Hockey History

Flights of Fancy – The 1983 Locke Proposal
1983 proposal to bring the NHL to Hamilton fades away quietly

Hamilton city council approved the plans for a $42 million, 18,000 seat arena-trade complex in 1981, to be built at the corner of York and Bay Streets.

After a 1983 announcement that the building would commence, there were NHL franchises available to come to Hamilton. One of particular interest was the Saint Louis Blues.

Owned by Ralston Purina, the Blues franchise was not making money, and the NHL board of governors did not want to bail it out as it has with the Cleveland Barons and the California Golden Seals. There was also the possibility that the governors could talk with Harold Ballard, then owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Knox family, owners of the Buffalo Sabres, about dropping the territorial claims for a franchise in Hamilton.

While there had been no interest locally of acquiring the ailing Blues club, in May of 1983 Shaklee Canada president Stephen Locke was working on a study to bring an NHL club to the city. With financial clout to start the project, Locke said his studies were highly positive to bring major league hockey to Hamilton.

“We arrived at 30,000 people coming to each game,” he said in a 1983 interview. “It was just unbelievable and this was just in Hamilton and Burlington, we didn’t look at anything else.’

Locke was to negotiate rights with Ballard in a September 1983 meeting:
“If I can work out a deal with Ballard, then I think the NHL will look favorable on a team for Hamilton,” Locke said. “I think Ballard and I can come to an understanding.”

Locke was looking for financing, but felt most could be found through his company, a subsidiary of a San Francisco-based nutritional and household products firm. He added he was hoping to have a team by 1985.

Locke said he was not concerned with Buffalo nixing the proposal. “Buffalo has never been able to prove it has the rights,” he said. “I don’t believe Buffalo will even be a factor. If it does become a factor, I’ll talk to Buffalo.”

But, as with the high-powered proposal of a year earlier to bring the Colorado Rockies to Hamilton to play in the arena that would eventually become Copps Coliseum, this attempt was not pursued and the proposal died quietly before the end of 1983.

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