Why ‘The Jets’?

More and more it’s been looking like the return of NHL hockey to Winnipeg is a real possibility, maybe even probable. I will come clean here and admit I never thought this would ever happen. Not in the proverbial million years. I just could never figure how the money could be here now to make a team viable when it wasn’t even remotely close to that when the Jets were here. We are talking about a team that was losing more than $20 million a year back when costs (including salaries) were a fraction of what they are now. As a result, ticket prices will have to be considerably higher than they were in the 90’s, even factoring inflation into the equation. And remember, the team only averaged 13,000 fans per game in the 17 years it was in the NHL. So a Winnipeg team would have to attract 2,000+ more fans than before (indefinitely, not just short term) and at a much higher premium. I do have to set aside my skepticism and defer to True North Sports and Mark Chipman since they obviously feel that Winnipeg and the NHL do make sense or they wouldn’t have continued to pursue this.

So let’s do as the hopelessly desperate fans in the city have already been doing for months and assume a team will be heading to the river city soon, likely the organization formerly known as the Winnipeg Jets, the Phoenix Coyotes. Not only have people been writing to newspapers, commenting on websites and anywhere else someone is able to vent, but they’ve also been referring to the move as ‘the return of the Jets’. Actually they seem to have almost always insisted the team would carry that moniker regardless of how a team arrived in town, be it relocating the Coyotes, Atlanta Thrashers (another pointlessly located and slowly dying NHL franchise) or the awarding of an expansion franchise. My question is “why”? Why would someone feel the team automatically would be called the Jets and why would anyone want to call them that. I realize that for many I’m heading into dangerous territory here but I’ll do that anyway.

There is so much baggage that comes with that name and the franchise. You can start with the fact that it’s the name of a team that the city’s fans fought but failed to keep here. Why go back to something that ended in failure? Not only did the franchise end in financial ruin and a relocation, but the team itself was essentially a horrific failure during it’s time here. Understand that I’m referring to the NHL Jets. The franchise was well run and had plenty of success to show for it when it was part of the WHA. The teams were not only successful, but incredibly exciting as well. That’s a term that wouldn’t have been used to describe the Jets too often, if ever,  during it’s NHL days. The team was pillaged entering the NHL and never recovered from that. The Jets made the NHL playoffs only 4 times in their 17 years in the league, advancing beyond the 1^st round only once. The team’s fortunes were a game of snakes and ladders, except for every year they climbed upwards there were 2 or 3 of downward fortunes. Why in the heck, with a new organization, new management, new ownership, in a new century would you want to revisit in any way that kind of ineptitude?

I get that many people are very attached to the name and the team that left here a decade and a half ago. I also get that the Jets were a historic hockey organization in many ways. I also know that most of the significant moments of the team were as members of the WHA (any of you late comers who doubt this, check your history and do some research). Let Mr. Chipman’s organization start from square one and carve out it’s team’s own identity. Don’t saddle it with an enormous set of baggage lingering from an inept organization that provided the city with a team that was seldom competitive (even before salaries exploded in the early 90’s) and always frustrating.