When Winnipeg left

by James Mirtle on May 10, 2009 3:00 PM CDT Comment 13 comments

That gives you a good idea of the emotional impact that the Jets leaving Winnipeg had on the city almost exactly 14 years ago. Given the size of that city, it's very modest population growth in the interim and the explosion in NHL salaries the past decade, the decision to pass on building a new suite-filled arena was likely the right one.

And I don't believe we'll ever see an NHL team back in Winnipeg.

Gary Bettman had just started his tenure as league commissioner when the Jets left for Arizona and actually recently addressed the situations with franchise relocations under his watch.

Comments

It hurt. Bad. I wasn’t a Jets fan, but the presence of the NHL was enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcReB_o7o_4

At the 7 second mark in that video, I believe that’s Alex Steen crying. There’s an episode for “Hockey: A People’s History” dedicated to the era of movement and expansion. It wasn’t exactly chalk full of insight, but it helps you understand how much the team meant to the city. The public raised millions of dollars to keep the team here, but it wasn’t enough.

by wlittle on May 10, 2009 3:17 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I like John Loewen’s little paraphrasing of Reagan, “In the end, Winnipeg hasn’t changed. It is the NHL and professional hockey that has changed.”

Also, I love Eddie Olczyk complaing about the lack of nightlife in Winnipeg… I never hear anyone in the NFL complain in the same way about Green Bay.

by YZZR on May 10, 2009 3:26 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

From the video, Barry Shenkarow:

…we would move the team, so that we wouldn’t have ongoing losses…

How prescient.

"Without good hard work, it is impossible to reach the pinnacle of success." - Anatoli Tarasov

by PRC on May 10, 2009 3:52 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

From the “Related Videos,” you can also see the last ten seconds of the last game of the Winnipeg Jets and the send-off they got (as well as what must’ve been Kelly Hrudey’s first year as a broadcaster — dig the hair).

SNN Sports - A theoretical Oilers blog (i.e. theoretically, I write stuff there)

by Doogie2K on May 10, 2009 7:05 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

The Jets

Phoenix is in worse than the Jets were.

Seriously.

by Derek Zona on May 10, 2009 7:37 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

The nightlife in Phoenix-Scottsdale kicks ass though.

by LarsPGH on May 10, 2009 8:27 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

michael landsberg:

still an overconfident guido estrogen-ingesting child-devourer after all these years.

by passive_voice on May 11, 2009 3:37 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Too many memories of a similar situation one year later in Hartford. Never completely goes away.

The Litter Box - Your SBNation Florida Panthers Blogging Colossus

by Donny Rivette on May 11, 2009 8:23 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Bucks and pucks

As an adopted Winnipegger who remains a born-and-bred American from a large market in Detroit, I find it ironic that the ownership group blamed rising player salaries as opposed to the 63-cent Canadian dollar and playing in an antiquated arena. I’ll certainly grant you that player salaries jumped by a very significant margin in the early post-first-lockout seasons, but…Player scapegoating served as a convenient excuse. It’s a shame…

And I agree, James, unless a deep-pocketed owner steps up and has the financial wherewithal to either tweak the MTS Centre and/or accept potential day-to-day operational losses for the equity gains which salary-capped franchises receive.

by georgeums on May 11, 2009 10:40 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

That had to be very tough, obviously. If I remember, despite the tone of the reports in that video, wasn’t there still some hope for them afterward?

I remember there were a lot of reports that they were moving to the Twin Cities (I think? could be wrong), but then that fell through, so some false hope was generated and they ended up staying in Winnipeg for another year.

I can only imagine what it would be like to be yanked around like that as a die-hard fan. Must have been a terrible emotional roller coaster to watch a report like that one on TSN, then find yourself getting suckered back to the arena the next year, only to lose the team anyway.

by Make a play Whitner on May 11, 2009 2:32 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I believe Winnipeg is capable of housing a team

I understand James’s point about Winnipeg having trouble, but I just don’t think you can rule out the possibility. Winnipeg is a steady showing slow but steady growth and anyone who lives in the city can see the city expanding its building efforts a lot more than in the past. I can certainly see a NHL team in Winnipeg future and probably than many others would think.

by Illegal Curve on May 11, 2009 3:17 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I’m not convinced that Winnipeggers will consistently shell out the 60-70 dollars a ticket to make it go. I’d love to be wrong, but I’ve lived here a long time witnessing the contrary. One advantage Winnipeg might have is that the building is owned by the people behind the Moose. I can’t see an ownership group here that doesn’t include the True North people, so the revenues from concessions, suites and advertising would be available without going through a third party like Winnipeg Enterprises back in the bad old days.

The one other thing I sense is that whether through relocation or expansion, no Canadian city would get a team if there was the risk of drawing from the revenue sharing pool. A team here would definitely run that risk in bad times. It’s one thing to subsidize fledgling markets in the hopes of growth, but Canada’s not exactly an immature market for the NHL.

by Robert Cleave on May 11, 2009 6:55 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

A little perspective

Ah, Filmon, Thompson and Loewen. Three complete stooges with zero achievements to speak of. The end game here was part of a scam to help the Tories win the 1995 election – ultimately, the NDP needed to pick up four more suburban seats, so the Tories ended up not needing to do it. There was very little support for corporate welfare in Winnipeg, and yes, it now appears to have been the right decision.

Interesting who had the right perspective in that piece: the one guy who says the provincial and federal governments knew what was going to happen all along; and the girl who’s high on glue who says the money should go elsewhere in the community.

The present CBA is designed to prevent teams from falling into the kind of financial hole that would result in relocations – the NHL could have done this at any time and protected hockey in Canada, but it has chosen to protect teams in the Sun Belt…

by Hawerchuk on May 12, 2009 1:18 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs