Saturday February 7, 2004
In Commissioner Bettman's annual "State of the League" address today at the All-Star game festivities in St. Paul, MN, he touched upon the subject of Winnipeg getting back into the NHL via either relocation and expansion. The exact transcript of the exchange is as follows:
Q. What's your opinion of the deputy mayor of Winnipeg canvassing people for franchises?
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: We don't have anything to offer him and we're not contemplating expansion obviously. We don't favor relocation. I don't think anybody is going anywhere.
What I do believe is when we have the right economics, all 30 of our franchises can be healthy where they are currently located. So I'm not sure how Winnipeg gets on the radar screen. I'm delighted there's interest, but I don't think there's much that we can envision right now to satisfy that interest.
Now obviously the Commissioner is going to be as positive about the league has he can be in the State of the League address, so I wouldnt expect him to divulge anything about Winnipeg, nor would I think he'd admit to the problems of franchises and upset a fanbase at this point, so I'd take everything he's said with regards to this with a big grain of salt.
For another interesting "take" on the Commissoner's comments, check out ESPN's summary of the address.
PROSPECTIVE CITIES
TEAMS IN TROUBLE
EXPANISON HISTORY
RELOCATION HISTORY
MESSAGE BOARDS
TEAM REVIVALS
TERMINOLOGY 101
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