WHA Again??

[Falcons77]

Quebec City ? The NHL will shut down for at least a year when players and owners clash next fall over league costs, according to a former hockey great who signed the game's first million-dollar contract.

On a tour of North America in a bid to start a rival league, Bobby Hull says costs are soaring out of control. Players are sure to be locked out by owners next September, he said.

"The NHL is not going to be able to exist in their present setup," said Hull, who started the modern era of the millionaire hockey player in 1972 when he signed with the Winnipeg Jets, then of the World Hockey Association.

"The NHL is going to need a salary cap, they're going to need restructuring, they're going to need profit sharing. That's not going to take place between now and September of 2004. The kids don't want a salary cap and the owners say that's fine. They'll lock the doors."

Bobby Hull was in Quebec City on Tuesday to scout locations for a revived WHA. The league has no teams, owners or players but has named him commissioner.

Organizers of the new WHA hope to take advantage of NHL labour troubles by beginning play in the 2004-05 season. Hull said the league is even considering NHL cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas and Edmonton because of the potential of cancelled NHL seasons.

"We're not afraid to go there because there are not going to be any NHL teams in those places for a couple years," said Hull.

Hull, who will turn 65 in January, says the league hopes to have a dozen teams to begin play next year, around the same time as the NHL's looming labour war.

The new WHA has been dismissed by most hockey commentators as a pipe dream.

An NHL labour disruption could create a short-term opportunity for a new league, according to sports economist Rod Fort.

The league is likely to fail after a year or two unless it finds hotbeds of hockey that currently "do not have the best calibre of hockey they can afford," he said.

"It may be a good plan to make some money while the sun shines and it's always worth looking around to see if the NHL has become fat and slow and lazy," said Fort, an economist at Washington State University.

The first incarnation of the WHA began in 1972. The league survived for seven years with a wild, rough-and-tumble style of play. The league was hardly more stable in business operations but managed to lure star NHL players like Hull with huge salaries.

Hull was the first big steal for the WHA when the Winnipeg Jets signed him away from the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks in 1972 for the first seven-figure hockey contract. Nicknamed the Golden Jet, Hull had been a top NHL goal scorer and perennial all-star.

The WHA of the 1970s had several advantages that do not exist today, Fort said. In the 1970s the NHL was a small league that ignored major hockey markets and underpaid its players.

Now hockey players are paid millions and the NHL is "the most extended and expanded professional league in sports," Fort said.

"I doubt they will get any NHL players to jump ship. The situation doesn't seem the same to me as it was in the 70s."

[icehog]

I personally would welcome a new pro team in the Boston area.
I can't afford $50 a game for the nose bleed seats. I'd love to check out a new team with reasonable prices, like the NHL used to be.

Dave

Please check out www.HockeyTournaments.com
If looking to play in Mass., try www.EMRHL.com

[rt12]

Boys and Girls! I cannot wait until the WHA begins. I have been researching this since April.

Please come onto their message board. You will learn all you want to know about the WHA. I am rjt.
http://boards.hockeyattitude.com/index.php?showforum=36

[rt12]

The winter meetings are on the 9/10th. Supposedly, they are flying in all of the old stars.

[rt12]

Three franchises will be announced during their press conference today.