Vancouver acquired its second “major league” hockey team Friday, and the Pacific National Exhibition board promptly offered it a home at the Pacific Coliseum.
Formal approval from the PNE board is still to come, however, and there is the possibility of a legal hassle with the Canucks, National Hockey League tenants at the Coliseum.
Rumors of a pending World Hockey Association franchise for Vancouver, which had been circulating for several weeks, became fact when local industrialist Jim Pattison announced at a press conference that he had purchased the Philadelphia Blazers for $1.9 million.
The new Vancouver Blazers, with Phil Watson as general manager and Johnny McKenzie as player-coach, will operate in the WHA in the 1973-74 season, if:
• Resources Minister Bob Williams gives his blessing to the terms of a contract between the Blazers and the PNE.
• The Canucks can't prove, in court, that they have exclusive rights for all professional hockey in the Coliseum.
Williams is being consulted because he is behind the provincial legislation restructuring the PNE board. If Williams' okay is forthcoming, the PNE board must muster a quorum of 10 for formal approval. They were two short at yesterday's meeting.
Canucks' director Coleman E. Hall said he had turned over the club's contract with the PNE to his lawyers, who will “examine every facet” of the agreement to see if there are grounds for legal action.
The PNE claims that the agreement gives the Canucks exclusive use of the arena only for NHL hockey, but the Canucks say that a subsequent letter from then-president Charles Jaggs of the PNE gave them the rights to all professional hockey in the building.
The contract with the Canucks extends until 1983, but Williams said the provincial legislation calls for a renegotiation. Aid. Jack Volrich, secretary of the PNE board, said that he understands the legislation will be made effective Sept. 30.
Neither Williams nor the PNE board expressed concern over the Jaggs letter.
Contract terms, not announced, are expected to bring the PNE about $502,000 next year. This compares with $354,000 from the Canucks last season. Mayor Art Phillips, now serving as PNE board chairman, and Pattison said they had agreed to the terms.
The Canucks grossed $3.3 million for 39 regular home games and three exhibition games last season, according to Jack Lee, PNE public relations man.
The NHL team has announced a 50 cent hike in prices for “choice” seats next season—everything but the upper blues. The Blazers' prices, Pattison said, will be $6.50 for the reds, $5 for the lower blues, $3.50 for the upper blues, and $2.50 for standing room.
Pattison promised that anyone purchasing tickets before June 30 of this year will receive a 15 percent discount.
Vancouver's newest hockey after the two of them flew in here Thursday night, is said to call for $100,000 a year.
For his $1.9 million, Pattison gets the franchise and 28 players, plus the rights to 60 protected players. They do not include goaltender Bernie Parent or forward Derek Sanderson, who both had multimillion deals with the Blazers which fell through.
Parent is now a free agent as far as the WHA is concerned and is reported to be bickering with Toronto Maple Leafs, who have his NHL rights, but Watson said yesterday that “you're going to be seeing Parent next season.”
Transfer of the franchise was approved by the WHA trustees Thursday, and league president Gary Davidson said in Santa Ana, Calif., that Vancouver would become part of the leagues Western Division with Edmonton, Winnipeg, Los Angeles, Minnesota and either Houston or Chicago.
One of the latter two cities—probably Chicago—will move to the Eastern Division.
The WHA will be meeting next week in Toronto and will conduct its amateur draft on Friday. The NHL draft of the same junior players is scheduled for Tuesday of next week in Montreal.
It remains to be seen whether Pattison will engage in a bidding war with the Canucks for the same players.