Province sets factors for Saskatoon NHL team

REGINA -- Saskatchewan Party cabinet minister Ken Cheveldayoff has outlined a list of factors he said would be needed to make an NHL franchise in Saskatoon a reality.

"There'll be those that say it can happen, those that'll say that it can't happen, but four things indeed have to happen," said Cheveldayoff, who previously led the province's unfruitful feasibility study into a replacement for Mosaic Stadium in Regina.

"We have to have a building that's NHL ready," he said Monday. "We have to have a business community that's ready to support this initiative. We have to have individuals who are willing to buy season tickets for the long term. And the NHL has to want it to happen."

Cheveldayoff noted efforts by Western Hockey League founder Billy Hunter to bring a team to the city in the 1980s "had the first three, but he didn't have the fourth."

"That's the challenge that's going to be in front of any type of promoter or any type of business group that wants to put this together," the minister said. "We'll provide them with information and we'll try to be as helpful we can, but it will have to be done by the private sector ... It's very early to talk (about whether) there will be a franchise or not."

Cheveldayoff confirmed the government has been approached by a group interested in bringing an NHL team to Saskatoon, but he wouldn't elaborate about who might be involved. The group that has approached government is On Ice Management Inc., which is being led by Toronto-based John Graham, who has brokered a number of successful ventures to bring pre-season NHL games to Saskatoon, a number of sources say.

"The government is not leading this thing in any way, shape or form," Cheveldayoff said. "This is a private-sector-led initiative - people have contacted the government and said they're very interested in putting forward an initiative that involves Saskatoon and the NHL and very recently we all learned that the NHL is interested in the Saskatoon market and is asking a lot of questions."

The resurrection of the Winnipeg Jets and the business model involved with that team "changes things substantially" for Saskatchewan's chances, especially considering the economic boom in the province, he continued.

"I think the NHL is looking across North America and saying, 'Where's the strongest economy?' and they're seeing that it is indeed Saskatchewan," he said.

"I think what's happening in Winnipeg has really changed the economic modelling," he continued.

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Province sets factors for Saskatoon NHL team