Winnipeg a risky move for junior team
Moving a Canadian Hockey League team to a crowded market like Winnipeg that already boasts NHL and AHL clubs would present several challenges, say sports business industry professionals.
According to a report in the Winnipeg Free Press last week, the owners of the Western Hockey League’s Kootenay Ice are preparing to announce Monday that the franchise would be moving to the Manitoba capital next season. However, in a subsequent report, the team’s majority owner said there were no plans for such an announcement and nothing was pending.
The Jets have been king in Winnipeg since the National Hockey League returned to the city in 2011. The American Hockey League’s Manitoba Moose, who are also owned and operated by True North Sports and Entertainment, came back to Winnipeg in 2015.
Tom Mayenknecht, a marketing communications executive and sport business commentator, said if the Ice did relocate to Winnipeg, differentiating themselves from the other hockey offerings in the city would be key. “They’ll have to be very aggressive with their pricing in terms of really making it a family entertainment opportunity, and price it a heck of a lot lower than the Jets, and even the Moose,” Mayenknecht said from Vancouver.
“I think it can be done ... but it certainly is a crowded house.”
It’s rare for one Canadian market to have three hockey teams at those levels. Toronto was the last to do so, but that ended in 2007 when the Ontario Hockey League’s St. Michael’s Majors moved to nearby Mississauga, leaving just the NHL’S Maple Leafs and AHL’S Marlies in town. According to the original report, the incoming team would eventually play in a mid-sized arena just outside city limits near Winnipeg’s southwest end. The University of Manitoba’s Wayne Fleming Arena would be home — likely for two seasons — until the rink is ready, the report said.
“If they’re smart in terms of the community partnerships that they establish, if they have a winning product relatively early, I think they can compete,” Mayenknecht said.
“But I do think that not operating underneath the True North umbrella will make it, in my opinion, a challenging proposition to be any more sustainable or as financially strong as the Kootenay market was.”