Edmonton Oilers representatives meet with Hamilton Councillors. NHL discussion?

Councillors Jason Farr, Terry Whitehead, Lloyd Ferguson and Robert Pasuta met with Edmonton Oilers CEO Pat LaForge Thursday to discuss City issues like Pan Am, the NHL and the management of Copps Coliseum. The NHL in Hamilton? Don’t hold your breath. LaForge visited Hamilton last summer to help negotiate a deal to bring an NHL team to Hamilton. His consortium, the Katz group, wants to lock up NHL rights to Copps Coliseum for the next four years. If Hamilton doesn't have an NHL team by then, the Katz group will give the city $1 million. The city is still in the process of negotiating this deal. A million dollars if you don’t bring the NHL to Hamilton? We Hamiltonians are having trust issues currently with big corporations holding their end of the deal. Cough, cough US STEEL.

The NHL dream has been a part of Hamilton ever since Copps Coliseum was built, with opportunities coming and going for the last 20 years, you get an empty feeling thinking of all the less deserving teams that have been chosen ahead of Hamilton. Yes the modern day NHL has outgrown Copps Coliseum, but the questions are still there. 1991 Hamilton was in the running to gain a team; the NHL decided that San Jose and Tampa Bay are more deserving. Since then it has been a continuous process of cities who are less deserving being award franchises. Minnesota has had two chances at a franchise; the North Stars relocated to Dallas, but then got a 2^nd chance years later. Places like Nashville, Phoenix, Columbus and Carolina have all had their chance at an NHL franchise. Carolina even won the Stanley Cup in 2006, with no interest from the local fans. This would be a scary dream for Maple Leafs, a team down the QEW gaining a franchise that is already better than their local team, even before its come to Hamilton. Imagine if Carolina somehow in a twist of fate, moved to Hamilton, bringing the Stanley Cup to this city, we’d be in a much different place right now. But this will continue to be a dream, until our neighbors from Toronto are willing to take the handcuffs of this city and give us an opportunity to succeed, just like all the undeserving American NHL franchises.  With the recent stadium fiasco in this city, places like Buffalo and Toronto who in my opinion are the biggest lobbyists in keeping a franchise out of Hamilton, must be laughing. If we’re ever going to be considered for a franchise, a new arena would have to be built. Can we get the trust of the sports business back into this city and convince them to give us a 2^nd chance in doing it right this time? Can we come to an agreement on a location, funding, even a team name? While this city is in the midst of answering questions about the Ivor Wynne location, many of us can’t wait to put this stadium issue to rest, but rest assured the NHL theme isn’t far behind. The only positive you can look at is, perhaps we as a city have learned from the drawn out Pan Am games process, the next time around, nothing will be a surprise and hopefully we as a city can rally together to really put us on the map.