Cal Nichols was a prominent Edmonton business leader, community builder and ambassador, whose passion for the Edmonton Oilers is credited with keeping the team in the city. Nichols died Saturday at the age of 84.
From hosting a 1996 ticket drive that more than doubled the franchise’s season ticket holders to raising millions from investors to keep the Oilers from being sold and relocated to Houston, the former head of the Edmonton Investors Group (EIG) is credited as the saviour of NHL hockey in the city.
“It is difficult to imagine that the Oilers would still be in Edmonton if not for Cal Nichols,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said Sunday in a statement posted online by the NHL.
“During the 1990s, Nichols stepped forward repeatedly to not only save the franchise from leaving the city that adores it, but to ensure its long-term stability and success.”
In 1997, then-owner Peter Pocklington hit financial turbulence and put the team up for sale. Leslie Alexander, then-owner of the NBA team the Houston Rockets, put an $82.5-million US bid on the team in early 1998.
Driven by his love for the team and a keen eye for business, Nichols rallied a group of 38 investors, almost all from Alberta, to buy the team for $110 million Cdn, putting in millions of his own money. The EIG’s bid was successful, making it the largest ownership group in the NHL.
EIG sold the franchise to current owner Daryl Katz in 2008.
Kevin Lowe, former Oilers defenceman and Hall of Fame inductee, told NHL.com that Nichols helped lay the foundation for today’s iteration of the team. Lowe, who became the team’s general manager in 2000, worked closely with Nichols throughout his tenure with the team in different management roles.
“He was the guy that put it all together and he was a dog on a bone,” Lowe said in the article, published on Sunday.
On March 13, 1998 — only nine hours before deadline — a $5-million deposit was submitted, keeping Nichols and his group of investors at the table.
“The thing almost didn’t get done because at the 11th hour they didn’t have the money,” Lowe said, “but it came together.”
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“Lots of people deserve acknowledgement but Cal for sure. The Oilers aren’t there, Rogers Place is not there, and Connor McDavid is not there. None of that happens without Cal’s leadership,” said Lowe.
Nichols is survived by wife Edna, children Kristine and Ken, five grandchildren and others whose lives he touched.
