UPDATE: Ontario Hockey League's Plymouth Whalers moving to Flint

FLINT, MI -- The Ontario Hockey League's Plymouth Whalers have called a news conference for Wednesday morning, days after the new owners of Perani Arena say they ramped up talks with the league.

Perani owners have been furiously looking for a strong hockey franchise for their property.

Costa Papista, president of IMS USA Inc., said Tuesday, Jan. 13, officials from the ownership group will be on hand for the 11 a.m. event but declined to comment on the nature of the announcement.

Papista, who has been directly involved with several minor league hockey teams over the last two decades, said his group scrapped its bid earlier this month for a United States Hockey League team to play at Perani Arena as talks with the OHL ramped up.

Papista has repeatedly declined comment when asked if his group was in talks about acquiring the Whalers, and OHL spokesman Paul Krtoz declined comment on Friday, Jan. 10, when asked about talks between the league and IMS USA.

Just 10 days earlier, on Dec. 29, Krotz told The Flint Journal no applications for a franchise or application for a transfer of ownership had been submitted to the league.

The news conference will be at Compuware Arena in Plymouth, the longtime home of the Whalers. Whalers governor Mike Vellucci and owner Peter Karmanos are expected to be on hand along with IMS USA Inc., a Florida-based manufacturer of airtight doors that recently acquired Flint's Perani Arena.

Talk of Plymouth's departure has been ongoing for months, and for a while Chatham, Ont., was considered the frontrunner. Chatham-Kent officials have reportedly met with an undisclosed OHL team and talk of building a new arena in the municipality of more than 100,000 was forged. Attendance has been an issue in recent years for the Whalers, who are averaging less than 2,400 per game, 18th out of 20 in the OHL.

But Flint, a town of similar size with a even larger population, has an arena of suitable size (Perani can hold more than 4,000 for hockey) and IMS USA has pledged to renovate and update Perani, opened in 1969.

Upon IMS USA's announcement of purchasing Perani Arena in December, the current home of the Michigan Warriors of the Tier II junior North American Hockey League, the plan was to attract a team from the United States Hockey League or higher.

An application was promptly submitted to the USHL, and the league was set to review it this week during its winter meetings, before being withdrawn earlier this month. Papista has said IMS USA Inc. has been in talks with four separate hockey leagues about bringing a team to Flint.

The city of Flint and hockey go back several decades, including the well-known and popular Flint Generals of the former International Hockey League, United and Colonial hockey leagues. The Generals called Perani Arena, then known as IMA Sports Arena, home from 1969 to 1985 and 1993 to 2010, winning three championships.

The former IMA also played host to the Flint Bulldogs (1991-93) and Flint Spirits (1985-1990), who replaced the Generals after they departed a first time.

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Aaron McMann covers sports for The Flint Journal. Contact him: amcmann@mlive.com; on Twitter @AaronMcMann.