NHL’s Bettman to Jets fans: Why not fill the place?

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No doubt the stadium in south Winnipeg will be packed with 32,000-plus for next fall’s Heritage Classic.

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It’s the 1,000-plus empty seats at your average Jets game that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman would like to see filled.

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“Attendance is better,” Bettman said at the downtown arena on Wednesday. “The Jets organization and Mark (Chipman), as would I, love to see this building full every night. But the attendance is trending in the right direction. A franchise cannot be stronger than the support it gets locally, and an essential element of that is the attendance. I’m glad it’s increasing.

“But I’d like to see a little bit more.”

The Jets have sold out just two of their 13 home games this season, averaging 14,139 fans in a facility that seats 15,225.

It’s an improvement from two years ago, when Bettman last held court in Manitoba during the regular season.

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At the time, Chipman had stirred up a hornet’s next by saying the way things were going this franchise was “not going to work over the long haul.”

Back then there were more than 2,000 empty seats, on average. A season-ticket base of 13,000 had eroded to less than 10,000, a waiting list 8,000-strong reduced to nothing.

The Jets finally pivoted, improved their customer relations and have at least seen a half-comeback.

Successful regular seasons, culminating in last year’s Presidents’ Trophy campaign as the NHL’s top team, no doubt helped.

Currently, the Jets are below the playoff line.

Player-friendly Manitoba

Bettman says there’s no need to level the playing field for places such as Winnipeg to try to attract free agents.

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The home of the Jets is often included in the no-move clauses of players’ contracts, meaning they can veto a trade to the Manitoba capital.

“Players choose to play in different places for a variety of reasons,” Bettman said, citing things like taxes, quality of the organization, and the environment for raising a family. “Most recently, this club has been very successful in signing players who are here, who want to stay here long term. Which to me is probably the best indication as to the quality of being an NHL player in Winnipeg.”

Mark Scheifele, Connor Hellebuyck, Kyle Connor, Adam Lowry and Josh Morrissey are among the players who have been with the Jets their entire careers.

Kudos to Bombers’ stadium

The still-relatively-new home of the Blue Bombers is one of the reasons the NHL awarded Winnipeg another Heritage Classic, 10 years after the first one.

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“We have challenges in Canada finding facilities that can host these games,” deputy commissioner Bill Daly said. “This one was fantastic.”

The only downer for fans that day in 2016, other than the Jets losing to Edmonton, was a two-hour delay caused by the sun’s glare off the ice.

“We’re going to try to avoid that,” Bettman said, without getting into specifics. “Sports is the ultimate reality show and when we take it outside, we get another element of reality. We’ve now played 43 outdoor games. We’ve got two coming up in Florida, another test of our sanity and our ability to manage this. We think it’ll be fine, and we’ll take into account what we think the conditions are.”

The 2026 game will see the Jets host Montreal on Oct. 25.

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Reclaiming Jets history

While the history and records of the Jets, Version 1.0, were taken down to Arizona to become the history of the Coyotes, Winnipeg could be getting it back.

Chipman has raised the issue “repeatedly,” Bettman said, and the league is looking into it.

“It’s not as simple as just doing it,” the commissioner said. “It’s what the end result would look like and can we make it make sense?”

Currently, Jets history includes records from the Atlanta Thrashers, the franchise that Chipman and David Thomson bought and moved to Winnipeg 15 years ago.

“If we figure it out,” Bettman said. “My guess is it will be OK but not perfect.”

paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca

X: @friesensunmedia

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