Baldwin is
starting to take some more concrete steps to drum up interest. There was a players' reunion on Saturday (including Gordie Howe, Ron Francis and Kevin Dineen among others) that apparently was quite well-attended:
Jonathan Baum wrote:
Thing is, Whalers fans (including this one), for better or worse, seemingly refuse to give up hope that someday, somehow, the NHL will return to the Nutmeg State.
And that’s what team founder/former team owner Howard Baldwin is counting on.
Baldwin has moved back to Hartford and brought the Whalers name and brand back to the forefront. He hired a staff and opened offices for his Whalers Sports & Entertainment venture. There have been booster club events, various website and online shop launches and other proclamations around reinvigorating this hockey market.
But bigger steps are being taken.
The weekend began with the Whalers Golf Classic and was followed by an Arthritis Foundation Dinner, both of which gave fans the opportunity to hang with former players and coaches. The price tags were high for these events, but Saturday’s Fan Fest was just $5 admission (donated to charity), plus various fees for some autographs (there also were free autographs available from all but Howe).
Publicly, Baldwin said he’d be satisfied with 1,000 attendees, but that he was hoping for 2,000 or 3,000.
He got upwards of 4,500. Baldwin and wife/business partner Karen were beyond pleased as they observed the events around the concourse.
But the buzz began even before the gates opened at 11 a.m. ET.
“All these people lined up at 10 a.m. on an August morning,” one fan said of the lengthy queue of fans waiting to get in. “Someone should email a pic of this to Bettman.”
For now I'm just glad to see Whaler merchandise among the Vintage™ NHL collections... for a long time it was conspicuously absent while the trade-mark wasn't licensed to the NHL. They're even
finally one of the vintage options in EA 2011. Though lately I've been rocking a California Golden Seals T-shirt which has increased my awesome factor by three.