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Return of the Whalers? Howard Baldwin thinks he can make it happen (again)

Ron Francis

All right so we got the Winnipeg Jets to come back in some way, now how about the Hartford Whalers? If it were up to former Whalers owner Howard Baldwin he’d put his new five-year plan into action to make it work.

Baldwin showed off his plan to business leaders in Hartford to help him and the city of Hartford to help realize their (or his) dreams or bringing the NHL back to town. Before you get too excited, as Rick Green of the Hartford Courant notes, the plan involves a lot of upheaval in the city and more importantly, a lot of public money to make it happen. Highlights of his plan include:


  • $105 million in public funds to renovate the XL Center
  • Support from businesses in Hartford to get things rolling
  • Support from the Governor of Connecticut to move ahead

Sounds like a stacked deck against Baldwin’s plans and it’s probably for good reason. While we’re all extremely nostalgic about the Whalers now, getting full support to a team these days in a new economy to get 18,000 fans a night in a small New England town might prove difficult. Never mind that they’d still need a team to want to move there.

While Baldwin has been busting his tail to make Hartford look like the go-to place for hockey, it’s not as if this is the same situation as Winnipeg. Yes, the Connecticut Whale are there now and keeping the dream alive, but averaging just over 4,700 a game won’t instill confidence that things could work. Compare that to the Manitoba Moose who drew over 8,000 a game last year before getting the Jets this season.

We’d love to see the Whalers reborn, we’re shameless for 80s-90s nostalgia here, this plan just doesn’t make it feel very likely given that you’re asking the people to give up so much money to make it happen.