NHL: How Better Off Would the Coyotes Be in Winnipeg?

With all the pressure by Winnipeg and Canadian fans and media to see the Phoenix Coyotes return to Winnipeg as a reincarnated Jets, few people have asked how much better off the team would be if they were to "return to their roots."

The truth is not much.

In a recent Toronto Sun article, it was revealed that if Winnipeg sold out its arena for every game of a 41 home-date NHL season, the Coyotes would climb all the way up the attendance ladder to...24.

Bad, though, attendance may currently be, poor may be the location of their arena, the Coyotes still have more potential in Phoenix than in Winnipeg.

It is all because Winnipeg has refused to deal honestly with the arena problem and is trying to get by on the cheap.  Unfortunately, it can't be done in a North American "big four" professional sport.

The 15,015 seat Winnipeg Arena is 1,500 seats smaller than the worst arena in the NHL, belonging to the New York Islanders, which has been publicly condemned by both its owner and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman as being too small and obsolete.

Bettman in a recent publicity trip to Canada to cool down expectations in Winnipeg, said that the arena was big-league, NHL acceptable.

If it is, why don't you grant Winnipeg an expansion team, Gary?  Because the arena isn't big-league at all.

When Winnipeg decided to build a new arena, they built it for their own needs, not the NHL.

They built it the way they did because they did not believe in the NHL or in the reality of big-league sports.

The ugly truth is that big-league sports want to play in expensive venues with lots of private boxes and tickets priced for only rich fans.

Winnipeg deliberately turned its back on that concept and instead opted to build an arena that would serve its community for a league that had tickets at prices most people could afford, the AHL.

In spite of Bettman's pronouncements, the Winnipeg Arena management have always maintained that their arena was built for the AHL, not for a return to the NHL.

So despite its fans, pressure groups and media's hopes, Winnipeg is not prepared for a return to the NHL.

Winnipeg believes in leagues that make an effort to stay in town—like the CFL.

Ironically, Winnipeg plans to build a new CFL stadium correctly, one with 33,000 seats that can be expanded to 40,000 so that they can host the Grey Cup.

Winnipeg is only kidding itself, if it thinks it can get by on the cheap with a small arena.  Even if the Jets returned, their stay would only be temporary unless a new arena was built.

Even when the Jets were in the NHL, they never sold out regularly.  If the Jets were to return, it would mean a complete repudiation of everything that Winnipeg has expressly shunned.

How could a team that could only be 24th in attendance at most ever bid and keep expensive free agents?

How could they ever ice a competitive team that could be a Stanley Cup contender?

And what would happen if the Canadian dollar sank and NHL salaries and other expenses get out of control again?

To ice a competitive team would mean expensive ticket prices that only a small group of fans could afford.   Ticket prices would have to be high to make up with quality, what they lack in quantity.

That said, Winnipeg with a proper NHL size arena would be a winner, much better than the current money-losing franchises like Phoenix.

But for now if Canada wants more NHL teams, the places to go are Hamilton and Quebec.

Hamilton's current arena has 2,000 more seats and many more private boxes than Winnipeg and they would expand seating to over the current NHL median to 18,500.

Quebec's new arena will be in the same range.  Winnipeg just doesn't compare. 

Also any American city with a decent hockey fan base like Hartford, would have a better chance at success if they built a proper NHL-size arena.

Unfortunately, Winnipeg's fans and media still think they can get by on the cheap.  That's not how big league sports operate today.