Hockey History

Flights of Fancy – Pro Hockey predicted for Hamilton in 1991
City looking into GHL and NAHL franchises but shut out again

Professional hockey could have come to Hamilton in 1991, predicted one of the sport’s top consultants late in 1990.

But an NHL club was not in the works. According to Gerry Patterson, who was working at the time in getting the city a big-league franchise, he said representatives from the Global Hockey League and the North American Hockey League were interested in putting teams into Copps Coliseum.

“I would say both leagues look to Hamilton as the mainstay in their leagues,” Patterson was quoted as saying in the Hamilton Spectator in December of 1990. “A Hamilton hockey league franchise could mean more problems for the NHL based on their ‘no’ answer to the territorial rights issue would have been had they said ‘yes’ to us.”

Hamilton had long been shut out of getting an NHL club because of its proximity to both the Toronto and Buffalo markets, but Patterson had hinted that Labatt’s Brewery could be involved in this transaction.

Working for the city on acquiring a major franchise, Patterson added Hamilton had little hope of either getting an existing NHL club or one in an expansion move.

“The message is loud and clear,” he said. “Our only opportunity for the NHL will be the transfer of a Canadian team to Hamilton. The two prospects are simply Winnipeg and Quebec.”

Both the Jets and the Nordics were moved not long after to what the NHL considered larger markets, leaving two less Canadian cities in the league.

Hamilton mayor Bob Morrow was also supportive of a professional club.

”The city is open for business,” said Mayor Morrow at the time. “I don’t think we can close the doors on the NHL but there are other opportunities that could be significant for us.”

The jury was out on Hamilton’s acquisition of an NHL club. Hartford Whaler President Emile Francis thought the city would be wise to pursue a club in 1994, while Edmonton GM Glen Sather said Hamilton had to do a better job at rallying for a franchise.
And Montreal GM Serge Savard believed Hamilton would get a club, but it would be difficult.

“I think they will eventually get it but right now there are too many strikes against it,” Savard mentioned. “For Hamilton it is difficult because even if they get a franchise it would be conditional because it is Toronto and Buffalo that hold the veto.”

And, as with other proposals to bring major hockey to Hamilton, the events late in 1990 were the same as the others with Hamilton left out as owners and teams moved south for what they felt were more lucrative markets.

The Global Hockey League was proposed in 1990 to compete with the NHL like the ill-fated WHA (World Hockey Association). It was to encompass several markets in North America and Europe, with Hamilton and Saskatoon the Canadian stops. But the financing was never there, and no more became of it.

The North American Hockey League (NAHL) was started in 1973 as a low-level professional circuit made up of teams in the US Northeast and Quebec. The NAHL shifted gears in the 1980s, focusing on junior hockey. Today the Texas-based league has 20 clubs across the US and into Canada in four divisions of Junior A competition.

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