example is the return of 'overtime play'.
Obviously, the goal of the WHA was to rival the NHL, for over fifty years the NHL had enjoyed the hockey stage to itself. As such the NHLs Commissioner at that time, Clarence Campbell, and the gents in the executive lounge were hardly worried about the WHAs impact on the vaunted National Hockey League.
However, when the WHA gave Bobby Hull a $1 million dollar contract, luring him away from the Chicago Black Hawks, a stunned NHL suddenly took notice. Soon, the war was on. The WHA was draining the NHLs talent pool by enticing players to jump ship luring them with larger salaries. Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe, was lured out of retirement to play with his two sons for the Houston Aeros and later the New England Whalers.
Unorthodox methods and the WHA went together like a cold hand in a warm glove. Who could forget the WHAs coloured pucks? The first season saw the league with a fire engine red puck. Unfortunately, or fortunately to some, the paint chipped off very quickly. The following year the WHA was using blue pucks. However, these pucks got soft halfway through the game and began to uncharacteristically bounce. Needless to say, black pucks soon returned.
But coloured pucks werent the end of these unorthodox efforts. The New York Golden Blades wore skates painted white with gold skate blades. Another team had jungle green sweaters with bright gold trim. In fact, most of the teams had unusual uniform colors and styles. Yet while considered gaudy by many at the time, hideously coloured and designed uniforms are now commonplace in the NHL.
The referee sweaters, with white and red stripes, looked like prison garb. It was the WHA that came up with the idea of putting electronic chips into the pucks so they would show up and streak on TV. It was an awful idea in the 70s and, ironically, an awful idea in the 90s when FOX and the NHL tried it out.
Unlike the NHL, the WHA had no rules or regulations on stick curvatures. The banana blade reigned supreme in the WHA and as a result so did high scoring games.
The WHA paved the way in mining European talent, something NHL clubs grudgingly started to follow. The NHL had a rule that players must be 18 to play; the WHA scrapped that and scoured the junior leagues for talent. One such player they found was Wayne Gretzky, and we all know what an incredible career he had as a professional hockey player.
The WHA brought perhaps the biggest change to hockey, ushering in free agency. Unlike the NHL where players were bound to one team forever, players in the WHA could pretty much play with whatever team offered them a contract.
Of course, lets not forget the trophy. Instead of the Stanley cup, players completed for the Avco Cup, so named because Avco Financial floated some cash to the league to help get things going. Youngsters from Vancouver to Halifax now dreamed of someday holding Lord Avcos Cup high above their heads.
The WHA got rid of the roughing rule and also made another key change. Unlike in the NHL, where being third-man-in-a-fight would be a misconduct, in the WHA it was simply two minutes in the sin bin. Obviously the WHA was a league that embraced fisticuffs and a rough manner. Some teams took advantage more than others. As an example, the Minnesota franchise wasnt called the Fighting Saints for nothing. The Saints had the now-famous Hanson Brothers and the two Carlson brothers who could hardly skate from one end of the ice to the other. But they knew how to drop their gloves. Fans loved the Saints groovy sweaters and bruising style.
On one occasion, the Saints had 19,000 fans in their building, while across town, only 6000 showed up to watch the North Stars host the defending Stanley Cup Champion Montréal Canadiens. A lesson that, even today, the NHL should take note of.
Its no coincidence that with the decrease in rough play there has been a recognizable decrease in viewer ratings.
The WHA began life seeking to capitalize on an unfed demand for pro hockey. The league placed many teams in markets the NHL never dreamed of. However this aggressive expansion ultimately led to the leagues demise, as many teams in lower populated city centers simply couldnt maintain the financial support a professional sports team. On the other hand, the WHA gave franchises to cities that the NHL considered second tier, such as Edmonton, Winnipeg and Québec. Years later following the closure of the WHA league it must be mentioned that the NHL had set up shop in some of the same markets originally opened by WHA. These teams are still valuable participants in that league.
When the WHA first started in October 1972, it was a weaker game. By the end of the seven year existence the WHA had drawn even with the NHL in skill level. Many people considered the WHAS Winnipeg Jets on par with the best teams the NHL had to offer.
In fact, when teams from the two leagues played exhibition games against each other, from 1974 to 1978, the WHA teams won 33, lost 27 and tied seven.
http://www.worldhockeyassociation.net/history.htm
Toronto will join Dallas or Vancouver, Detroit (Pontiac), Halifax, Hamilton, Miami (Jacksonville), Québec City. Other potential teams: Birmingham, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Montréal, Phoenix, Toledo.
The WHA was responsible for bringing the Edmonton Oilers, New England (Hardford) Whalers, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques, Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky and the Fox glowing puck to the NHL.
The World Hockey Association will play a 76 game schedule beginning October 29, 2004. Franchises will operate on a maximum salary cap of (U.S.) 15-million dollars including a 5-million dollar marquee distinction.
Four rule alterations were announced by the WHA. They include removal of the center red line, no-touch icing, touch up offside and three on three overtime followed by a sudden death shootout to eliminate ties.
I for one can not wait, NHL lockout or no lockout. Good to see the WHA is back.
