SportsCentury Gretzky: The Jets Had a Shot at #99?

[quackbeth]

Around the 6:50 mark...wow.

Shocked me to hear that...

FAR past the point now, but I can say now, Winnipeg...

NOW WAY you would have ever lost your team, even to someone as cruel and short-sighted as Bettman, if Gretzky was on it!

Why didn't the Jets sign him..they say here the Jets thought he was too expensive...is that the whole story? Does anyone else know something about this?

I just can't imagine a team NOT wanting to sign Gretzky...!

[jetsreborn]

you do realize that this was before he was known as the best in the world right? if the jets had known he was going to do what he did they would have signed him in a heartbeat.

[quackbeth]

But wasn't he famous as a sort of child-prodigy hockey player in Canada?

[dkehler]

According to Barry Shenkarow:

"It was before (NHL) expansion, early in 1978. Indianapolis was going to fold and Wayne Gretzky was going to become available. (Edmonton owner) Peter Pocklington had made an offer but Nelson Skalbania, who owned the Racers, called us and asked us if we wanted Gretzky. Well, we didn't know anything about hockey at the time. We didn't know if Wayne Gretzky was any good. We had no scouts, our GM at the time was Rudy Pilous and he wasn't high on Wayne, but we were in the midst of negotiations with John Ferguson to take over as GM and I said 'Fergie, should we be interested in Gretzky?'

"Well, Fergie just yelled 'Get him! Don't hesitate, just get him!' and so Michael (Gobuty) and I got on a plane and went to Indianapolis. Skalbania met us and told us what he wanted. He wanted half a million dollars cash. Well, we didn't know if we wanted to commit another half a million dollars. We didn't know if we were going to get into the NHL and we were already into this business for more than a million dollars. Our original $5,000 investment had grown to $125,000 in a year"

"So we offered Nelson a 1/8th interest in our franchise and $250,000 if he'd bring Gretzky to Winnipeg. We figured, heck, it's better to give him an eighth of something we aren't sure is worth anything than to shell out all the money. So Nelson turned to be and he said, 'No Barry, but I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll play you a game of backgammon. If I win, I get the Winnipeg Jets. If you win, you get Gretzky'

"Well, I wasn't going to do that. And it's funny. Later that day, Nelson and I played 10 games of backgammon and I won 9 of them. But I lost the first one. I'm glad I didn't take the bet."

[Guardian]

I wonder how thing would have turned out if Gretzky was a Jet.