Post by Laurier on Jan 19, 2006 13:31:56 GMT -5
A decade later, Winnipeg pines for its NHL past
Today marks ten years since Jets flew for Arizona
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Font: * * * * Jeremy Sandler, National Post
Published: Thursday, January 19, 2006
Dustin Hladkyj was eight years old when the Jets left Winnipeg. Now 18, he remembers getting together with his family to roll coins -- $175 in all -- to donate to a save-the-Jets campaign.
"I just remember our whole family being crushed by the Jets leaving," says Hladkyj, who is now an Edmonton Oilers fan and whose brother Eric, 16, supports the Pittsburgh Penguins. "When they left, me and my brother, we bawled for a long time. I just remember rolling those coins and hoping the Jets would stay."
It was exactly 10 years ago today, in a Boston luxury hotel, that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman gave final approval to the transformation of Winnipeg's beloved Jets into desert dogs, a.k.a. the Phoenix Coyotes.
After years of a rumoured departure, two failed grassroots campaigns to keep them in the city and almost $7-million of public money spent on such efforts, Jan. 19, 1996, marked the point of no return.
Months before that date, Jets owner Barry Shenkarow had agreed to sell the team to American investors Richard Burke and Steve Gluckstern.
Still to come would be the final White-Out at Winnipeg Arena, a 4-1 playoff loss to Detroit in Game Six of a Western Conference quarter-final, after which the defeated home team emerged to salute fans who stayed in their seats, not wanting to leave.
"It was devastating," Susan Thompson, Winnipeg's mayor at the time, says of the team's departure. "It was part of our culture. It was part of our history. It was part of our fabric and because it was a Herculean effort to try and save the Jets -- I can remember Gary Bettman astonished at the extraordinary efforts that went on here to save the hockey team.
"When you saw little kids with their piggy banks and, of course, the corporations trying to figure out a way or the various levels of government all coming together, it was quite extraordinary."
Current mayor Sam Katz says even today, the team remains a huge part of the local consciousness. "It's still one of the most talked-about subjects. I probably get more e-mails on that over the balance of the year than any other subject."
The city moved on after the Jets did. The American Hockey League's Manitoba Moose were waiting in the wings, having debuted in 1994-95 as the Jets' death dance began.
Winnipeggers have embraced the Moose. In a fine display of sour grapes, many proclaim the Moose's brand of hockey superior to that in the NHL -- and the tickets are cheaper too.
Last year, the Moose moved from the Winnipeg Arena into the new MTS Centre in the city core and led the AHL in total attendance, with an average showing of 8,626 fans per game.
But the spectre of the Jets lives on. Darren Ford is the founder of Web site www.JetsOwner.com, which has as its mission returning the NHL to Winnipeg.
Ford, who says he has more than 2,000 hits a day on his site, believes the city's new arena, the NHL's new salary cap and the struggles of a number of U.S.-based teams -- the Coyotes included -- could make the city attractive to the league again.
There are obstacles. While some NHL teams in the U.S. might have trouble filling their rinks, other cities, such as Houston and Kansas City, Mo., have empty arenas and demographics that might hold greater appeal for the NHL. And there is no owner in sight for an NHL team in Winnipeg, where the Jets lost US$22-million over their last five years in the city.
Bill Daly, the NHL's deputy commissioner, says the league is in no hurry to rubber stamp a move back to Winnipeg as it did with the franchise's transfer 10 years ago.
"Winnipeg was a great NHL market with great fans. And our move out of Winnipeg was due to a variety of circumstances that may no longer exist," Daly wrote in an e-mail yesterday. "Having said that, we remain absolutely committed to the 30 NHL markets in which our clubs are now operating.
"We have no interest in having to relocate an existing franchise and we have no intention of further expanding in the foreseeable future."
For fans such as Ford, restoring the Jets is not just about hockey but about the status and stability of their city.
"I was just starting university, so I was kind of looking forward to having the NHL around at that stage, considering I had it all my childhood," says Ford, a sales representative, who was enrolled at the University of Winnipeg when the team decamped. "The city moved into a grim state, we lost both breweries, Molson and Labatt.
"A lot of people my age at that time wondered what the future held for us in Winnipeg."
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/sports/story.html?id=d369a582-4ba9-47d3-9bab-360c50cfb00e&p=2
Today marks ten years since Jets flew for Arizona
Article Tools
Printer friendly
Font: * * * * Jeremy Sandler, National Post
Published: Thursday, January 19, 2006
Dustin Hladkyj was eight years old when the Jets left Winnipeg. Now 18, he remembers getting together with his family to roll coins -- $175 in all -- to donate to a save-the-Jets campaign.
"I just remember our whole family being crushed by the Jets leaving," says Hladkyj, who is now an Edmonton Oilers fan and whose brother Eric, 16, supports the Pittsburgh Penguins. "When they left, me and my brother, we bawled for a long time. I just remember rolling those coins and hoping the Jets would stay."
It was exactly 10 years ago today, in a Boston luxury hotel, that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman gave final approval to the transformation of Winnipeg's beloved Jets into desert dogs, a.k.a. the Phoenix Coyotes.
After years of a rumoured departure, two failed grassroots campaigns to keep them in the city and almost $7-million of public money spent on such efforts, Jan. 19, 1996, marked the point of no return.
Months before that date, Jets owner Barry Shenkarow had agreed to sell the team to American investors Richard Burke and Steve Gluckstern.
Still to come would be the final White-Out at Winnipeg Arena, a 4-1 playoff loss to Detroit in Game Six of a Western Conference quarter-final, after which the defeated home team emerged to salute fans who stayed in their seats, not wanting to leave.
"It was devastating," Susan Thompson, Winnipeg's mayor at the time, says of the team's departure. "It was part of our culture. It was part of our history. It was part of our fabric and because it was a Herculean effort to try and save the Jets -- I can remember Gary Bettman astonished at the extraordinary efforts that went on here to save the hockey team.
"When you saw little kids with their piggy banks and, of course, the corporations trying to figure out a way or the various levels of government all coming together, it was quite extraordinary."
Current mayor Sam Katz says even today, the team remains a huge part of the local consciousness. "It's still one of the most talked-about subjects. I probably get more e-mails on that over the balance of the year than any other subject."
The city moved on after the Jets did. The American Hockey League's Manitoba Moose were waiting in the wings, having debuted in 1994-95 as the Jets' death dance began.
Winnipeggers have embraced the Moose. In a fine display of sour grapes, many proclaim the Moose's brand of hockey superior to that in the NHL -- and the tickets are cheaper too.
Last year, the Moose moved from the Winnipeg Arena into the new MTS Centre in the city core and led the AHL in total attendance, with an average showing of 8,626 fans per game.
But the spectre of the Jets lives on. Darren Ford is the founder of Web site www.JetsOwner.com, which has as its mission returning the NHL to Winnipeg.
Ford, who says he has more than 2,000 hits a day on his site, believes the city's new arena, the NHL's new salary cap and the struggles of a number of U.S.-based teams -- the Coyotes included -- could make the city attractive to the league again.
There are obstacles. While some NHL teams in the U.S. might have trouble filling their rinks, other cities, such as Houston and Kansas City, Mo., have empty arenas and demographics that might hold greater appeal for the NHL. And there is no owner in sight for an NHL team in Winnipeg, where the Jets lost US$22-million over their last five years in the city.
Bill Daly, the NHL's deputy commissioner, says the league is in no hurry to rubber stamp a move back to Winnipeg as it did with the franchise's transfer 10 years ago.
"Winnipeg was a great NHL market with great fans. And our move out of Winnipeg was due to a variety of circumstances that may no longer exist," Daly wrote in an e-mail yesterday. "Having said that, we remain absolutely committed to the 30 NHL markets in which our clubs are now operating.
"We have no interest in having to relocate an existing franchise and we have no intention of further expanding in the foreseeable future."
For fans such as Ford, restoring the Jets is not just about hockey but about the status and stability of their city.
"I was just starting university, so I was kind of looking forward to having the NHL around at that stage, considering I had it all my childhood," says Ford, a sales representative, who was enrolled at the University of Winnipeg when the team decamped. "The city moved into a grim state, we lost both breweries, Molson and Labatt.
"A lot of people my age at that time wondered what the future held for us in Winnipeg."
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/sports/story.html?id=d369a582-4ba9-47d3-9bab-360c50cfb00e&p=2