Why the Hartford Whalers can work again
From the integration of the World Hockey Association into the league in 1979 to the team’s untimely demise in 1997, the Hartford Whalers made outsized contributions to hockey culture, especially given their relative lack of success on the ice.
They had the best logo and it still sells to this day. They had the best goal song and people still remix it to this day. They are unintentionally responsible for ESPN as we know it. Quite an impact for a team that won just a single playoff series in 17 years.
It is time to bring back the Whale once again. This blog will build the case for the Whalers to make their return to Hartford.
We’ll expand on each of the points below in later posts and attempt to take a clear-eyed look at the obstacles to the club’s return, carefully considering the ways that a would-be Whaler franchise could overcome them.
Here are some of the biggest reasons why it’s time to Save the Whale for once and for all:
Hartford fans supported their team.
This one will make more than a few hockey fans do a double-take, because the common (inaccurate) impression of teams gone by like the Whalers and Nordiques is that they left because the local fans didn’t care and weren’t supportive.
The math just doesn’t agree with that assessment. The 1996-‘97 Hartford Whalers, the last iteration of the team to take the ice, drew 13,680 fans a night. Not an impressive figure until you consider the fact that the Hartford Civic Center only holds a shade over 14,000 fans a night for hockey — less than any current NHL arena by a minimum of several hundred seats.
On average, the Civic Center was 92.7% full on any given night in ’96-’97[1]. That’s a figure that would put the Whalers of 20 years ago ahead of eight current NHL franchises and roughly tied with a ninth, if compared to the 2018–19 season, the last not affected by COVID-19.
Now, you could argue that comparing the 96’-’97 stats to the modern day is unfair. After all, the ’96-’97 season was very clearly going to be Hartford’s last in the league. Ticket sales were somewhat boosted by the “Save the Whale” campaign that fans launched to rescue the team.
That’d be unfair as well, since the then-Whalers ownership (we’ll be talking about them quite a bit here) did just about all it could to depress ticket sales in the final year, from completely eliminating partial season ticket packages, raising ticket prices by an average of 20%, and upping the season ticket deposit price by 750%.
But fine. Let’s look at the rest of the 1990s anyways.
Some rough years, to be sure, but never at the bottom of the league for the year — and in most cases, a figure that wouldn’t be at the bottom of the league rankings from 2010–19.
That honor often belonged to the Carolina Hurricanes. It’s worth noting that the Whalers’ successor franchise ended the 2015–16 season playing to an average of 65.3% capacity — a lower figure than all of the numbers on this list — and frequently put up attendance numbers as bad as or worse than anything on this list.
Whaler enthusiasts point it out again and again, but it’s true: if attendance numbers are your gauge, Hartford’s no less deserving of a team than at least a quarter of the NHL, and that’s assuming that the New Whalers’ attendance figures remain as awful as the last ten years of the old franchise.
The Winnipeg Jets’ experience shows how much a second chance means to fans of a beloved team.
A reasonable person could look at the numbers above and conclude that the Whalers might not have drawn the absolute smallest crowds in the NHL, but that they were far from a cash cow. But who cares, as long as Whaler fans are dying to have a team again? Data suggests that at least one city that lost its team and got it back again understood what it lost: the Winnipeg Jets.
The Jets were routinely at the bottom of NHL attendance figures (both in raw number and percentage capacity terms) throughout the 1990s before they moved to Phoenix. Their final season in Winnipeg (’95-’96) saw the team draw even fewer fans a night than Hartford in an arena that could hold several hundred more.
Nonetheless, diehard hockey fans realized what went away, and when the team returned in 2011–12, it averaged 100% attendance capacity per night. As the team’s gotten better, the Jets have had even bigger sellout crowds, hitting an average of 102.1% of capacity in 2018–19. And dang, do they have such a fun fan atmosphere even outside the barn.
Hartford fans & potential investors in a future club should study the experience of True North Sports & Entertainment, the company that purchased the Atlanta Thrashers after 2011–12 and moved them to Winnipeg. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the league’s Board of Governors were impressed by the company’s low-key, no-nonsense approach to building the case for the New Jets.
The question remains: would the return of the Hartford Whalers inspire the same level of passion and confidence as the Winnipeg Jets did? At least one metric suggests the answer is yes.
Whalers gear consistently outsells competitors in the vintage category.
If you’ve ever walked around downtown West Hartford, your eyes have already seen what these statistics make clear: people love Hartford Whalers gear.
It’s easy to see why. The iconic 1970s design from Peter Good merged the whale’s tail with a W in such a fashion as to create negative space forming both an “H” for Hartford and two hockey sticks. Design fans still rejoice at the amount of awesome packed into this humble logo.
According to a May 2019 Bloomberg report, the Whalers are Fanatics, Inc’s top selling gear among defunct franchises. This is a company that sells Brooklyn Dodgers gear, so it’s no small feat that the Whalers are the top sellers.
The Whalers are still making money for their successors, too. The first night that the Carolina Hurricanes wore the old-school Whalers’ jerseys in 2019, the team sold over $200,000 of apparel that evening.
Indeed, one big potential obstacle to the Whalers’ return might just be the cash cow that their brand license is providing to their successors in Carolina.
It’s clear that Whalers gear is popular, and having a popular brand won’t hurt when it comes to making the franchise a profitable one.
The NHL’s salary cap-less league is a thing of the past.
The Hartford Whalers never played in an NHL with a salary cap. I repeat: the Hartford Whalers never played in an NHL with a salary cap. If you want the Whalers back, you should repeat this mantra ad nauseam too.
After the NHL’s 2004–05 lockout, the league instituted a salary cap, which today stands at $81.5 million per club, and a salary floor of around $60 million per club. Those who don’t remember the pre-salary cap era might not realize what an arms race free agency used to be or how enormous contracts could get.
Consider this: the Colorado Avalanche paid Joe Sakic $16.45 million in 1997–’98. That’s about a half million dollars more than Toronto’s forking over for Auston Matthews or Mitch Marner this year, and it’s not even adjusted for inflation.
Smaller market clubs like Hartford were bound to struggle in a structure like this. It’s wonderful that the current salary cap structure gives them an opportunity to compete.
If nothing else, the New Whalers would be operating on a much more level financial playing field than the first franchise did.
Connecticut has the best local and regional media in the country, hands down, and they’ve never stopped keeping the lights on for the Whalers’ return.
This is a) true and b) a thirsty attempt to get CT reporters to do even more stories about the Whalers coming back. Sorry?
Bring The Whalers Home To Hartford — Hartford Courant
What do you think? Is the idea of the NHL’s return to Hartford little more than a fever dream or a real opportunity waiting for investors to seize it?
Post your thoughts in the comments below and don’t forget to come back for more Whalers fun (and more Brass Bonanza!)
[1] Wikipedia’s statistics appear to measure the attendance against the old max hockey capacity of the Civic Center (15,635) or some figure thereabouts. For the sake of transparency, I’ve measured against the XL Center’s current hockey capacity of 14,750. Either way, the math comes out similarly…it’s often better than the Hurricanes’.
[2] Isn’t it worth noting that this was the year after the absolutely disastrous Ron Francis trade?
