The Winnipeg Jets’ attendance is at its lowest point in 2.0 history, but True North Sports & Entertainment (TNSE) executive chairman Mark Chipman is confident the trend can be reversed and is downplaying concerns about the team’s long-term viability.
Empty Seats Not Panicking Chipman
The days of automatic sellouts of the arena now called Canada Life Centre are over.
The crowds at the Jets’ first four games of the 2023-24 season have been far short of the current 15,325 capacity. 13,410 took in the home opener against the Florida Panthers, 11,226 took in the game against the Los Angeles Kings that saw the return of Pierre-Luc Dubois, 11,521 took in the game against the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights, and 11,136 took in the game against Central Division rival St. Louis Blues.
The numbers in the Kings and Blues games are the two lowest in Jets 2.0 history (not including games played in front of limited crowds due to COVID-19 capacity restrictions.)
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The sparse attendance has become a big story for a market that already lost a team. However, in a 20-minute interview with TSN’s Darren Dreger Thursday, the usually-private Chipman posed the issue as a challenge to overcome, not an existential threat.
“I don’t think people expected us to sell out 10 years in a row, but we did. So the fact that we did is what gives me hope and confidence and expectation that we can draw people back to watch the product that we’ve put together,” Chipman said. “Businesses go through cycles. What we’re facing now, I can tell you, is far less daunting – far, far less challenging – than it was to build this building in the first place. And then to be patient and wait and put a plan together to get a team again. “
Mark Chipman
“It’s a small town – you can’t put gas in your car without hearing about people’s feelings towards the team,” Chipman, who helped create TNSE in 2001, said later. “I mean that literally. And I love that. That’s what we signed up for. That’s what I love about this particular circumstance. I love the challenge of being the smallest market and being able to compete against 31 other larger markets.”
Pandemic, Lack of Corporate Ticket Sales Among Factors
The pandemic’s effects “took a big chunk out of our season ticket base, and I think we learned a lot about the makeup of our season ticket base as a consequence,” Chipman said. “What we really learned was that a large part of that account base were groups – people that had partnered together. When the pandemic hit, and those groups saw some attrition – one or two accounts pulled out – the whole thing collapsed.”
Really, TNSE lived a charmed life for the first decade upon acquiring the Atlanta Thrashers and moving them to Winnipeg. NHL-starved Winnipeggers snapped up 13,000 season tickets within minutes in June, 2011 and as a result, TNSE didn’t have to do much by the way of marketing. They sold out 332-consecutive home games between the inaugural 2011-12 season and October, 2019.
But honeymoon periods always end and in 2019, empty seats started dotting Canada Life Centre. Now, the dots are swaths.
That’s due in part to TNSE’s lack of cohesive plan to convince businesses and the corporate community to not just buy suites, but tickets in general. Only 15 per cent of season ticket holders are businesses, Chipman told the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce recently, and TNSE is down 3,000 season tickets overall since the pandemic began.
“We’ve come to understand that we’ve had a very low percentage of our season ticket base are held by companies, lowest in the country by far. Again, not the fault of anyone, just a consequence of the way we went on sale,” Chipman said. “And so, in there lies an opportunity for us and that’s been one of the steps we’ve taken.” He told Dreger TNSE has spoken to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce and have done a lot of presentations to business groups “in an effort to try and gain some more customer base there.”
“Not On Our Watch,” Chipman Says of Relocation
Chipman’s response to Dreger’s query if there is any chance of a sale or relocation was a flat “no.”
Chipman said the Jets 1.0’s relocation to Phoenix in 1996 “ripped the heart out” of the city and that he “wept like a child” when the team departed. However, he pointed to many current factors working in favour of continued viability in Winnipeg that didn’t exist for the 90s-era Jets, including having an NHL-calibre building, a collective bargaining agreement in place, and a salary cap system that allows smaller markets to compete.
“I can see how you would ask that question because it happened once,” he said. “Is it a concern it could happen again because it’s the smallest market? I say not on our watch. We’ve been doing this far too long – we got into this for the very reason of that heartbreak you described. It was that very emotion that brought us into this, that kept us in the fight, to get a building built and then to acquire a team again.”
“And then to have 10 years of sellouts and then two years of challenge brought on by a global pandemic? It would be a little extreme for us to say, ‘Oh gee, we’re not sure this works anymore,'” he continued. “That would be far less than savvy – that would be really un-savvy.”
TNSE is on firm financial footing despite the pandemic and attendance drop. The real-estate arm of their company is doing big things downtown, including building True North Square and considering purchasing and transforming the beleaguered Portage Place mall.
TNSE’s operating income was $22 million in 2022, according to Forbes, and that income was turned without a single playoff game as the the team missed the postseason in 2021-22. The franchise’s value was $650 million in 2022, the highest it has ever been.
TNSE “Working Very, Very Hard” To Earn Customer Base Back, Chipman Says
Jets fans have rightly expressed in the past they feel TNSE has taken them and their dollars for granted by not delivering sustained on-ice success and not having an engaging game-day experience compared to other markets. With discretionary spending tighter for many than ever, the era of people going to games just because the NHL is back in Winnipeg is long over — the novelty has worn off and fans want not just wins, but a fun night that’s worth the money they spend.
Chipman cited more flexibility in ticket options — no more multiple-year commitments for season tickets and many new mini-pack options — in addition to consistent investments to Canada life Centre and the surrounding area and spending close to the salary-cap ceiling as examples of how TNSE values their fans. However, he acknowledged they have to be “respectful of people’s choices.”
“You can’t drive home at night thinking everybody is worried about you and your business. People have their own concerns… everybody’s got their own real world that they are living in,” Chipman said. “So it’s not for us to say, ‘Hey, come and worry about the Winnipeg Jets’ and to take offence to the fact we are not sold out right now. That would be really foolish and unthoughtful. We know the support is here, we just got to get back to it.”
The fact general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff and company found a way to extend Connor Hellebuyck and Mark Scheifele instead of trading them away — which many thought was inevitable — cements the organization in “win-now” mode for the foreseeable future and is a sign TNSE respects fans too much to force them to suffer them through a long rebuild, Chipman said.
“The word rebuild is really easy to throw around because it sounds good. I’ve gone through every team that has said rebuild. It’s expensive and it takes a long time… our market doesn’t deserve that right now,” Chipman said. “You can’t take a team that’s made the playoffs five out of last six years and take it apart and expect your fan base to support that. If you have the means of keeping it together, you got to keep it together.”
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“Anybody worth their salt in this game is trying to win, you know,” Chipman continued. “We’re trying to win and if our fans ever get the sense that we’re not trying to win, then we’re in real trouble.”
