The one and only official BRING BACK THE WHALE thread

[Dyed_Tie]

[MAD]Bring back the Whale!!![/MAD]

There is a Massachusettes based developer who owns about $90 million in real estate in Hartford.  I think $500 million total with all his company\'s investments.  He wants to build a new arena with the hopes of bringing back CT\'s own lovable losers the Hartford Whalers.  (I may be reading too far into this MA thing but, I think he may be pushing for the Whale to come back so that the Bruins could beat somebody.  :muahaha:  )

The state is currently in a crappy contract with MSG in which the Hartford Civic Center loses $4 million a year.  Granted it serves them right because the gov\'t leeched something like $20 million from the Whalers with the lease they made them sign for the Civic Center.  But still that $4 mil comes out of CT taxes.

Back in Jan. the Connecticut Development Authority (CDA) had the opportunity to get out of the horrible contract with MSG because of dips in AHL (Wolf Pack) attendance.  But instead of jumping on that they decided that they should run a study to examine if the Civic Center is being run in the best possible way.  They set a deadline for themselves to review this study in June.    

So the CDA got together to figure out who they should hire as a consultant to conduct this study.  (You\'ll notice the CDA doesn\'t really do anything but hire other people to do work for them).  So that\'s what started in January and here we are 3 months later (April 4th) and they decided they are going to hire Conventions, Sports & Leisure International, or CSL, of Plano, Texas.  It took them three months to figure out who to hire.  They are already sure and stating that they will miss their self-imposed June deadline for the study.  Our State government at work fellow CTers.  

The CDA held a televised meeting on April 3rd.  There were four members of the board there and 1 of them showed up after the three consulting firms already gave their presentations.  The woman who showed up late then decided that she couldn\'t vote on who she thought was best suited to do the study since she missed the presentations!!!!  No wonder this is taking so long.  

Can somebody explain to me how the CDA is still in charge of this project?  They have been costing the state millions of dollars a year and they get to start bullshit studies that they aren\'t even conducting and most of the board can\'t even show up to see the presentations of the consultants?  Fire these no-talent ass clowns!  I guess you have to chalk it up to corrupt politicians, something we have an abundance of here in CT.

They also have recently dumped $70 million into the Civic Center to fix the seating and add some large displays etc.  There is also supposed to be something like another $30 million going into it shortly.  So it\'s okay to dump $100 million into a half assed piece of garbage mall but a new arena that could be utilized by UCONN basketball, the WNBA, possibly the NBA, and the NHL and AHL is no good?  Hmmmm.  

Anyway here\'s some further reading about the current issue below.  Hope everybody made it through the ridiculously long post with out nodding off too many times.  So anybody with me for bringing the Whalers back?  I know Fitzy is he\'s still got a Whalers hat.  But how about some of you other CTers out there in breakfast-land?  Oh and always remember... EJ Sucks!!!  And Karmanos should die!!!!

Lawrence R. Gottesdiener talks the talk

Gottesdiener wants to buy an NHL team

Possibly the Penguins (courant)

Possibly the Penguins (ESPN)

[Wolfman]

I always found it simultaneously amusing and pathetic how so many bars in the Hartford area still have Whalers paraphernalia on the walls.

[crimsonknuckles]

hockey rules!!!!

[Lexington]

the bar i work at is hosting an event where whalers fans come and get drunk and talk about the whalers, which i found amusing and pathetic

[ChrisF]

The CT Yankee in San Francisco had Whalers paraphernalia on the walls. i broke out the whalers hat for those shows and kept it on for the rest of the tour. In Flagstaff someone wanted the Breakfast to play the Brass Bonanza.

[Lexington]

god bless america

[antbach]

I\'m a huge Bruins fan, but would definitely welcome another NHL franchise in Hartford. If they bring the Penguins and Little Sidney along for the ride I may have to go see them more than once in a season.

[Dyed_Tie]

I always found it simultaneously amusing and pathetic how so many bars in the Hartford area still have Whalers paraphernalia on the walls.

[EVIL]No more amusing and pathetic than the Bruins this year.[/EVIL]

The CT Yankee in San Francisco had Whalers paraphernalia on the walls. i broke out the whalers hat for those shows and kept it on for the rest of the tour. In Flagstaff someone wanted the Breakfast to play the Brass Bonanza.

That\'s pretty cool.  I\'d love to hear a rocked out version of the Brass Bonanza.  I was trying to figure it out on guitar just the other day.  Someone once said it sounded a Canadian Game Show theme, and that\'s a pretty accurate description.  

But anyway I guess what everybody has to remember is that the Whalers got screwed out of town by a scheming owner and corrupt politicians.  They were paying a shitty lease for a shitty arena.  It\'s not like there was complete apathy regarding the Whale when they left, there were a ton of season ticker holders.  Those people didn\'t move down to Carolina with them, they\'re still up here and they want their team back.  

Fans are what they are fans (short for fanatic).  Mostly everything they do regarding to what they are fanatic about is amusing and pathetic.  Look at Red Sox fans they\'re the most pathetic of the bunch WS win or no WS win.  And that\'s coming from a Red Sox fan!  We obsess about the team, call for managers heads, love players one day and hate them the next.

Also look at what we are doing right now.  We\'re on a band\'s message board.  We\'re always talking about the best version of a song played by an underground band that is just starting to put it all together.  We\'ll debate what teases are where, if Ahoy is a song or a part of a song, the difference between an track and a song, if we think a song ending is suitable for a song (see Love Lake thread), we have our own slang (see SER, Ser-head, brekkie, PAB, etc.), and we all seem to know what this band should be doing and what\'s best for them like we\'re all their tour managers and agents.  How\'s that for amusing and pathetic?  Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, right?  Now I\'m posting on this board too and have taken part in all above said activities so I\'m not condemning them in any way, actually I find it fun.  Just trying to give some insight on what can be considered amusing and pathetic.

[Dyed_Tie]

I may be :deadhorse but I figured I would add a poll to the thread...

[Dyed_Tie]

More Whalers news!!!

The Minnesota Wild visits to help Hartford bring back NHL

WHALER RALLY TONIGHT 4/13/06!!!

FANNIVERSARY/RALLY  

Our heartfelt thanks to Hartford21 (Northland) for making the Atrium available to us;  for hosting the event with all the hard work of your staff to make it happen; and, for discounted event parking ($5.00 from 5PM-11:30PM) at the Hartford21Parking Garage (formerly, Hartford Civic Center garage).  Garage locks up at midnight, so your car must be out by 11:45p.m., or you will have to come get it the next morning (and who knows what it would cost for overnight parking!). .  Hartford Distributors, Inc. has supported our event with the posters, banners, and radio spots.  Kudos to Northland and HDI from your grateful NHL fans!    

A special thanks to GO MEDIA for putting together the great press releases and coordinating same with all the media (publications and broadcasting).  Your yeoman effort and voluntary help have been invaluable.  

For all those who do not want to go into the Civic Center – head over to Coach’s (see below).  Janet Sayer, Immediate Past President, will be there early to host the Non-Civic Center Attendees until the event is over and others join you to continue the celebration and rally.  

When you arrive at the Atrium, among the handouts you’ll be given will be a door prize ticket (in tact, both sides of the ticket will be together).  At the end of the event, we will all head out to our favorite supporting restaurant/pub.  

All the supporters listed with a blue asterisk (*) will have a Booster Club Member present with a container for you to drop half your door prize ticket into.  At exactly 10PM , at every participating pub/restaurant, the Booster Club member will hold the door prize raffle.  You have to be present to win a prize.  

Directions to get to Hartford21 Atrium ( Hartford Civic Center ) appear at the end of this information.

Following are the restaurant/pub supporters of our FANniversary for April 13th.  Our thanks to each of them for their support in making this a Hartford effort, as well as providing Bud Light specials for the evening.  

Let’s all make a Whaler-Hartford Night of it, come into Hartford for dinner before the event (calling ahead to see if the supporting establishment takes reservations is a good idea), come to the event, and continue the celebration at any of those listed below for after the event.  Let’s rock Hartford !

If you have any bring some Whalers gear, and the event is free.  Show Connecticut we can still support the Whale!!!

PROGRAM 6-9PM :  

6:00PM            Guests Start Arriving  

6:00PM            Projection video of Whaler Highlights begins            

About 7PM       Larry Gottesdiener (Northland) welcomes everyone to the event  

About 7PM        Tony Harrington sings National Anthem  

7-8:30PM          Speakers                  

8:30PM             Larry Gottesdiener and Alan Victor thank everyone for coming  

8:40PM            Raffle Drawings held  

9:00PM            Guests invited to continue the Rally and celebration at all the local supporting establishments in downtown Hartford

Go here for complete list of supporting businesses

Hartford21 Atrium
Hartford Civic Center, One Civic Center Plaza , Hartford , CT 06103
 
From the North or South: Take I-91 to Exit 32B ( Trumbull Street ). Straight off the exit, the center is 6 lights on the right.

From the East: Take I-84 to Exit 50 ( Main Street ). Bear right past the Holiday Inn. Make a left at the light onto Main St. Make a right at the 2nd light onto Church Street . The center is at the next intersection.

From the West: Take I-84 to Exit 49 (Ann & High Street). Right off the exit onto High Street, make a left at the first light onto Church St . The center is at the next intersection

We\'d better hurry, because Kansas City sure is...

If you can, send Governor Rell an e-mail.  She was a staunch supporter of the Whalers staying while Johnny "Hot Tub" Rowland and Peter "if we get 11,000 season ticket holders we\'ll say we\'ll stay even though we really won\'t" Karmanos were trying to run them out of town.  Shoot her an e-mail (Governor.Rell@po.state.ct.us) and say you want them back.  Not to mention Speaker of the House Jim Amann (Jim.Amann@cga.ct.gov).  Amann is very vocal publically about bringing the NHL back to CT Jodi Rell...  not so much these days, most likely due to this being an election year.  Show your support for the Whale and hopefully she will become vocal about it in the near future.  

Remember CTers, your tax dollars are being wasted on that debacle of an arena/shopping mall called the Civic Center.  They\'re looking to put more money into it still and they are going to keep hosting the Rangers farm team there.  Why not let someone build a superior arena that can host a real professional team that never should have left (11,000+ season ticket holders in a 15,500 seat arena).  Let\'s go Whalers!!!