#Patrick roy stanley cups pro
#Patrick roy stanley cups professional

I can’t honestly take credit for anything that happened. “Gary was a friend and I thought Colorado was a great spot for an NHL team. I voiced my support in the deal and so on and so forth, but I wasn’t the main guy - I just tried to help,” Tavares said. And the Nordiques were ultimately sold to COMSAT for $75 million and renamed the Colorado Avalanche. That chemistry, among many other things, helped push the sale along. “You know how sometimes people have chemistry and then others don’t? The chemistry with Charlie Lyons was good.”

“The Grizzlies, that worked, but what really worked for me was meeting with Charlie Lyons,” Webb said. Lane worked that deal with Tony Tavares, a veteran national sports executive who helped facilitate negotiations between the Nordiques, COMSAT executive Charlie Lyons and the NHL. They were looking to relocate to the U.S., and Nuggets ownership group COMSAT (Communications Satellite Corp.) was interested in acquiring another major league tenant as it eyed a new arena deal. Then came the Quebec Nordiques, who were playing in the NHL’s smallest market, coming off a lockout-shortened 30-13-5 season and surprising first-round exit from the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Grizzlies played to near-sellout crowds at McNichols, which held 16,061 for hockey, en route to winning the IHL championship. The 1994-95 hockey season in Denver was a great one. A year later, the Grizzlies had to leave town. So, betting on an untapped hockey market and gaining traction with Leiweke, Lane brokered a deal with Grizzlies owner Dave Elmore. What became the Pepsi Center was in the works. McNichols was built in 1975 but considered outdated at the time. Tim Leiweke, the Nuggets’ president at the time, was also in favor of adding a hockey team to McNichols because “he also understood that having two tenants would help him get a new arena,” Lane said.

It is without question that Denver International Airport was sucking up all the oxygen in the room,” he said. “If I had doubts it was probably because we had so much on our plate. Webb said he doesn’t remember today exactly how he felt about hockey in 1994. And he said, ‘No way, it’s just not going to be successful.'” “I said the Grizzlies will help us get the NHL back here. I told him we would make a bigger pie out of it,” Lane said. “(Webb) looked at it as splitting the existing sports pie market.

#Patrick roy stanley cups pro

With three pro franchises in town, as well as a successful brand of hockey down the road at the University of Denver, Webb wasn’t convinced the city would support more hockey.

Source: Forbes’ 2019 Business of Hockey and 2020 Business of Baseball rankingsĭenver already had the Broncos and the Nuggets, and baseball’s Colorado Rockies were in their second year as an MLB expansion team and drawing record crowds. Gary Lane was also in Miami Arena that night, reveling in the Stanley Cup victory. I have a little disappointment for those mayors who never had a chance to fly with their team after that (major-league) championship.” I thought that was the most special moment that was worth being elected mayor to do this. “We ran down on the ice, which in hindsight, I thought, ‘This is kind of silly, who is this black guy running around down here?'” Webb said in a phone interview. On this night, Webb became a true burgundy-and-blue Avalanche fan, like thousands of other Coloradans have become in the 25 years since the Avs became the Avs.

#Patrick roy stanley cups professional

And now, minutes after defenseman Uwe Krupp’s sudden-death winner clinched the Cup, Sakic, the Avs’ captain, was pouring champagne all over Denver’s mayor.Īny doubts Wellington may have once had about professional hockey making it in Denver had long since vanished. The Avalanche, in its first year of existence, had just swept the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final with a 1-0 three-overtime victory in Game 4. on June 11, 1996, Wellington Webb found himself in Joe Sakic’s crosshairs. Wearing a Patrick Roy jersey inside the Miami Arena visitors’ locker room around 1:30 a.m. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu