Scouts Off-Ice Notes: March, 1976

Way more detail than you need about the Scouts slowly falling apart:

• The season ticket drive to save the Scouts “officially launched (March 1^st) by Mayor Charles B. Wheeler, Jr., at a breakfast for business and civic leaders at the Plaza Inn…The turnout…was smaller than expected, but several firms pledged to double their season ticket orders and now solicitations will continue on an individual basis.” –Joe McGuff, 3/2 Star

• “I will agree that from the standpoint of sales, promotions and educating the public to the game the Scouts overall have been less than efficient.” –Joe McGuff, 3/2 Star

• On March 10 ^th came word that the NHL had done an about face and would loan the Scouts money after all. The league loaned $300,000 and the Scouts ownership group scraped together another $100,000 in order to allow the Scouts to finish the season. “The total appearances of the league are best served by the arrangement,” said NHL president Clarence Campbell, meaning they didn’t want to suffer the embarrassment of a team folding mid-season. (3/10 Times)

• By March 11 ^th, it was already apparent the ticket drive was a mess. Scouts president Edwin Thompson was under the impression that Henry Bloch, president of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, was in charge of the drive. Bloch was not. It turned out no one was running the ticket drive. Joe McGuff wrote, “…the members of the Scouts organization cannot expect someone else to do all of their work while they watch. The drive will not run itself and since the Scouts have the most to gain from it they had better start worrying about such things as having a chairman.” (3/11 Star)

• Lots of good info in Joe McGuff’s March 23 ^rd “Sporting Comment:” “Edwin Thompson…has said that the present owners cannot operate beyond April 15 without a season ticket sale of 8,000. Yesterday Mayor Charles B. Wheeler, Jr., called on the National Hockey League to clarify the status of the franchise and made it clear that the business community is not going to make a substantial dollar commitment unless there are assurances of stability in the ownership situation. In brief, Thompson says he cannot continue without a major sale of season tickets, the mayor is saying the tickets cannot be sold for a team that may or may not be here. The ticket drive started slowly and has come to a standstill…The Scouts and the business community are blaming each other for the failure of the drive…it is apparent that if the franchise is to be saved for Kansas City new ownership must be developed…The Scouts still owe the league $4,250,000 for the franchise and when the interest is added the figure exceeds $5 million. They owe the St. Louis Blues $800,000 for territorial rights. The Scouts recently borrowed $300,000 from the league, they are not current on the rent at Kemper Arena and they have other debts…the crowd of 16,219 last Saturday was significant. All tickets were priced at $2 so management did not make a profit from the promotion, but the size of the crowd shows that there is a strong base of hockey interest. If the public has no interest a promoter can give away his product and no one will come.”

• On March 24 ^th the Times published the below look at Scouts fans.



• March 27^th brought the first mention of Denver as a potential landing spot for the Scouts. “We have also been contacted by representatives from Cleveland and Miami, Florida,” said Edwin Thompson. (3/27 Times)

• The NBA Kansas City Kings were continually mentioned as a potential buyer that would keep the team in KC: “Of all the parties involved, only the Kings have made an offer, though the Scouts insist it is not a formal legalized bid. In any case, the Kings reportedly are willing to assume the Scouts’ liabilities, approximately $7 million, as the purchase price.” –Steve Marantz, 3/30 Star

• “Denver must be considered the strongest out-of-town contender. The Denver interest is headed by Carl Scheer, president and general manager of the Denver Nuggets basketball team…The likelihood of the Scouts leaving Kansas City increased dramatically when Scheer entered the picture.” –Steve Marantz, 3/30 Star

• The below columns ran on March 31^st following the last Scouts home game the night before. Thompson says the previous report that the Kings had made an offer to assume the Scouts debt was incorrect, and that the Scouts had made an offer to the Kings to sell for $5.5 million but hadn’t heard back. He also says, “What’s happened to us is very simple. Salaries have gone up 180 percent (since first applying for a team in 1971), and instead of averaging 9,000 or 10,000 persons a game we’re averaging 6,000 a game.”

Kansas City No Longer Being Considered says Steve Thompson of Bleacher Report

Here's another hockey writer saying Kansas City has left the picture in regards to gaining an NHL franchise. The focus of the article is Winnipeg and Canada in general, but author Steve Thompson has come up with what he believes are Gary Bettman and the NHL's four conditions for gaining a franchise:

1. Adequate fan support
2. A proper NHL-size arena
3. Credible investor(s)
4. No territorial conflicts

Thompson writes because of the first condition—fan support—Kansas City is no longer being considered. I asked Steve in the comments where he came up with the conditions; he responded here and said, in part, "Kansas City built a proper NHL arena (18,000+) and there was speculation that the Islanders would move there. The Islanders played a pre-season game there and drew under 10,000. Since then there has been no talk about Kansas City getting a team. The bad fan support turned off the NHL."

So that makes two recent columns stating that no one's talking about Kansas City anymore (see my previous post). Even if that's the case, the only mentions of the NHL coming to Kansas City come in the form of speculation from the media and fans, not from the NHL. Bettman's company line all along has been that they will protect current markets and expansion is not imminent. Nothing has changed in that regard.

Still Kickin'

Sorry for the long dry spell, sports fans. I lost the memory stick on which scans from the Kansas City Times and Star were stored, so I haven't been able to get to Scouts notes. I began the tedious process of combing microfilm for the SECOND time in order to wrap up the off-ice notes for the end of the '75-'76 season and the sale and transfer of the team. Still have more to look through at the library though, so it might be a ways off. Also, I've been spending free time delving into Kansas City baseball history over at my new blog. As for coverage of the potential for a new NHL team in KC, I'm just not all that interested in passing along rumors and speculation, and that's all there is at the moment.

I will direct you to this column from the Winnipeg Free Press. The author, Randy Turner, is admittedly bitter about Winnipeg losing their team and the NHL's practice of moving into "non-traditional" markets in the US, and his tone is off-putting. But here is the relevant passage from the column:

...it's obvious to anyone listening to what you can't hear that the NHL's Great American Experiment is dead. Do you notice that no one ever mentions Kansas City or Las Vegas as possible relocation sites anymore? Just a few months ago, all you ever heard was that those two cities were one-two on the NHL's list. Now? Not a peep. And Kansas City is still sitting there with a brand-new arena, dying for a team.

And you're more likely to read a story about Quebec City's preparation to return to the NHL than Las Vegas.

Of course, putting teams in Las Vegas or Kansas City was a pipe dream to begin with, but that never stopped the league from floating the idea or pundits from repeating the possibility, without taking into account the millions of dollars flushed down the toilet in places like Tampa, Phoenix, Nashville and Atlanta.

I really haven't noticed a drop-off in rumors about KC. I still see "peeps" on my "Kansas City NHL" Google news alert. But all the smoke with no fire is getting old.

Rivermen Staying In Peoria

Not that there was ever any reason to think they were coming to Kansas City, but the St. Louis Blues’ AHL affiliate, the Peoria Rivermen, are officially remaining in Peoria for the next five seasons. There is no evidence I’m aware of that AEG/Sprint Center made any attempts to lure the Rivermen to Kansas City. Blues blogger Andy Strickland claims “Kansas City and the Sprint Center were very hopeful the Rivermen would have eventually landed in K.C.,” but I have no idea where he’s getting that. Peoria Journal Star reporter Dave Eminian says, “They envy you, Peoria, in places like Des Moines, Iowa, Omaha, Neb., and Kansas City.” Eminian also writes that the Blues “check(ed) around for other options” before agreeing to extend their time in Peoria, but gives no specifics. In an email to me, Eminian wrote: “Kansas City’s venue is too new, too big and too costly to operate a minor-league team in. Sprint Center wants an NHL team.” If there was any lingering hope that AEG might pursue the AHL for Kansas City, the apparent lack of interest in the Blues affiliate puts that to rest. Are we too big for the AHL and too small for the NHL?

Scouts Uni Watch Membership Card

Uni Watch, one of my favorite websites, ran a Christmas-time raffle for various prizes. I was the lucky winner of a Uni Watch membership, which carries the awesome responsibility of choosing a jersey design, name and number to be featured on the back of the membership card. (You can see a gallery of card designs here.) The decision was actually an easy one for me - a Scouts jersey of course. Specifically, a #11 home jersey, a la my DIY project (that Uni Watch prez Paul Lukas featured on ESPN.com). She’s a beaut:

Greg “Puck Daddy” Wyshynski Supports NHL in KC

Four respected hockey bloggers took part in what host site Crash The Crease called the “Internet Hockey Summit” recently. The last topic covered was potential NHL expansion and relocation. Greg Wyshynski (the 99th most influential person in hockey, don’t ya know) of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy was the only one to mention Kansas City. Unlike most hockey scribes, Wyshynski “would like to see a team in Kansas City” (by way of expansion).

Scouts & Capitals Tour of Japan, April 1976

If you're interested in the Scouts, you may know that they ended their final season with a then-record 27 game winless streak. So what would you say if I told you the Scouts won the last game they ever played?

Turns out the Scouts weren't quite done at the conclusion of the '75-'76 regular season: They had a four-game exhibition tour to play with the Washington Capitals in Japan in mid-April. It was the first time the NHL had gone to Japan, and the curious Japanese onlookers were treated to the two newest and worst teams in the league. In 2008, Guy Charron told NHL.com, "Basically, the two teams they selected...had to be pretty well out of the playoffs by a certain time."

The Scouts dropped the first three games (the first two played in Sapporo, the third in Tokyo). That means the team actually managed to run the winless streak up to an unofficial 30 games before winning the final game, played in Tokyo, 4-2. The players were awarded with watches for their victory. Here are summaries for games 2, 3 and 4:




Related article: "Capitals, Scouts Received Rare Shot at April Hockey"