That weird final WHA season (1978-79): How did it work?

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

This is actually really funny in how Gretzky was described at the time from Oiler GM Larry Gordon

The link I posted yesterday tells how Mark Messier ended up with the Indianapolis Racers for a 5-game trial. His dad knew head coach Pat Stapleton. Today, word comes that Stapleton passed away. Unreal.

 

[wetcoast]

The link I posted yesterday tells how Mark Messier ended up with the Indianapolis Racers for a 5-game trial. His dad knew head coach Pat Stapleton. Today, word comes that Stapleton passed away. Unreal.

Wow that is sad news.

 

[Tarantula]

Wow, just watched the entire 72 Summit series and saw a lot of Stapleton. Good Ole Whitey!

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

I just meant in the sense that Quebec, Edmonton, and Winnipeg were Canadian cities with long-established minor-pro and pro teams, with a guaranteed large and stable fanbase. Connecticut isn't necessarily a non-traditional market in that it's snowy and had a long hockey history, but much of New England's history (so I think) was in Boston. Then, Hartford wasn't a big place then (or now), and was sandwiched between New York and Boston. The "small market" and Canadian dollar-problems weren't really issues in the late-70s, since working-class people could easily afford pro hockey games then. As long as it was a Canadian city, you were set with enough fans.

I mean, history kind of shows that Hartford didn't pan out that well, attendance-wise. Of course, we could argue about whether that's because the team sucked or because of the market...

I could be wrong, but my impression was that the club often had modest attendance.

This is what's written on their franchise's Wiki article (no source given, so I dunno if it's accurate):

"The Whalers were never as successful in the NHL as they had been in the WHA, yet they attracted a decent fan base over the years, most living outside of Hartford which contributed to low attendance at home games many seasons."

"Hartford was the smallest American market in the NHL and was located on the traditional dividing line between the home territories for Boston and New York area teams. This limited the team's marketability. Additionally, for most of the Whalers' tenure as an NHL team, the Hartford Civic Center was one of the smallest arenas in the league. At its maximum, it seated just 15,635 for hockey. The team averaged over 14,000 fans only twice in its 15 years at the Civic Center. They averaged only 13,867 from 1980 to 1997."

I mean, an average of almost 14,000 isn't bad considering the team's struggles... would the Canucks have had attendance that high in the 80s?

Hartford was slightly bigger when they got the team, and a lot of the tickets were subsidized by local insurance companies. For reasons I cant recall, the insurance industry declined heavily in the 90s, which killed the team on both fronts (city gets smaller, no more subsidized tickets). IIRC their tickets were also more expensive than the rest of the league while the system worked in the 80s, not a problem if the cost is a writeoff or shared tickets for a company, but a killer for a fan paying out of pocket.

 

[Sanf]

Sweden had a similar (or perhaps identical) team colloquially called Vikingarna ("the Vikings"), effectively a B national team. Vikingarna and the Sisu team must have played each other a lot, I guess. That team (Vikingarna) is not my field of expertise at all but I did sweep in on its Swedish (and only) wiki page "Sveriges B-landslag i ishockey" now and there, in the 5th paragraph, it says they played teams from the WHA in March and December 1978, so the December games I guess was part of the 1978–79 WHA season? (or not)

Apparently they lost decisively against the Oilers (2-11) and the Nordiques (3-7) and more narrowly against the Jets (3-4).

Yep Vikingarna was similar team and they played lot against eachother. I don´t know the history of the program so can´t say how similar it was. Like said before I believe the USSR and CSSR (sort of B teams) games in WHA were planned, but the Finland game was just added to balance the season. So Vikingarna games wasn´t part of WHA regular season. Team Sisu also played against Nordiques and Jets, but those weren´t counted for WHA.

I avoid of calling the Finnish team a B-national team because it makes it sound like being second best group of players in Finland. It very rarely was. Often the team was full of youngish "prospects" for National team. But for example for one year Finnish club Ilves represented with the name of Team Sisu (- Risto Jalo, Raimo Summanen, Ville Siren and Raimo Helminen which already were with A-team) . Sometime in the early 70´s it almost turned into program of it´s own. Players of the team rarely were selected to play in "A-team". There were years when there was lot of players that weren´t playing in the "league". And some of them never did.

But I´m not specialist in this either and its going bit siderails from the topic.

 

[Uncle Rotter]

Yep. Oilers played against Sisu Team which was sort of development team of Finnish national team (sometimes called B national team. but thats not the best definition). This also makes a bit of trivia because Jari Kurri played in Sisu Team. So the first "official" game in NA for Jari Kurri wasn´t with Oilers, but against Oilers.

Here's the boxscore for that game:
WHA Oilers Page - 1978-79 Results

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

I wonder how the quality of hockey was with the WHA. FWIW, my uncle who was in the army at the time said that the WHA games were more entertaining..

but the declining audiences, and league folding I beg to differ. I’m sure the quality of hockey was on par with the NHL, but better? I question that statement.

 

[Tarantula]

I wonder how the quality of hockey was with the WHA. FWIW, my uncle who was in the army at the time said that the WHA games were more entertaining..

but the declining audiences, and league folding I beg to differ. I’m sure the quality of hockey was on par with the NHL, but better? I question that statement.

Quality and entertainment can have 2 very different meanings to different people.

Went down to Florida during the early spring of 1977. Met some kids my age from Alabama and they loved the Birmingham Bulls. I had hockey cards and watched some WHA hockey and mentioned some of the higher scoring players, nope, they knew all the brawlers and fighters. I guess that's what they found entertaining.

 

[Oheao]

It's kind of crazy thinking that back then the Boston Bruins, Hartford Whalers, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers all co-existed. That's quite a few times in a limited area.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

I wonder how the quality of hockey was with the WHA. FWIW, my uncle who was in the army at the time said that the WHA games were more entertaining..

but the declining audiences, and league folding I beg to differ. I’m sure the quality of hockey was on par with the NHL, but better? I question that statement.

Better in terms of talent? The depth of the teams was among the biggest differences in the leagues on the ice. Finances eventually was a sizable difference off the ice. But the WHA had talent and almost anytime there is a new sport, there is an initial peak of interest. However, the NHL was a superior product. That isn't to discount what the WHA achieved, however.

The WHA's existence gave players an option. I mentioned Bernie Parent's journey in a prior post. That was indicative of promise and frustration. The ages of players drafted affected both leagues. It was more carefree than the NHL which had a reputation for being staid. Perhaps there is an element of entertainment in that. But the NHL was in its post-expansion zone and there were noticeable gaps between much of the O6 and the newcomers. That changed in the mid-70s.

Seeing hockey in otherwise obscure markets had its advantages for the fan. San Diego playing Winnipeg or Quebec playing Birmingham was almost unthinkable. There were legendary fights which was part of the era. There was recognizable talent but I do think the WHA helped the sport grow in under utilized markets. Most new leagues, the USFL, the WFL, the ABA, the WHA have spurts. They come and go.

 

[wetcoast]

Don't see why you would consider Winnipeg any better of a market than Hartford.

Anyway, there was not going to be a merger without Hartford because of Howard Baldwin. Was in on the WHA from the start, founded the Whalers and was the league's best snake oil salesman. He was the president of the WHA and he was the main merger negotiator for the league.

People often look to Gretzky as being the greatest thing that ever came out of the wHA but I think this is the real reason Hartford was admitted into the nHL (with Gretzky being a byproduct)