Out of the Bunker
November 1, 2023
This past week, the unthinkable happened. After weeks of resisting multiple calls to address the attendance woes of the former Atlanta Thrashers franchise which Manitoba taxpayers were forced to buy for him, part-owner, president, general manager and executive head coach Mark Chipman briefly emerged from his bunker and granted a couple of interviews.
What he had to say, however, was less than surprising.
During carefully choreographed sessions that left little doubt that the questions were pre-approved by Chipman in advance, he reeled off a laundry list of excuses. Lingering effects of the war. Inflation. The economy. “Challenges within our downtown.” A nice way of saying that downtown Winnipeg is like Beirut of the prairies. The business community hasn’t stepped up. The team’s not very good.
And the dog ate my homework.
To be fair, some of his excuses are valid. But not once was he even willing to as much as acknowledge the possibility that he and his organization bear any share of responsibility for the large number of empty seats. That the low attendance numbers are largely the fruit of treating customers like garbage for a dozen years. Longer if you include the Fighting Moose years.
Some might say that Chipman is acting stupidly. Yet that couldn’t be farther from the truth. He is a very smart man. Very cunning. Rather, he is more like a deer caught in headlights. Because the concept that he is a major reason for his team’s on- and off-ice failures is completely alien to him. It does not compute. So instead, he concludes that the only reasons why the building isn’t full are external factors completely outside of his control. Then he follows that up by going on the offensive.
Just like he did with the ad campaign this past spring. You remember, the one in which he laid on a guilt trip. Come back, you ungrateful slobs, or we’ll move, was the message. A message he undoubtedly approved personally.
Miraculously, he addressed that campaign in the interviews.
“That ad was not intended to suggest that the team is going to move. If we were to do it over again, I guess we could’ve not used those images, and I apologize if it offended anybody,” he said.
Sorry, not sorry.
It’s like the case of a driver speeding down a highway at 100-plus mph who gets pulled over by a cop and says he’s sorry. Not sorry for speeding. Sorry because he got caught.
But don’t worry, he says. The team’s not going anywhere.
“I can see how you would ask that question because it happened once. Is it a concern it could happen again because it’s the smallest market? I say not on our watch,” he said.
I’m sure fans in that part of the world feel better already. Just like they did when another NHL owner had this to say in response to similar fears that his team was not long for its city:
“We bought the [team]. In doing that we signed agreements with the NHL. Even if we wanted to talk to somebody about moving, we are forbidden from doing that under our agreements with the NHL. Even if we wanted to talk to somebody who wanted to move it, it’s clearly stated in our agreements. We are forbidden from doing that. We’ve never had those discussions. Every rumor that’s been published, and I’ve seen rumors we were moving to [other cities], they’ve been 100 percent unfounded and unfair.”
That was Atlanta Thrashers co-owner Bruce Levenson on April 15, 2010.
One year later, they were packing up and moving north.
It happened once in Winnipeg. It can happen again.
And that possibility is a lot closer to reality than many fans think.
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