Manitoba won't subsidize NHL team: premier

Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger says the province is in a position to help support a National Hockey League franchise amid reports that it is working out a financial agreement with local businessmen that could pave the way to return a team to Winnipeg.

However, the premier made clear in a news conference Wednesday in Portage la Prairie, his government isn't going to help fund an NHL team. He said it's too early to say what the province might contribute financially if the National Hockey League returns to Winnipeg.

"We're not interested in any way subsidizing the team," the premier said under a barrage of questions from reporters. "The team is a completely private operation. The government's not going to be involved directly in any way on that."

However, Selinger added, the province has financially supported the renovation of the MTS Centre from the beginning and that will continue.

"We've always played a very important role in helping them get the new multi-use facility built,"  the premier said. "If there's something that might be considered on the facility part, that will be announced in due course."

Selinger told CBC News he has been in regular contact with True North Sports and Entertainment chairman Mark Chipman who heads up a group interested in moving the troubled Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg.

The Winnipeg Free Press reported Wednesday that True North is seeking help from the province to help manage the debt load that it carries on the MTS Centre as a way to free up cash.

The newspaper said the request from True North is being studied by the province and would likely be accepted. However, the value of the request is unknown, and it is also uncertain whether it involves a low or no-interest loan.

It is widely believed that the province would not cover the losses for a team, but would make improvements to the MTS Centre where it would ultimately play its games.

Private-sector investors put up $93 million and the province, city and federal government contributed more than $40 million for MTS Centre, which opened in the fall of 2004.

Winnipeg has been linked to the Thrashers recently as a potential new home for the beleaguered team.

The team's president Don Waddell said earlier this week that the team is exploring "all options" for new owners amid reports that those options included the group interested in moving the team to Winnipeg.

But co-owner Bruce Levenson, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and Waddell would not confirm a report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Thrashers owners are in negotiations with True North Sports and Entertainment.