LETTER: Jets appear to be saying good-bye to Thunder Bay

To the editor:

The Winnipeg Jets announced last week that they were moving their American Hockey League franchise back  to Winnipeg from St. John's.

Both the Jets and the American Hockey League team will play out of the MTS Centre in Winnipeg.  True North owns both teams as well as the MTC Centre.

As for the viability of having both an NHL team and an American Hockey League team in the same city, GM Ken Cheveldayoff said he believes Winnipeg can support two professional hockey teams for the long term.

He also stated they we're going to dig in and try and make this a home that lasts for along time for their American Hockey League team.  Cheveldayoff went on to say they are investing in infrastructure renewals and renovations to both the Ice Plex and the MTS Centre to accomodate both teams and help the AHL team have a future in Winnipeg. He added they are pretty excited about this in a news conference last week. When asked about moving to Thunder Bay he stated their focus was on the American League team being a viable option in Winnipeg for many years to come and they are pretty excited about this.

True North, is part of a consortium that signed a letter of intent with the City of Thunder Bay.

The  consortium had plans for the Jet's American Hockey League affiliate to play in Thunder Bay if a new  Event Centre was built. The letter of intent in non binding and will expire  on March 31.

Michael Smith, Thunder Bay's general manager of Community Services stated last week that he couldn't comment on what Cheveldayoff' meant when he stated they were planning to keep the team in Winnipeg for the long term.

Smith stated that if a new facility was built here  he believed True North would move their American  Hockey League franchise to Thunder Bay for the start of the 2017 season.

This no longer seems to be the case as the Jets are digging in to make the team work and stay in Winnipeg.

This is a blow to some at city hall that were counting on the Jet's farm team being their anchor tennant if a new proposed $115 million dollar Event Centre was built. The city expected the team to sell 170,000 tickets each year.  This would be a big part of the revenue in a building  that would require an annual subsidy of well over a million dollars a year from city taxpayers.

Many taxpayers are relieved that federal funding does not appear to be forthcoming to build the event centre as taxpayers just can't afford this now.  The fact it appears the Jets American Hockey League team is returning to Winnipeg for the long term also is good news for most city residents.