It was right to lose the Jets

[bm1984]

I am writing this out of some stuff about Jim Silver/Thin that came up in another thread. I think in hindsight, a lot of people in Winnipeg have demonized the people who were arguing against the Jets staying way back in the 90's. However, I think with clearer eyes we can look back and argue that they were right. Here are a few points that I think best demonstrate how much better our position is now than before.

1) Ownership really, really, sucked.
Shenkarow & Co were unmotivated and uncreative who didn't have much foresight. The business community in Winnipeg was stagnant at the time still reeling from economic downturns in the late 1970's and 80's. There was simply no money to be had.

2) Even if we had gotten the arena we would have been broke.
Given the money available at the time, there was no way we even could have afforded the arena. It was just too much to spend. The 3 levels didn't have it so they didn't give it. Even if the arena would have been built, we still would have lost so much as a franchise due to the economics of the day. The weak Canadian dollar combined with a no-cap salary base and the shift to corporate economic sports would have meant us losing dough hand over fist.

3) The arena management was terrible.
The franchise had such a poor deal getting money from concessions, parking, rent and so on.

The point I am making is that losing the Jets was probably the best thing that happened to us. Look at the trade in ownership. Look at the arena exchange. Look at the financial position of a newer arena with no debt. I really believe that attempting to support the team with a poor financial structure and accomplishing the things we have done in their absence simultaneously would have been impossible. We've regained that hunger and have people in charge who are actually interested in running a hockey franchise, who want to rise to the challenge. We are have a generation of new Winnipeggers who want to throw off the pessimistic attitudes of the past and forge our own civic identity. I don't think we were ready to have an NHL team in 1996, but we're ready now.

Discuss.

[DKehler]

I think an argument can definitely be made that losing the Jets put us in the position to be able to regain them.

[jhendrix70]

I still have a hard time putting ALL the blame on Shenkarow. Seems as though he did what he had to in order to hold the franchise & was handed nothing but empty promises from the Government in power at the time.

I still blame the NHL for not getting into the matter sooner & providing that little bit more time it would have taken to iron things out & Susan Thompson who chose to use funds for what could have been a brand new state of the art Arena in 1996 to host the Pan Am Games which; was great & got us Public exposure.......( not national )

The only remnants of those games still lingering are those god awful Jackets the volunteers had to wear & one of the few good things about the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg was that it helped reunite the Guess Who and gave me the opportunity to see them live.

[The Unknown Poster]

The Shenk was ahead of his time in some ways. He had been saying for years we needed a new arena and no one took him seriously until it was too late.

On the other hand, he fought with members of MEC who wanted him out. I wonder if a deal could have been salvaged if they compromised with Shenk. Hell, I can't even remember what the exact final reason was for killing the deal...