An article from: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2011/05/31/sp-nhl-winnipeg.html
A press conference has been called for 11 a.m. CT in Winnipeg to announce a deal to move the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers to the Manitoba capital.
CBC News has learned the deal has been completed, pending NHL board of governors approval.
David Thomson, a potential co-owner of the team, travelled to Winnipeg from Toronto on Tuesday morning and True North Sports and Entertainment is hosting the media conference at the MTS Centre.
True North has been in negotiations with Atlanta Spirit, the owners of the Thrashers, for a number of weeks and stated for weeks that a formal announcement would be made as soon as the deal was finalized.
"It's a fantastic day for the city and I'm hoping, you know, for decades on, everybody will get to experience the NHL and the economic impact and the wonderful pride that comes with being a city that has the best of the best," said Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz, saying he learned the news officially at 6 a.m.
While the NHL return will have obvious economic benefits, that's not all it offers, he said.
"One thing that you can't measure is the feeling, the wonderful feeling that Winnipeggers and Manitobans will have today with the return of the NHL after a 15-year absence," Katz said.
Winnipeg has been without NHL hockey since the Jets moved to Phoenix and were renamed the Coyotes in 1996.
The Thrashers would become the second NHL franchise to leave Atlanta, which relinquished the Flames to Calgary in 1980.
David Thomson arrives at the James A. Richardson International Airport in Winnipeg on Tuesday.
Patrice Mousseau/CBC
The NHL was unable to find an owner who wants to keep the team in Atlanta. The Thrashers finished 25th in the 30-team league with a 34-36-12 record and missed the playoffs last season.The MTS Centre has been home to the American Hockey league's Manitoba Moose, the farm team for the NHL's Vancouver Canucks. Both the team and arena are owned by True North, whose ownership includes Thomson and chairman Mark Chipman.
Opened in 2004 with the Moose as its anchor tenant, the 15,000-seat MTS Centre cost $133.5 million to build, including $40.5 million in public money.
The arena is small by NHL standards with 15,015 seats — that's 1,159 fewer than Nassau Coliseum, where the New York Islanders play.
A long wait
It's been a long wait for Winnipeg hockey fans. Jet diehards kept the spirit of the team alive on websites and chatrooms, lobbying for a team and keeping track of Jets alumni like Bobby Hull, Thomas Steen and Dale Hawerchuk. Earlier this year, it appeared Winnipeg was about to get its own franchise back, but last-minute subsidies and deal-making kept the red-ink-stained Coyotes in Arizona.
Watch live
News conference in Winnipeg at 11 am CT or noon ET
But just as the Coyote door closed, the Thrasher one opened. The Atlanta-based team took to the ice as an expansion team in 1999, part of a rapid league expansion at the end of the last century to capture the elusive Sun Belt market. But the Thrashers made the playoffs just once, losing in four straight games to the New York Rangers in the first round in 2007. Many nights the Thrashers played in front of empty seats at Philips Arena, located downtown beside CNN headquarters and the Centennial Olympic Plaza.
Party in Winnipeg
Rounds of road hockey are being planned for the party at The Forks.
Meaghan Ketcheson/CBC
A celebration of the announcement is set for The Forks in downtown Winnipeg.
Paul Jordan, chief operating officer at the popular meeting place is getting it set with big-screen monitors to livestream the media conference from MTS Centre. There will also be bands, several games of road hockey and numerous porta-potties. The livestream will take place under the canopy next to the Forks Market while the live music will be on the larger Scotia Bank stage.
