JetPilot says: 2006-04-16 09:43:28
Try explaining that to that idiot BlackThorne from Bring Back the Jets!! It looks like "potsmoker" will be selling tickets for his basement party, you can get tickets from me JetPilot, BigB and Ramrod. If you don't know whats going on, read the Jets owner rant. NO Jets, ahh too bad, the party will go on!!!!!!!!! Peace.

JetPilot says: 2006-04-16 20:07:31
Look Blackthorne....Who lives on Blackthorne Bay. A new arena was a minor issue you idiot. The Winnipeg tax payers had to supplement the losses for far too many years. City Hall decided not to fund a team that was losing so much and costing us the taxpayers so much money. Don't start giving that bulls*** again about Wpg Enterprises again. Why can't you get that through your skull. The salaries are way too high. All the Canadian teams are having a problem and some of the American teams. Those American teams just have too much money to spend. There is no one in Winnipeg interested in starting up a team and lose money. Wake up.

BalthazaarRamrod says: 2006-04-17 15:13:04
1. Edmonton my be doing fine with 30mil, but how long will that last? It's economics. Skilled players want more for their skills. Over time, 30 mil aint gonna do it. 2. An increase in the cap will hurt smaller clubs. If they can't afford to fund their players they will lose them. Wait long enough and see what happens. 3. I don't think the Arena matters. It's part of the show, but people go to see the hockey, not the building. 4. Size of the city is usually directly correlated to how much money is there (at least in North America.) There are hockey fans in Winnipeg. There are hockey fans in Toronto and Montreal. There are more wealthy hockey fans in Toronto and Montreal. The people that own the teams either have to accept that they will lose money and be willing to write it off, or they need to run it like a biz. Operating on the premise that there are more wealthy people in T. and Montreal, I would assume there are less people willing to take this loss.

Anonymous says: 2006-04-17 16:24:32
I have to laugh at Black Thorne's comments that when it comes to attracting an NHL franchise, city size and salary caps don't matter because all it really takes is a positive attitude, great fans and a larger, more modern arena. According to that logic, cities like Brandon and Grand Forks, whose fans are just as knowledgeable as Winnipeg's, should just add 10,000 new seats and a few dozen executive suites to their structures and they too will be able to attract an NHL team. As for the salary cap not being a factor, it was the lack of one that was a big part of the problem before last year's strike. Now that it's starting to creep up again, many of the teams could find themselves in the same boat again within a few years, especially since no big American TV contract is anywhere in sightand may never be. Edmonton may be getting by with a $30 million cap now, but will it be able to compete when the numbers go higher and the better free agents are lured away? Remember that they and Calgary were being propped up to some degree by proceeds from a provincial lottery. And for all Calgary's great fans, when the Flames missed the playoffs seven straight years before the '03-'04 season, whole sections of the Saddledome were closed down because of decling attendance. Remember also that the two Alberta cities are more affluent than Winnipeg; yet their teams were barely hanging on before the strike. So where would Winnipeg be if the Jets were to return and had a long string of losing seasons particularly since income levels here are lower? In addition, Black Thorne seems to believe that as soon as some US team throws in the towel it will automatically come to Winnipeg where investors will be lining up to buy it. Smart investors don't make stupid investments, and if they perceive the asking price/transfer fee is too high, they'll have second thoughts. That's why cities like Cleveland and Milwaukee, which have a long hockey traditions, weren't interested in joining the NHL during recent expansions. Investors there recognized they'd be paying too much for their whistles and decided to let the suckers in the Sun Belt take their chances. Another misconception that Bring Back the Jets supporters have is that since Winnipeg wants the NHL, the NHL necessarily wants Winnipeg. Not so likely because this city has the image of a minor league town well-suited to the CFL, the AHL, the Northern League, the Pan American Games, various curling competitions, etc., but maybe undeserving of the supposed "big league" NHL. So if a couple of current US teams decided to sell and Winnipeg found itself up against say Houston, Kansas City, Portland and Seattle, I wonder who would win the bidding war and which cities the league would prefer? Remember the NHL doesn't learn that fast; otherwise, it never would have gone into the southern US in the first place and would have kept its overall expansion to a more manageable number of teams. So despite the denunciations of negativism by the future Jets supporters, they'd be wise to realize that what they claim is negativism is often a recognition of what constitutes reality, and the reality is that there's no guarantee the NHL is especially interested in coming back here. Downsizing is probably more likely.

BalthazaarRamrod says: 2006-04-18 09:48:19
I still maintain that there are not enough people here to support a team. You said it yourself, it's not 1985 anymore. And don't tell me Edmonton is doing ok because they were in a s*** ton of trouble before the lock out. They're also a bit wealthier than we are.

Anonymous says: 2006-04-19 19:33:19
Have you heard what Gary Bettman said last year? No expansion, and probably some downsizing. It was a mistake to expand into so many teams in the first place.