Canadian team at risk of losing their franchise calls in Bettman to fix it
Despite being near the top of the NHL standings this year, the Winnipeg Jets are facing a serious and growing attendance problem. According to Chris Johnston on last night's edition of Insider Trading on TSN, the Jets have seen a 30% drop in attendance over 3 years, and they've requested Gary Bettman to come in to help assess the situation, and talk to corporate sponsor partners.
With Winnipeg's history of having to relocate the franchise to Arizona because of decreased attendance, any reports like this are extremely concerning to the fanbase. In recent years, Jets ownership has even put out public statements urging fans to buy seasons tickets, warning that this could become a problem.
Now that the Jets are clearly suffering a financial crisis significant enough to call in Gary Bettman, it's certainly a worrying situation. They already have one of the smaller arenas in the NHL with only 15,000 capacity, and are only regularly selling 13,000 seats. To see these ticket sales while the team is highly competitive and poised to make a long run in the playoffs is extremely concerning, and may say more about the economy at large rather than Jets fans passion.
This will certainly be a situation to keep an eye on in the coming months and years. Hopefully, things can turn around for Winnipeg and the Jets can remain there.
| POLL | ||
Will the Jets stay in Winnipeg long term? | ||
| Yes, iconic Canadian team | 431 | 51.7 % |
| No, just not feasible | 311 | 37.3 % |
| See Results | 91 | 10.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
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