PHOENIX -- No part-owner ever received such a welcome from
his team.
|  | | Phoenix gave Wayne Grezky a warm welcome to the Coyotes organization. |
A sellout crowd of 16,210 dressed in white turned out Wednesday night for the "Welcome Wayne" celebration in honor of Wayne Gretzky's takeover of the Phoenix Coyotes hockey operations.
"The Great One" is a partner with principal owner Steve Ellman, who last Thursday completed the $88 million purchase of the franchise, an arduous, complicated process that took nearly a year.
To celebrate the takeover, the Coyotes staged their first regular-season "white out." Fans dressing in white for home playoff games is a tradition that dates to the mid-1980s, when the team played in Winnipeg.
Every fan received a white "Welcome Wayne" t-shirt bearing a photo of Gretzky on the back.
The glowing moon that rises to the rafters of America West Arena
before each game, as the Coyotes fans howl, read "99," the number
Gretzky wore as the greatest hockey player of all time.
In a ceremony before the game against Columbus, Gretzky donned a
Coyotes jersey bearing his name and number. He was introduced to
the wildly cheering fans by Ellman, a developer who still faces
major obstacles to get a new arena built for the franchise.
"Tonight officially marks the beginning of the Gretzky era in Phoenix," Ellman shouted.
Gretzky took the microphone and in his usual calm, unflappable
style, thanked the fans.
"This is going to be wonderful," he said. "We look forward to a long, illustrious career here. We know you guys are among the greatest fans in the league."
It was only the second sellout of the season for the Coyotes,
who expect to lose at least $20 million this year, playing in an
arena that has many limited-view seats. The other sellout was when
Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins came to town.
"I think it brings a whole new life to hockey here," said Dave Handler, a 35-year-old fan from nearby Mesa. "It seems to me everything Wayne Gretzky has done in his life he's succeeded in."
Actually, Gretzky has had some business failures, but those were outside of hockey.
He is the managing partner of the Coyotes and will oversee all hockey operations. Less than 48 hours after the new ownership took over, general manager Bobby Smith was fired and replaced by Cliff Fletcher.
Gretzky faces some tough decisions. He is negotiating with
holdout goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, and probably will either trade
him or the team's All-Star goalie Sean Burke.
Before Wednesday's ceremony, Gretzky said he spoke with
Khabibulin and his agent, but he also said he talked with Burke's
agent about a contract extension.
Gretzky also has had preliminary talks with Jeremy Roenick about a new contract.
With a shortage of cash, the Coyotes hardly can afford to re-sign Roenick and keep Keith Tkachuk, who makes $8.3 million this season and will require a new contract next fall.
"I hope to build a team around Keith Tkachuk," Gretzky said.
"I've said that from Day 1."
But is that realistic? Gretzky just smiled when asked if the new
ownership, which barely scraped together enough money to buy the
team and still faces a battle with the Scottsdale City Council over
the new arena, has enough resources to do what he wants to do.
"We'll see in time," he said.
Gretzky said the main thing is to have a goal and the tenacity
to keep working toward it.
"We're here to build a championship," he said. "What we have
to do is have a plan, have a vision. We've been sitting down and
going over that the last five days. You have to believe in your
plan and you have to believe in what you want to do to make your
organization a championship caliber team."
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AUDIO VIDEO
 Shane Doan is ready for the beginning of the Wayne Gretzky era with the Coyotes.
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