Exclusive: Old Thrashers WILL BE the new Jets

The former Atlanta Thrashers will unveil their new Winnipeg branding today, on National Hockey League Entry Draft Day.

Now there is solid evidence that points to the resurrection of the Jets name.

The NHL owns the trademark, originally filed with the Canadian government in 1976. According to the Winnipeg Jets name and logo files in the Canadian Trademarks Database, there was a flurry of activity this month, as recently as June 15.

Listen to The Sport Market on Team 1040 and TeamRadio.ca from 9 a.m. to noon Pacific on Saturday, June 25 for the month-end roundtable for more on this story.

Winnipeg Jets entry in the Canadian Trademarks Database

Winnipeg Jets logo entry in the Canadian Trademarks Database

Gary gabs

A big week for hockey north of the border.

The National Hockey League announced May 31 it would return to Winnipeg after a 15-year absence with the conditional move of the Atlanta Thrashers by True North Sports and Entertainment. The Thrashers were the 28th worst market for attendance in the 30-team league.

Commissioner Gary Bettman announced a 13,000-season ticket drive and that a vote on the $170 million purchase would be taken by the board of governors on June 21. More than 7,000 packages were sold before the public sales began and each NHL owner will get a slice of the $60 million relocation fee, so it'll be a done deal.

On June 1, the Stanley Cup final returned to Vancouver for the first time since 1994 -- and began in Vancouver for the first time since the Millionaires were 1921 hosts. The Vancouver Canucks blanked the Boston Bruins 1-0 on Raffi Torres's late, overtime-avoiding goal with 18.5-seconds left in regulation time.

The 5.6 million average audience, with a peak of 7.8 million, was an all-time record for CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. The previous record was in 1994 when 4.96 million tuned-in to see the Canucks battle another Original Six team, the New York Rangers. That was game seven of the Stanley Cup final and the Canucks lost by a goal.

The NBC ratings for game one were the best in 12 years, a 3.2 national rating which translates to approximately 3.708 million viewers. Boston, Providence, R.I. and Hartford, Ct., were three of the top four markets.

The storylines are simple: an Original Six team from a sports-made region with a 39-year Cup drought against the Sedin twins and the rest of the Olympic city kids who are trying for a third time to win the franchise's first Cup since debuting 40 seasons ago.

Before the game, Bettman held his annual state of the league address. Here are highlights from the question-and-answer session:

Q. Can you update where things stand for realignment in lieu of Winnipeg's re-entry, and also the latest on Phoenix?

BETTMAN: With respect to Winnipeg's re-entry, obviously there is a process under the Constitution and Bylaws with respect to ownership transfers and relocation that needs to be complied with. That's on the agenda, will be on the agenda, for the June 21st Board meeting.

In order to do a schedule for next season, it's not possible to do realignment right now. Winnipeg, despite its geographic peculiarities relative to the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference, will be playing in that division and in that conference, with an assurance that for the following season they will be in the west.

We have a number of clubs that would like to address specific issues on realignment. All those clubs need an opportunity to be heard. That's a process we'll go through the first half of next season, looking at the issues that clubs want to raise, looking at various possibilities, and trying to figure out what will make the most sense moving forward.

If I had to guess anything, and this is purely speculation, as much as I hate to do that, because ultimately it's a Board decision, I think we'll wind up moving towards a slightly more balanced schedule to accommodate the variety of issues I've heard so far from the clubs.

Q. Phoenix?

BETTMAN: Phoenix, as I think you all know, because it's gotten a ton of attention, the City of Glendale stepped up and said they want the team to stay another year while they try to complete the sales process with us and will be funding the losses. Any suggestion that the League is funding this club or carrying the burden is not true. Last season the City of Glendale did it. This coming season the City of Glendale will do it, but hopefully not. Hopefully the club will be sold in due course, and there will be a new owner in there to start turning things around.

Again, we've gotten a number of questions about why this process in Phoenix and why the other process in Atlanta. Atlanta, not unlike Winnipeg in '96, found itself in a situation where nobody wanted to own a club in that market anymore. That's been for me the trigger point on having to deal with a relocation.

With respect to Phoenix, you have a city in Glendale that built the building and has invested in it and wanting the club to stay there. As long as they're prepared to carry the burden of doing this while we try to effectuate a solution, there's no reason to move.

Q. Steroids have obviously run their course through all of the professional sports. Yet your sport, your league, has not had a positive test in years, as I can recall. People who know steroids say if you're not catching anybody, your testing isn't good enough. Is it your belief simply no NHL players are doing steroids now? (Note: NHL players are not tested for drugs during the playoffs or off-season.)

BETTMAN: Well, it's clear that if we're not having positive tests, none of them are getting caught, which means if some are, it's not very many.

I do believe, and we've been in discussions over the last couple of years with WADA, there are ways that we can improve our substance testing, our performance?enhancing testing program. But that's something we need to do with the Players' Association, and that's something, when we actually sit down and begin discussions, we need to address.

I think we have a good program. It deals with education and counseling. It has comprehensive testing, but I think we can probably do more. At the right time we'll have that discussion with the Players' Association.

Q. There's been recent reports of a group in Seattle interested in an NHL team. What are your thoughts on Seattle as a hockey market? With Winnipeg done, do you have a list of cities that are potentials?

BETTMAN: There are no shortage of places that continue to express interest in having a team. I think it was half a dozen, and now it's down to five because Winnipeg comes off the list. My answer is the same. I don't want to raise anybody's expectation. We're hoping not to do relocation. You all know that we don't believe in doing that, except as a last resort. We do everything possible to avoid it, and we're not planning on expanding.

The interest is flattering, but I don't want anyone in any market that doesn't have a team to get their hopes up yet.

Q. Québec City was involved, Pierre Peladeau, the owner of Quebecor, launched a sports channel yesterday. He got 25 games of the Ottawa Senators. Is there some sort of relation there that we can say they are up front to get something in Québec City done or there's absolutely nothing to deal with that?

BETTMAN: I am not going to raise expectations. I'm well aware of Mr. Peladeau's interest and that is gratifying. I am well aware there are plans to build an arena, although we have made no promise of what will happen after that.

At the present time, since I don't have a franchise we're looking to relocate, and as I said, we're not planning on expanding, I don't want to get people's expectations in Québec City raised.

Q. Despite the $3 billion in revenue across the League, a lot of teams are losing money, or at least claim to. Is the gap too large between high and low revenue teams? Especially now that you're in Winnipeg, what adjustments need to be made to revenue sharing and the CBA, the next one, so those clubs can be in the best position to succeed?

BETTMAN: The fact we're in Winnipeg, the agreement is basically self?executing. It will apply to the Winnipeg team as it applied to the Atlanta team, again, assuming Board approval, which everybody is anticipating.

To the extent there are issues in Collective Bargaining, as I said in my opening remarks, the good news is it's too early to discuss it. The discussions I'll have in the first instance on that topic will be with Mr. Fehr. I won't be doing it in this environment.

Q. Is the gap too big?

BETTMAN: We have a system that is dramatically improved from where we were in terms of teams' ability to compete. You've seen it in our competitive balance. There has been dramatic improvement. Whether or not the Players' Association or we are going to be looking for adjustments is something we'll look at quietly and hopefully resolve quietly.

Q. Your office put out numbers on concussions specific to how they were suffered, be it from fighting, be it from hitting, whatever. The number that caught my eye was from fighting. I think it was 8% or somewhere around there. I'm wondering, after you've given out those numbers, has there been added talk, be it from managers, owners, governors, specific to that part and their interest in perhaps ending fighting?

BETTMAN: I don't think the discussion has gotten to the level where there's widespread sentiment to end fighting. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'ending fighting.' I assume you mean by increasing the penalties for fighting, because there are penalties now.

The issue is really one about concussions. The reason for releasing the numbers is to make clear that concussions in the game are being caused by a variety of causes. And, in fact, the increase isn't coming, although the conventional wisdom incorrectly was that it was coming from more head hits, it's coming from pucks to the head. Maybe we should be having mandatory visors, something we'll discuss as we have over the years. Sometimes it's collisions with your own teammates, sometimes it's a check where you fall and bang your head.

The number of head hits really hasn't been the cause of the increase in concussions. It's been other sources, and that's what we're looking at in a comprehensive way.

One of the things that I indicated the Blue Ribbon Committee is looking at, as it's been dubbed, is whether or not we want to expand the head?hit rule. Accidents I think are going to happen and we have to deal with that and we do that through the proper diagnosis and treatment of concussions. Nobody has taken the leap that you're suggesting.

Q. Any updates with the next Winter Olympics or the World Cup?

BETTMAN: There is no update. That, again, is something that we will be in discussions with the Players' Association on because the international competitions, be it the conducting of a World Cup, which we're interested in doing, and the participation in the Winter Olympics, is something that we need to discuss and resolve with the Players' Association.

Mr. Fehr has been on the job a relatively short time. He's putting together his organization. He's been doing a lot of homework and catching up. In due course, we'll be having those discussions.

Q. Any more precise indication of where the cap is going?

BETTMAN: Actually, I think Mr. Daly did. I don't remember giving cap numbers. Bill, do you want to venture a guess?

BILL DALY: I think our current projections have the cap being in excess of $60 million, maybe as high as $63 million.

BETTMAN: And, obviously, the new television contract in the United States has an impact on that, bringing it up.

Q. Poignant because of the travel back and forth between Vancouver and Boston being difficult, the format of 2-2-2-1-1-1, any increased talk of going to 2-3-2?

BETTMAN: We periodically raise it with the managers, who when it comes to competitive issues are the heart and soul. There doesn't seem to be much of an appetite. I think people in our game are used to the travel. They like to keep the routine going.

It is what it is. We've been doing it for, oh, at least a couple of decades. I think if you go back to the '80s or '70s, there were a couple of years when it was tried. But this seems to be what the clubs are most comfortable with. What we try to do is make sure we're providing the best environment for them to have the competition and let it all out on the ice.

Teitur terminated, Tommy tasked

On Monday, May 30, Vancouver Canucks’ head coach Alain Vigneault was preparing for the Stanley Cup.

B.C. Lions head coach and general manager Wally Buono was packing his bags for Kamloops for the Canadian Football League club’s training camp and reminding the media that the black and orange still exist.

The Lions have been the forgotten child in Vancouver, what with the Canucks’ domination of the National Hockey League in 2010-2011 and the Whitecaps’ debut in Major League Soccer.

The Whitecaps are 1-5-6 with nine points of a possible 36 in league play after losing yet another lead and settling for a tie on May 28 against the Thierry Henry-less New York Red Bulls.

The Caps are worst in the West with just one win in a dozen games. That victory came opening day on March 19 at Empire Field, 4-2 over Toronto FC.

Since then, the club has been hampered by injuries and red card suspensions. It was less-than-fantastic for head coach Teitur Thordarson, one of the most popular coaches in Vancouver soccer history.

The other boot finally dropped May 30 when Thordarson was fired.

Vancouver reporters were invited to an 11 a.m. news conference at Empire Field for an important announcement with CEO Paul Barber and president Bob Lenarduzzi. Captain Jay DeMerit and assistant captain Jon Thorrington quietly walked into the room, both with stern faces, before Lenarduzzi, Barber and director of soccer operations Tommy Soehn entered via the side door.

Thordarson’s absence spoke volumes. It was obvious that the affable, accessible Icelander’s tenure was over.

Thordarson was introduced to Vancouver media at a Dec. 11, 2007 news conference on the Harbour Centre revolving observation deck as the United Soccer Leagues’ First Division Whitecaps’ coach. Back then, it was assumed the Whitecaps would someday end up playing soccer by the sea at the proposed Waterfront Stadium. Instead, the Whitecaps were granted an MLS franchise in March 2009 and are playing at Empire until B.C. Place Stadium is reopened this fall. Last summer, Thordarson was signed as the head coach and the Caps were applauded for the continuity measure.

Under Thordarson, the Caps became USL-1 champions in 2008 and lost in the final in 2009. But, as they say in sports, coaches are hired to be fired. There is no tougher position than being the bench boss of an expansion team.

“We felt that we needed to give the team a bit of fresh impetus, make a change of coaching staff at this time, to give ourselves the best possible chance of recovering the season, and giving the team a kickstart,” Barber said. “This was the right time to do it, we took the decision after the game on Saturday.”

Soehn, who coached nine years in MLS, including three as D.C. United’s head coach, said he would continue to look for additional talent, but indicated satisfaction with the roster.

“When you walk in the locker room you can usually tell if that team has got a chance to do special things, I've said this from the beginning as has Teitur this group is fantastic as far as the character of the group,” Soehn said. “I don't think it's going to take much to turn the tide.

“We're going to make sure we're organized, we're going to make sure we're compact and we're going to make sure we're tough to play against. We're going to look to be aggressive in the attack, especially at home. This place is like a fortress, teams should be petrified to come play here and that's something that we need to re-establish.”

The Whitecaps are out-of-town June 1 against Chivas USA, June 4 against Real Salt Lake and June 11 against the Seattle Sounders. The first two matches are expected to have record low TV ratings, because they clash with the Vancouver Canucks vs. Boston Bruins Stanley Cup series. The club returns home June 18 to host the Philadelphia Union.

The Whitecaps may have acted too early, but in the sometimes unkind world of sports entertainment, they achieved one thing May 30: relevance. While the Stanley Cup zeitgeist continues, the Whitecaps coaching shakeup assured the club of media and fan attention.

We want the Cup

It's the grandest trophy in North American sport. Though, some would argue the Arctic Winter Games Hodgson Trophy -- a six-foot narwal tusk -- is grander.

Regardless, the Stanley Cup will be awarded sometime between June 8 and 15 to the Vancouver Canucks or the winner of the Boston Bruins/Tampa Bay Lightning Eastern conference series.

In 1982, when Vancouver faced the New York Islanders, the Stanley Cup was exhibited at the Hotel Vancouver. During the 1994 finals against the New York Rangers, it was joined by the rest of the marquee silverware collection for public display at the Waterfront Centre Hotel. Thousands of Vancouver fans made a pilgrimage to see the shiny prizes. Some had tickets to the games. Others could not afford to see the finals in person.

So where will the holy grail of hockey be in 2011 before Commissioner Gary Bettman hands it to the winning team?

"This year there is no public showing planned of the trophies as of right now," the Hockey Hall of Fame's curator Phil Pritchard told me.

Tell the NHL and HHoF you want your eyes on the prize, that you want a chance to see the Cup on display during the finals in Vancouver. Send an email message to:

bhay@hhof.com
bmansur@nhl.com

Was it the Tour de Fraud?

The May 21 edition of 60 Minutes rocked the world of sports with fresh allegations that seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, one of the greatest living athletes, cheated by using performance-enhancing drugs and blood-doping.

See the 60 Minutes report, based on an interview with former Armstrong teammate and Athens 2004 gold medalist Tyler Hamilton, here.

The 60 Minutes report revealed that both Hamilton and Armstrong's right-hand man George Hincapie had been ordered to testify at the Grand Jury hearings into allegations of doping on the United States Postal Service-sponsored cycling team.

Armstrong did not appear on 60 Minutes nor did he address the accusations via a written statement. If proven, the fall of Armstrong would be the biggest disgrace in sports history and would dwarf the Tiger Woods sex scandal.

Though Woods's misdeeds harmed his image, they did not harm the integrity of golf. Armstrong, on the other hand, is accused of cheating to win. Both Armstrong and Woods are among Nike's top-sponsored athletes. What might be Armstrong's only shield is his crusade against cancer via the Livestrong Foundation. The foundation has raised $400 million to fight the disease.

While I watched the 60 Minutes expose, I reminisced about Armstrong's appearance at the University of British Columbia on Sept. 23, 2007 for a regional cancer fundraiser. His visit coincided with former teammate Floyd Landis's doping scandal.

Just three days earlier, 2006 Tour de France champion Landis had been suspended for two years because he failed a doping test during the Tour. Armstrong ducked questions about Landis.

In May 2010, Landis went on 60 Minutes to tell the truth about his doping and point the finger at Armstrong.

Sept. 23, 2007: Vancouver 24 Hours: Armstrong leads B.C. ride against cancer
Bob Mackin

Lance Armstrong spent the weekend in British Columbia to seek a cure for cancer, not the doping crisis that threatens the race that made him famous.
That’s why the cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France champion wouldn’t discuss disgraced 2006 winner Floyd Landis, who lost a bid last week to overturn a positive test for synthetic testosterone.
“I’d love to answer the question, but I’m out of that business,” Armstrong said yesterday. “I’m here to fight cancer.”
Armstrong headlined the inaugural B.C. Cancer Foundation Tour of Courage, which
raised $1.8 million for blood cancer research. He led an 80-kilometre ride around south Kelowna on Saturday for 46 people who raised or donated $20,000 each. About 400 cyclists joined him at Thunderbird Stadium for yesterday’s community ride. Adults raised or donated $1,000 each; the minimum for teenagers was $200.
Armstrong’s peloton included retired Tour de France veterans Steve Bauer and Axel Merckx and cycling commentator Phil Liggett. Premier Gordon Campbell and Kelowna-Mission MLA Sindi Hawkins, herself a cancer survivor, also participated.
It wasn’t the first time Texan Armstrong pedaled in Vancouver. He won the 1991 Gastown Grand Prix.
“Up to that point it was probably one of my biggest victories -- Gastown Grand Prix, everybody talked about it,” he said. “I came here not necessarily being a criterium specialist, but was able to win.”
Armstrong said B.C.’s strong cancer research and fundraising network made his involvement in the Tour of Courage an easy decision. He hinted at a return.
“We need passionate people, we need people that are motivated to fight this war and that’s what you guys have,” he said.

Broadcast giant quits NBC: what next for Olympics?

June 6 and 7 could be among the biggest days on the sports business calendar in 2011. They'll definitely be among the most important for the beancounters at the International Olympic Committee.

That's when American networks will be in Lausanne, Switzerland to make their bids for the rights to broadcast Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016. They may even look for a bulk discount by tendering bids on Winter 2018 and Summer 2020.

Munich, Germany, PyeongChang, South Korea and Annecy, France are bidding for 2018. The 2020 race has yet to begin.

NBC, which paid $2.2 billion for Vancouver 2010 and London 2012, is the incumbent. The former GE-owned broadcasting giant has held rights to all Summer Games since Calgary 1988 and Winter Games since Salt Lake 2002. But it will be without Dick Ebersol.

Ebersol dropped a broadcasting bombshell May 19 when his resignation from NBC was announced. NBC is now owned by Comcast and the official word is they couldn't agree on a new contract. The news broke exactly a month after Ebersol announced NBC and Versus's 10-year, $2 billion National Hockey League broadcast deal at a news conference with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

Ebersol's Olympic journey began in 1967 when he joined ABC as a researcher. Ebersol and Canadian Lorne Michaels collaborated to create Saturday Night Live for NBC in 1975. During Olympic Games, Ebersol would actually camp in custom-made quarters in NBC's facilities at the International Broadcast Centre instead of stay in a hotel room. Ebersol spoke at length about his storied career during the Denver 2009 SportAccord convention.

Ebersol enjoyed his Vancouver experience so much (and the fact that the British Columbia government became an important advertiser) that he appeared in a video honouring outgoing Premier Gordon Campbell at a Vancouver Board of Trade event on Feb. 4, 2011. NBC lost $223 million on Vancouver 2010 after being hit by the Great Recession's advertising slump.

Whether NBC's London 2012 coverage will suffer without Ebersol at the helm remains to be seen. He has many proteges who will now run the operation. NBC, sans Ebersol, said it still plans to go to Lausanne and bid for the Olympics broadcast rights, but it will be a hotly contested race with Disney-owned ABC-ESPN, Fox and CBS.

A source told me Ebersol has been bearish on a bid for Sochi 2014 for quite some time. The unfriendly time zone -- eight hours ahead of New York -- was the biggest worry. Live sports are best shown live, but not at 3 a.m. when viewers would rather be sleeping. During a meeting, Ebersol was asked what he thought Sochi would be worth. He paused for a moment and scribbled on a note pad. He turned around and showed those in the meeting. It was a big "0".

Sochi 2014 could well be a commercial bust for the IOC and whichever company wins the U.S. rights if National Hockey League players aren't playing the hockey tournament. The Russian resort is building everything from scratch and, from what I saw last June, is on-track to be ready for February 2014. But volunteers, venue operations, transportation and security remain big unknowns for Sochi, which passed the 1,000-day countdown on May 14.

Exclusive: Visa and Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton to GO separate ways

I broke the news on the May 14 edition of The Sport Market on Team 1040 and in the May 17 edition of Business in Vancouver that Visa Canada is spending one last season as a sponsor of Canada's bobsled and skeleton team. Then the two-decade relationship, that included the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, will be over. Visa is also among the International Olympic Committee's global sponsors.

A prepared statement from Visa said: “Visa Canada is proud to have had a long association with Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton. Going forward, Visa will not sponsor the Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton team, but will instead continue to make strategic investments in support of Team Visa, our program for athletes with Olympic and Paralympic aspirations.”

The two parties would have split at the end of the 2010-2011 season, but BCS convinced Visa to remain for another year at a reduced rate. Read more in my story below.

Golden Goals: Visa checking out... BIV May 17-23, 2011