By Bruce Berlet
HARTFORD, Conn. – Howard Baldwin peered down from the XL Center’s directors suite at an arena three-quarters full and broke into a wide smile.
“It’s a big night and a big step, but just one of many to come,” said Baldwin, the chairman and CEO of Whalers Sports and Entertainment. “It’s like a chapter, a big chapter of a journey that will continue.”
Baldwin, the former owner and managing general partner of the World Hockey Association’s New England Whalers and National Hockey League’s Hartford Whalers, has spent 10 months working toward trying to revitalize the local hockey marker in hopes of bringing the NHL back to Hartford.
It has been anything but an easy road, but when the Connecticut Whale, the rebranded name of the former Hartford Wolf Pack, skated onto the ice for the first time to the revived strains of “Brass Bonanza” and cheers of 13,089, a major hurdle has been cleared.
“It sure has been a road with a lot of speed bumps,” Baldwin said as the Whale made their debut against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. “But I guess we’re being tested to show that we really want it. I don’t know how you could possibly take over a team under more difficult circumstances, and that’s what makes this so much more rewarding.
“If you look at the nights where we’ve had a good date, like on Saturday night, we’ve done very well. We just have to get through this season, build up to the 7-to-10,000 (fans) on a more consistent basis, and then next season we’re do a lot more, believe it, because we’ll have time to lay down a base.”
Baldwin & Co. had hoped to take over the business operations of the Wolf Pack in the summer, but extended negotiations with Northland, AEG and Madison Square Garden prevented WS&E from assuming control until 21/2 weeks before the Wolf Pack began their 14th season on Oct. 8.
“The way it’s done now, you start selling in February for next season,” Baldwin said. “You lay your season ticket base down and your plan base down, and then the schedule comes out in August and you lay out your promotions and group sales for the first half of the season. We missed all of that this year.
“And I can guarantee we’ll have a better schedule next year. People have to have some compassion. It’s one thing to have 25 percent of the schedule in the first five weeks, but then a game on Super Bowl Sunday? Come on. But I just want to get the opening done, get these two games under our belt (the Whale hosts Adirondack on Sunday at 5 p.m.), and then we’ll attack a few other issues.
“The biggest thing is getting as many fannies in the seats as we can and lay a base for next year, when we will have had a full year the way normal teams are run. Then I think we’ll do what we’re doing tonight on a fairly regular basis.”
Among those on hand for the Whale’s grand opening was Baldwin’s 93-year-old mother, Rosie, who was in from Maine and watched from the executive suite. And six former Whalers – Garry Swain, Doug Roberts, Yvon Couriveau, Norm Barnes, Gerry McDonald and captain Russ Anderson – spent more than an hour signing autographs in the XL Center atrium that had thousands of fans in a serpentine line 90 minutes before the opening faceoff. Then the six participated in the ceremonial first puck drop.
Anderson, 55, has remained in the area since retiring from the Whalers in 1985. He took two years off and then sold cars for Richard Chevrolet in Cheshire for 20 years and is now semi-retired, working part-time for Longmeadow Motors Cars in Enfield.
Anderson attended some Wolf Pack games but couldn’t hide his enthusiasm for the birth of the Whale.
“I think this is really fantastic,” Anderson said. “To see all these fans, you can just tell the excitement is back. It’s just like when I was playing here and you’d walk in and see all the people.”
Anderson missed the Whalers Fan Fest in August because of a previous engagement and won’t be able to play with the Whalers alumni team in Hockey Fest 2011 at Rentschler Field in East Hartford on Feb. 11-23 because of pending hip surgery.
But Anderson stayed in Connecticut because of how he was treated in his short stint with the Whalers, who were in Hartford from 1979 until they left for North Carolina in 1997.
“I was only here a year-and-a-half, but the atmosphere was great,” Anderson said. “And I love this town, which is half the reason why I moved back (to Southington). They have great fans and great support for the team.”
Swain began working for WS&E in corporate sales two weeks ago and is trying to drum up as much interest and support for the team as possible.
“I’ve been going everywhere, and the response has been terrific,” Swain said between autographs. “It’s great to see so many people here. It’s like the old days. There was so much community interest, and that’s what we’re trying to get back. The (players) will be going into the community even more than they have been.
“We’re trying to do all we can to get it back where it was when the Whalers were here. Who knows, maybe in three or four years, we’re be back in the NHL.”
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