Under New Ownership, Atlanta Thrashers Will Head to Canada

(NewsCore) - Winnipeg-based True North Sports and Entertainment announced Tuesday the purchase of the Atlanta Thrashers, which will result in the NHL's return to the Canadian city next season.

"I am excited beyond words to announce our purchase of the Atlanta Thrashers," Mark Chipman, the chairman of True North's board, said at a press conference. "We received the call we've long been waiting for."

Chipman, along with Canadian billionaire David Thomson, had been in negotiations to purchase the team since early May.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was on hand at the press conference in Winnipeg, and expressed excitement for the league's return to Manitoba province's capital city.

"It's nice to be back in Winnipeg after all these years," said Bettman. "Mark [Chipman] has been pursuing the NHL for a number of years, quietly and obviously, quite effectively. We get to be back in a place we wish we had never left in 1996."

The Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix and became the Coyotes in 1996. It is unclear whether the team will again be called the Jets, according to the Winnipeg Free Press.

The sale will not become final until a June 21 vote by the NHL's board of governors. Three-fourths of the owners must approve the sale while a simple majority is required to approve relocation.

Thrashers owners Bruce Levenson and Michael Gearon, who head Atlanta Spirit LLC and also own the NBA's Hawks, said they sought out potential investors in a bid to keep the team in Atlanta.

"We hired an investment banking firm to seek out potential investors with the expressed goal of finding someone who would keep the team here in Atlanta," the two said in a statement.

"In recent months, we openly indicated a growing urgency to secure assistance in off-setting our operating losses in hopes that our public plea would produce investors who, to that point, had eluded us. After extensive effort, nobody has come forward. As a result, we had no choice but to explore the investment option presented to us by the NHL in the form of True North Sports and Entertainment."

Levenson and Gearon called it "extremely disappointing" to see the NHL leave Atlanta for the second time. The Flames moved from Atlanta to Calgary in 1980 after eight years.

The Thrashers were an expansion franchise in 1999, but only made the playoffs once, resulting in a sweep at the hands of the New York Rangers in 2007.

Winnipeg will play in the Southeast Division in the Eastern Conference during the 2011-2012 season, but the league is expected to realign its conferences at the end of next season, TSN reported.

The move will be the first relocation of an NHL franchise since 1997, when the Hartford Whalers became the Carolina Hurricanes.