THE NHL/HELENE ELLIOTT : Clubs Consider Own Interest, Not That of Ticket Holders

NHL ticket refund plans that pay interest when you let the club hold your money aren’t as good a deal as they appear. The interest will be taxable and must be reported as income, so clubs will send 1099 forms to the IRS and to you, if you pick that option.

Welcome to the refund game. There’s no winner, only a search for the least of all evils.

If you’re a season-ticket holder and request a full refund for canceled games, in many cases you will lose your seating priority. If you tell the club to keep the money and pay you interest, you keep your priority but you’ll owe taxes. And if you want refunds as games are canceled, you had better be patient, because the NHL’s pace is deliberately slow.

Some clubs are making an art form of delaying payments. For example, the Detroit Red Wings decided to issue refunds at the end of each month. So far, they have returned money for only the two home games canceled in October. Four more home games were canceled Nov. 2 but the Wings will keep that money until Nov. 30, presumably in some sort of high-interest account. If they had been that shrewd when they went shopping for a goaltender last season, they might have won the Stanley Cup.

Options that give credit toward future purchases, such as the “Kings’ Dollars” plan, are worth considering. King season-seat or mini-plan holders can, instead of getting 6% interest, get scrip equal to 10% of the value of their package and use it at future King games, Forum events and at Forum concession stands. Kings’ Dollars are considered discounts and won’t be taxable. The Mighty Ducks and several other clubs also offer a discount option.

Of course, even if you choose a discount, the club still has your money.

Moral of the story: One way or another, they’re gonna get you.

BIG LOSERS IN SMALL CITIES

Canceling neutral-site games won’t mean so much in Denver, San Antonio and Minneapolis, where fans have the NBA or NFL for diversion. But major league events don’t come to Halifax or Saskatoon every day. This season, they won’t come at all.

Losing two games in Halifax and three in Saskatoon has disillusioned fans in those Canadian cities.

“People are so turned off by the whole labor thing, basically they’re not as upset as they would have been if the season started and then the games were canceled,” said Dave Whynacht, sports editor of the Halifax Daily News.

“Both games would have been sellouts (at the 9,770-seat Metro Centre). And we would have had Eric Lindros here (with the Philadelphia Flyers), but people figured (the lockout) was coming.

“We (sportswriters) are the most disappointed. That would have been a big night out for us.”

Halifax lost its minor league hockey team two years ago. The city got a Quebec Major Junior League team--the Mooseheads--this season and that’s some consolation. Fans last week got to see the Ottawa Senators’ Alexandre Daigle, who rejoined his junior team during the lockout.

“Instead of paying $40 for an NHL game, you can pay $10 for a Quebec major junior game,” Whynacht said.

Tickets hadn’t gone on sale in Halifax, but 4,000 three-game packages had been sold in Saskatoon. There’s a junior hockey team in town but the nearest professional sports team is 157 miles away in Regina, the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Saskatoon is sadly familiar with labor problems, having recently been hit by a strike by city workers. Losing its NHL games was a blow it didn’t need, but folks there long ago learned to take what comes and move on.

“I don’t think it came as a big shock here,” said Theresa Kirkpatrick, sports editor of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. “We’re surviving.”

DON’T CALL US, WE’LL CALL YOU

President Jack Quinn and General Manager Mike Keenan of the St. Louis Blues were laughed at when they tried to form a committee of “moderate” owners to urge Commissioner Gary Bettman to start the season as soon as possible.

Most executives blame the Blues for the rapid escalation of salaries--St. Louis’ payroll this season is a league-high $23 million--and want nothing to do with Quinn. Nor were folks lining up behind Keenan, who lost his credibility and his friends when he left the New York Rangers after winning the Stanley Cup.

A WHALE OF AN IDEA

Hartford Whaler General Manager Jim Rutherford said that using replacement players next season if this season is canceled is an option “that may very well happen in the long run.” He didn’t specify where players would come from.

He was quoted in the Hartford Courant as saying, “As I see this unfolding, it appears there will be a time where Mr. Bettman and Mr. (Bob) Goodenow (of the players’ union) try to make their deal. If in fact the season is canceled, I would think our next step would be in the off-season to do the same thing as the NFL (once tried), just unilaterally implementing our own system. The players who want to play will, and the ones that don’t will sue the owners. . . .

“I don’t think it’s something that would happen immediately, but I do believe that’s the way it will play out if there’s not some kind of agreement this year and some games played this year.”

Brian Burke, the NHL’s director of hockey operations, didn’t deny the idea had been brought up. However, he said, “It’s not something we’re willing to discuss at this point in time. We intend to reach an agreement with our union.”

SLAP SHOTS

Extradition proceedings against Alan Eagleson, the NHLPA’s former executive director, are expected to be initiated soon by the U.S. Justice Department. Eagleson was indicted by a grand jury last spring on 32 counts of racketeering, embezzlement and fraud and two more counts were added last summer. He has refused to surrender to U.S. authorities. A lawyer, he also faces disbarment in Canada for allegedly mishandling funds belonging to former clients.

Montreal Canadien General Manager Serge Savard on the lockout: “For the first time, I am afraid for the season, unless something gets done in the next 10 days.” . . . The NHL has laid off 20 employees and cut the pay of remaining staffers, including Bettman. There will be hockey at the Forum this season: Notre Dame, Maine, Princeton and Boston University will compete in the annual Freeze-Out Nov. 25 and 27.