Much of the fabric of Winnipeg has been altered and advanced over the past 15 years, but one thread has remained constant: A deep passion and desire for NHL hockey.
That was never more evident than in the aftermath of the May 31 announcement that True North Sports & Entertainment had purchased the Atlanta Thrashers with the intention of moving the club to Manitoba's capital.
In order to prove the market's viability, new ownership quickly set out, some said optimistically, to sell 13,000 season ticket packages. They did so in 72 hours. The tickets made available to the general public were swept up in 17 minutes. The waiting list, which needed to be capped, is 8,000 deep.
“I didn't really have any doubt the community would support the team, but I had no idea there would be that kind of outpouring,” said Mark Chipman, chairman of True North and the man who worked diligently behind the scenes to make the relocation possible.
The Jets have landed again and if conditions remain stable it will be a long, smooth run.
The Canadian dollar, which sat at 73 cents versus its U.S. counterpart 15 years ago, is now strong.
The MTS Center, a building Chipman's company built in 2004, is a vast improvement over the outdated Winnipeg Arena the team used to call home.
The city's population is 10.5 percent higher (684,100 in 1996/764,200 in 2011), but the unemployment rate is 2.5 percent lower (7.9 in 1996/5.4 in 2011).
“The level of economic activity in recent years has been quite strong, so that's given people a lot of confidence,” said Phil Cyrenne, the economics department chair at the University of Winnipeg.
And there's another reason to bank on the long-term viability of the Jets Version 2.0. Small market or large, it's ultimately on-ice success that puts butts in seats and draws corporate dollars. The new Winnipeg outfit is set up to be competitive now and, more importantly, a contender down the road. (Such a proclamation is sure to make fans in Atlanta, where a single playoff victory eluded the team in its 11-year existence, cringe.)
The club's core is a young one. Of the 2010-11 Thrashers' top 10 scorers, led by 25-year-old captain Andrew Ladd, only two were older than 26. And more talent is on the way with a bevy of high-end prospects and an owner with the deep pockets needed to woo – and keep – free agents.
“I'm pleased with where we are right now, particularly because we bought a good hockey team,” Chipman said. “One of the real attractive features of Atlanta was the strength of their back end, the goaltending and the youth.”
There also now exists a salary cap within the NHL, which has helped create, at least in theory, a level of league-wide parity.
“There's a feeling in Winnipeg now that the team can actually make the playoffs,” Cyrenne said. “If it was a case the city could afford a team, but it's always going to be in the bottom half and never make the playoffs, people wouldn't be nearly as excited. Fans don't want to go out to see their team get shellacked every game.”
It's the NHL's new financial landscape that has helped create varying levels of realistic talk about further repatriation or expansion into Canada, with southwestern Ontario, Hamilton, Toronto and, with most fervor of late, Quebec City (from which the Nordiques left for Colorado in 1995) all tabbed as destinations.
The excitement of new NHL possibilities in Canada ran alongside a season that saw that Vancouver Canucks take the league's best record into the playoffs before falling a single victory short of championship. A blow to fans wishing to see the Stanley Cup join the Jets back North of the 49th.
With the buzz of Canadian successes on and off the ice, hockey at it's highest level has never been more popular. That comes in large part from an ever-growing and always-evolving constant media presence.
“If you took out the 15 years (since the Jets left) it would look as though hockey had catapulted itself into another stratosphere,” Chipman said. “It's been incremental, so you don't notice it starkly, but what's happened is interest in the game has grown dramatically. There was always a passion for it, but now there's a broader passion for it.”
There is, however, a fly in the ointment. At the grassroots level, there are harbingers of danger over the sport's future in its birthplace. The overall number of hockey players in Canada is dropping (there were 8,000 less players in 2009-10 – a total of 577,000 – than there were the previous year) and, if trends continue, there will be 30,000 less kids playing in the key range of 10- to 14-year-olds in a decade from now. The shift comes as a result of a multitude of reasons, including a shift in demographics, a lack of affordable ice and equipment and changing perceptions about the game.
What trickle-down impact will the addition of a seventh NHL franchise have? An increase in the pride and passion of a country can't hurt.
“Bringing a team back feels right to a lot of people in Canada,” Chipman said, “because we've been reminded over the past 15 years, in so many different ways, that this is our game.”
Edward Fraser graduated from the University of Western Ontario with an undergraduate degree in Media, Information and Technoculture and a Master's degree in Journalism. He currently works at Toronto-based magazine The Hockey News as the publication's managing editor.
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