Dear Winnipeg Hockey Fans
October 23, 2023
Dear Winnipeg Hockey Fans:
You remember me, don’t you? The guy whose website you regularly visit for everything you need on the history of the (real) Jets. The guy whose books some of you have bought. And the same guy many of you swear at for being so negative about the current NHL team in the city and especially its part owner, president, general manager and executive head coach. All of whom happen to be the same person.
A dozen years ago when you were reveling over the announcement that the government was about to dig into your pocket to purchase the Atlanta Thrashers franchise for Mark Chipman and move it to Winnipeg, you gleefully wagged your fingers in my face. You said an NHL team would never come back to Winnipeg, but here it is. You were wrong! Yes, you were right. But when the government gets involved as the primary financier of the operation, all bets are off.
At the time, I said this franchise would last only as long as the government’s appetite and ability to fund it. That’s because big-league pro hockey in Winnipeg has never been a financially sustainable venture. The team nearly folded twice during the WHA years. And that was when they had championship-caliber teams, something they sure didn’t have during the NHL years. Somehow, with help from the now-reviled Interim Operating Agreement in the 1990s, they kept it going for another 17 years, but eventually, the owners lost patience and sold out. We shed tears. It was painful. But despite your unrivaled passion, it all came down to the fact that there just isn’t enough money in Winnipeg.
Once again, you said I was wrong. The city can sustain an NHL franchise. Many of you even went as far as to deny that the government was funding the operation, unable to face the inconvenient truth that it was you, not Chipman/True North, who was the real financial backer of this venture. The “white knight” many of you pined for who would ride to the rescue and deliver an NHL franchise back to the city where it belonged was, in fact, staring right back at you in the mirror.
Whatever the case, right from Day One, I knew I didn’t want anything to do with this team as a fan. Even while the Fighting Moose were still in the IHL, I had had more than my fair share of bad experiences with Chipman. I knew he was a domineering owner unlike any other who treated his customers with utter contempt. He acts as if he is doing you a favor by accepting your hard-earned money, not the other way around. I had already been down that road with another bad owner in Barry Shenkarow. So I passed on this “gift.” I certainly wasn’t among those pounding away at the keyboard on Ticketmaster’s website the first day tickets were available desperately trying to scoop up season tickets or paying good money for the privilege of being on a waiting list.
I said you’d get just as pissed off with him as I was. But no, you said. He’s no Barry Shenkarow. He’s a humble, hard-working businessman who really cares about the community. He’s doing this for Winnipeg, you said. You hailed him as the toast of the town. You yelled “True North” during the anthem. You profusely thanked him wherever he went. Practically worshiped the ground he walked on.
Fast forward to present day. There’s no more waiting list for season tickets. There are no more sellouts. In some circles, they can’t even give tickets away. Yes, the economy is the shits right now. But all indications are that the number one reason why there are thousands of empty seats in the building is the crappy customer service. From what I’ve been reading online, there are hundreds of horror stories that make my experiences pale by comparison. You’re now where I was.
I hate to say I told you so. But I told you so.
I’m just surprised it took you so long.
It’s not as though he hasn’t tried to hurry the process along. He’s been gouging you at the gate and at the concessions. Upping the already steep prices year after year. Forcing you to fork over money you probably don’t have. Taking you for granted. Treating you like an ATM. Making you pass through airport-level “security” for the privilege of entering the arena, a process designed for no other purpose than to demean and belittle you. Shoving political messages down your throat every night. Forcing you to use a smartphone to get into the building. Kicking you out of the building for not taking genocidal poison injections. All while treating you to a lousy product that hasn’t been much better than the last NHL team to call Winnipeg home.
And after burning through all the goodwill, he responds not by reaching out to repair a fractured relationship with his customers, but instead with a guilt trip. An ad campaign that fired a shot across your bow. Come back and buy tickets or else. Some of you were so angry that you went as far as to suggest that ad campaign was part of an exit strategy. Deliberately pissing people off so they’ll stay away, giving ownership more than enough justification for selling the franchise. And at a healthy profit.
But in any event, one ad campaign, even if properly done, is not going to fix the problem. This is the end result of treating your customers like a steaming pile of dog crap for more than a decade. This is a mess that Chipman needs to address personally. But as you’re learning, when the going gets tough, Chipman disappears from public view. For all we know, he’s buried himself in a bunker far beneath Pointe West Autopark. Maybe he’s on a mountaintop in Tibet. Or perhaps he’s entered the witness protection program. We don’t really know. You see, unlike other public-sector agencies, the government doesn’t force him to be accountable for all the money he hoovers from the public treasury. And please spare me the lecture about True North being a private company. They get so much from taxpayers that it’s as absurd to say they are private sector as it is to say the same about a Crown corporation like MPI or Liquor and Lotteries.
But all is not lost, you say. The team isn’t going anywhere. Even though a dozen years ago, Gary Bettman said this would only work if the arena was sold out every night. That’s because Chipman’s partner, David Thomson, the 3rd Baron Thomson of Fleet, is loaded. He’s got billions. And that he does. But he hasn’t shown any willingness to part with as much as a single dollar of his immense wealth to subsidize your personal entertainment. As taxpayers, you might very well have dumped more capital into that franchise than he has.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he will float the franchise’s mounting losses for the foreseeable future. But if he won’t, you’ve got maybe one or two more years of this before the team leaves town. It happened before. It can happen again. Don’t kid yourself.
And this time, they’re not coming back. Ever.
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