‘Rival GM says Jets are as legit as they get’: LeBrun on Jets’ early success being no fluke

[@b33rleague5]

Jays been tooting our horn for a while now and the tune never gets old. Lovin the Coverage Jay. Keep it up!

[@prodzxppy]

Attendance is actually up for the jets compared to last year. Shows positive signs that the owners are making a step towards getting more fans in the building.

[@donaldoflea]

Lmao!!! It's not

[@scottmcfarlane7524]

@@donaldoflea Yeah it is look at the stats or even this interview LMAO

[@kartzstormstool861]

@@scottmcfarlane7524 still not selling out

[@MuggManiac]

@@donaldofleait literally is from last season dumbass

[@alrapke1030]

I was at Jets v CBJ in Columbus. Tickets started at 25 USD. Arena maybe 3/4 full. On a Friday night!? Why is there no talk about CBJ attendance?

[@KyleJon]

And San Jose

[@scottbinns318]

Because it's a small Canadian market that they can pick on. No mention of Columbus, San Jose or Buffalo. Even Detroit crowds are sparse. No mention of any of those.

[@DrNutbag]

I agree. I don’t like that we can’t fill up CLC every night but it’s not like we are alone here. And San Jose is home to the richest companies on the planet. We do alright for a small city in the middle of nowhere with no corporate or oil money.

[@nahcartsm]

@@DrNutbag For how few corporate tickets we sell in a blue collar market like Winnipeg, we do all right with attendance. This isn't a rich town, and when cost of living is as high as it is you can't expect working people to set aside some money to buy game tickets. Businesses in this town need to step up and support our team.

[@mcloggerton9185]

Nobody cares about cbj

[@caddy8367]

Dont understand why everyone keeps bringing up the attendance. The team still generated 162 million in revenue during the 22/23 season. That's more revenue in one year then what chipman bought the team for (110 million) its now worth 780 million

[@bdimess]

i saw somewhere 1.1 billion

[@caddy8367]

@bdimess Forbes has them listed at 780M, maybe 1.1B for all of TNSE?

[@Tlilancalqui]

Good point!

[@katethomas1519]

It's north of a Billion after the Arizona sale/since the ESPN contract was inked. The tin foil hat conspiracy with attendance is outrageous. It's not rocket science, middle aged folks in Canada have been economically screwed over the last 5 years. Winnipeg is still a top market for fan interest per capita. The issue is simply economic trends that are crippling specifically the kinds of people who would be the next season ticket holders now that it's 13 years after getting the team. Canada's wealth gap is extreme against people in their 30s. Those are the season ticket holders of tomorrow. IT's not that the economy in general is so bad, boomers are richer than ever. It's that so much of the wealth is in the hands of boomers who've aged out from being at an arena at 10pm at night on a tuesday. Season ticket holders collapsed when covid hit, because it was when so many boomers with all the money retired. This will work itself eventually, but it is a unique economic circumstance. Obviously Winnipegs primary vulnerability is purely the wealth of it's season ticket holders. It's not at all a drop in interest, it's a sharp drop in wealth/boomers being too old to be at an Arena in -30 on a tuesday. Of course saying an obvious truth gets you downvoted.

[@Tlilancalqui]

It's the patriarchy 👽. But honestly the revenue is the thing that matters. People make a big deal about attendance for one reason and that's because they have a Bay Street state of mind.

[@patrickr4762]

Re crowd attendance, its below expectations rn bec. the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are still playing in the playoffs. Once the CFL season is done it will go up again.

[@Guy-kn6jt]

It’s not down all that much they’ll be close to capacity soon

[@Lukewipf442]

That's what I've been thinking

[@rustyshackleford7271]

That's not a good excuse. The bombers what do we play a game a week and they didn't even play last weekend.

[@lannyacutt8300]

This is why the team needs to keep up the work they finally started last year to increase the season ticket base. Not sure why it is but people in Winnipeg don't really start boosting walk up numbers until there's actually snow on the ground

[@katethomas1519]

@@rustyshackleford7271 No regular person decides which sporting events they go to based on whether or not the other franchise is playing. Most people can only afford to goto a few games a year in both sports. If the Bombers play friday/payday, I'm not gonna even consider getting Jets tickets until 2 weeks later when I receive my next paycheck. That's of course if the Bombers aren't back in town on the 2nd payday weekend, which again might delay my Jets tickets for yet another 2 weeks. Keeping in mind that Bomber's fans who could fill that arena the Jets play in twice over.

[@techluvin7691]

Simple……..I live here. Cost is too high to see a Jets game. Period!!!!

[@stoozii74]

Mark Chipman needs to get local businesses and corporate companies involved in season ticket purchases, it's the lowest % for Canadian teams and ridiculous that he hasn't pushed that more.

[@B-Diddy-6]

Bingo. They need more local corporate support. And TNSE needs to be the ones to go out and find them.

[@lannyacutt8300]

Unfortunately TNSE hasn't been the best corporate neighbour and they need to work on that aspect of their reputation as well.

[@katethomas1519]

@@B-Diddy-6 Chipman/Thomson are local corporate support. Instead of buying box seats in their own arena, they're buying real estate adjascent to their own arena. So much that is true about American markets isn't true in winnipeg.

[@rt3983]

I’m not sure there’s a team in the NHL more cohesive than the Jets. From that Wheeler BS to where they are now is absolutely remarkable. Bravo.

[@katethomas1519]

The big thing is, this isn't an all of a sudden transformation. They've been going in this direction for 3-4 years. Every

[@jamesmuller3807]

Drove through Calgary on Monday. The local sports radio guys just blew them off.

[@ryanlitster8993]

There are other rinks with worse attendance by far. Pick a new line for crap sakes.

[@kartzstormstool861]

best team in the league at the moment, yet still can't sell out, pretty damn sad!

[@EtopiaCA]

​@@kartzstormstool861 You can blame Mark Chapman's inability to interact with businesses and companies. Winnipeg is an afterthought when it comes to marketing in the NHL in general.

[@rustyshackleford7271]

It was a Sunday matinee game. People have so much to do during the day and a lot of people only have time to do stuff on the weekends and just imagine how many parents have to take their kids to hockey now since the season is beginning. I had to take my daughter to practice in the morning and my son had a game in the afternoon on Sunday. Evening games will always sell well.

[@sandwichtube]

Paying $220 for one ticket is too much.

[@realmaxpower]

This is Winnipeg's year.. lets go Grey Cup and Stanley Cup!!!!

[@2mnxffrddfghjbbvcdfh6644bcddcv]

"we don't give the jets any respect", let's now talk about the Leafs for the rest of the show. This is why Canada hates the Leafs!

[@PhilipSpence-u6x]

Tickets are expensive 😫

[@rawsz4e]

Jets roll four lines.

[@katethomas1519]

The Jets can roll 5 competitive lines, change my mind. If you look at who's on the moose it's wild. Chibrikov/Lambert are in my opinion NHL ready. Not to mention a few reliable call ups like Fialby.

[@pabloc88886]

Jets are a skilled, cohesive unit that are a pleasure to watch. That said, want to see them add some grit come the playoffs. Think they have a guy on the Moose..

[@brizzchizz7302]

Jets and Wild are a couple Wagons to date

[@RIPtybalt]

Always bringing up fans not being there. Never bringing up the bullshit lack of corporate support in Winnipeg. Its not the fault of the fans.

[@katethomas1519]

It's also entirely false. TNSE have powerful money behind them, who are directly investing in the areas around the arena. Like yes these people are not contributing to revenue sharing, Thompson/Chipman directly directly see the Jets as part of their downtown development activities.

[@user-ln2gsf-iv8]

Despite finally failing to secure two points in a game after losing 6-4 to the Leafs at home last Monday, the Jets are going nowhere in the NHL Power Rankings. Winnipeg followed up its first defeat with back-to-back-to-back shellackings. The Jets beat the Red Wings 6-2, the Blue Jackets 6-2 and the Lightning 7-4. Talk about a response. Make that 11-1 for a roster that is showing no signs of slowing down whatsoever. This team is scoring a ridiculous 4.92 goals per game and producing prolifically on the powerplay with a scorching 44.1 percent success rate. Those numbers are both tops in the league, and with Connor Hellebuyck hurtling towards another Vezina Trophy, the Jets could be hanging around at the top of the hill long-term.

[@MrViyasan]

Red Wings and CBJ are easy teams, TB is past its prime. Let's see how they match up against NYR, LGK and the Panthers. I don't see them matching well in those scenarios.

[@katethomas1519]

@@MrViyasan They've won 19 of the last 20 regular season games. Including the last 8 games of last season. You can't argue they've been given some perfect schedule for 20 games in a row. And it wasn't just the last 8 games of last season. They went on a sick goal against streak last fall. They were defensively dominant with a garbage power play. Now they are defensively dominant and have an elite power play. I'm not saying they are on par with a southern franchise. They are still crippled by no trade clauses and being a UFA desert. Ironically the wild are the only other team even in the ballpark of being a UFA desert. All the other top teams are either New York or southern markets/red states. This is a team built by elite gmmanship.

[@urbanoutdoorsman5654]

The guys they lost like Schmidt and Dillon were slugs. Toffoli was a rental who didn’t do much. They essentially have the same team that finished 4th overall

[@Tlilancalqui]

Schmidt kept a lot remaining in the tank during the regular season. He showed flashes of who he can be in the playoffs, but Colin MIller has filled his shoes just fine so things have worked out well. Lovin Miller's shot from the point!

[@KyleJon]

Shmidt abd Dillon we’re your 2 and 3 best defenceman in the playoffs. But whatevs

[@Tlilancalqui]

@@KyleJon was true. But Samberg has been a great replacement for Dillon. He's wobbled a bit, in the new role, but is settling in to be more defensively responsible, blocks more shots, and has been scoring more goals and is far less of a risk to do stupid things. I thought the Jets would miss those guys, but it turns out they're doing great.

[@urbanoutdoorsman5654]

@ get real

[@EtopiaCA]

Connor, Ehlers and Samberg are hitting their peaks and Stanley is starting to use his size, we didn't really lose a ton with Schmidt but Dillon did hurt a bit, I think Stanley is transitioning into his roll nicely.

[@nataliedeleon5735]

Apparently they have less corporate support and corporate ticket holders. As compared to other cities. So we need the big businesses to step it up too. Fan support is there. Also once CFL is done that will help. Many are focused on Bombers in playoffs.

[@katethomas1519]

TNSE is big business they don't need additional support. Chipman/Thompson can put millions into corporate seating, to help revenue sharing, or they can save that money and operate the team at a very modest loss in the hard years. Chippman/Thompson are the guys who'd be funding the team if they didn't own the team. It looks awful for revenue sharing, but it really means absolutely nothing in terms of their actual pocket books. Regardless Manitoba is mirror image of Russia. It has so many of the same natural resources, it's only a matter of time before big corporate money is developing the hell out of a manitoba.

[@MrPolkaParty]

never saw this coming ...... the Jets are damn good

[@Rickd-jh7iw]

There was a long time when tickets were very expensive, when there was consistent sell-outs. I don't think that the average person in Winnipeg realizes that if you don't eat or drink at the game, two people can get tickets and parking for about $110 CDN.

[@milkoil]

It's expensive. There's no other reason. Winnipeg is feeling the economy more than some of the other cities it's basically a small town. And even as someone who makes six figures I have to decide whether to buy a new chest protector for my goalie which is 400 bucks, or taking him to a Jets game for pretty much the same price. . .

[@katethomas1519]

Yeah it's much worst than the statistics imply. It's not just the average wages. It's that the new season ticket holders tend to be primarily be men between 35ish and 45ish. Who are also exactly the people who are facing the worst economic conditions relative to any traditional metric.

[@scottmcfarlane7524]

3 mins of Jet then back to the leafs....TSN is a joke

[@johnnyboydianno]

Tickets parking food beer too gawd dam high

[@UncleRosie]

Everybody’s feeling the pinch in today’s economy. We all wanna get out there and represent, but we gotta be able to afford Tide. To wash the Jets jerseys and t shirts so our kids don’t stink at school. Go Jets Go! We love you! We’ll be back as soon as Trudeau is gone!

[@jeffbowes1]

TSN thanks for all the negativity .

[@shanemacc]

Cost of living is lower in Winnipeg, and wages are lower. Hockey is very expensive… much more so for a winnipeger.

[@MemoriesDestroyUs]

13/15k seats in October ain’t that bad imo

[@miggyosa3780]

the reason why fans arent as games as much is the price in our city its absolutely terrible on the wallet to go to a game id u more tickets myself if everything wasnt so damn expensive

[@icoombs73]

If your from out of town, it costs a lot of money to go to a game. Lots of rural Manitobians can't aford to do this anymore

[@suiybnfisyfe]

It cost $40 for an upper deck seat

[@katethomas1519]

@@suiybnfisyfe And $200 for a hotel. and $60 for some mcdonalds

[@jeffbowes1]

I was in San Jose and there was 6-7 thousand. Utah is max 12k

[@kartzstormstool861]

neither of those teams are as good as the Jets

[@katethomas1519]

@@kartzstormstool861 The Jets haven't done anything in the playoffs. They're actually worst than the leafs. You have to let that sink in.

[@kartzstormstool861]

@@katethomas1519 is that a reason to not buy tickets?

[@CSportz-p5r]

@@katethomas1519 Jets have won more playoff series than the leafs in the last 6 years

[@linda11adellio]

Why are the Jets attendance numbers always a concern, the coyotes never sold out Glendale arena, then they moved to a 5k seat arena, no one was saying anything about that....Bettman is a slug

[@LGR910]

GoJetsGo!!

[@JUVI9596]

RESPECT THE JETS

[@alastairclarke]

GJG!

[@joelhartung3776]

I’m not sure they are big enough for the playoffs. But time well tell.

[@Tlilancalqui]

We should see this next two weeks, with NY, Florida and Dallas on the horizon!

[@pomerlain8924]

Yep. There's a lot of skill in the top 6, but no physical presence or a guy that plays with an edge. The backend is still too small. And the playoffs are what matters. Not this start to the season. And we saw how Colorado flatout manhandled them in the playoffs last year.

[@Tlilancalqui]

@@pomerlain8924 Earlier people were saying that they didn't have enough skill in the top 6, now all of a sudden it's all about the top 6? Seems like you're all about yesterdays news. Only one team wins the cup. The next best position in the standings is last place, winning the conference finals means jack.

[@young_busy]

Sunday was the pride game. Take a hint lmao

[@MrCoryb77]

Cheveldayoff is the most under rated GM in the NHL and without a doubt has the toughest GM position. Attendance is down because of the political position we're in. Everything costs more and majority of people are struggling to keep up. I love my Jets but can't afford to go.

[@katethomas1519]

Correction middle aged millenials are struggling. The boomers are doing great. It's the sharp contrast that is really the issue. The season ticket holder base collapsed occured directly when boomers started retiring and were no longer interested in being at an arena 10 pm on a tuesday. It's sort of a complicated thing, but in reality it's something no one in sports wants to talk about. Because it's a mix of people getting too old, too broke, and the economic environment that caused it. All 3 are hot potatoes the league wants to avoid talking about. The bomber's games attendance is pretty solid proof that this is a diehard sports market.

[@MrCoryb77]

@@katethomas1519 I was referring to myself and respectfully disagree with you.

[@johnvnuk5650]

Until the playoffs… they have a lot to prove… coming from a Jets fan 🧐

[@scottmcfarlane7524]

So San or CB do lower numbers but lets hit the Jets....TO based network no shock....that said couldn't't go with out talking about the leafs eh guys

[@MrViyasan]

The Jets are an average team whose shortcomings are shielded by world class goaltending, similar to when the Habs had Price in his prime. I think the Jets will fall off considerably in the second half of the season and they will be out of gas come playoff time, with another first round exit. It's a decent product on the ice but Canadian fans want to know that the team is built for a playoff run before committing to tickets.

[@angelaspanger]

too legit to quit lol 🎉

[@1har2vey3]

Jets are good but the rest of the nhl is also bad.

[@NintendoLAW]

Florida in five against the Jets in the Stanley Cup Final.

[@qwynnblackburde3509]

Hopefully not, that would be boring

[@KakashiH25]

That would be awesome, I'd watch that. It would be very emotional with PoMo on the opposite bench

[@donaldoflea]

Let's hope the folks in Winnipeg can cash in those beer bottles and start going to games before they leave again.

[@DougHanson-ko2ng]

Really, they LOST to the Leafs !!?

[@ChelseaSteele-o2x]

Stanley sucks😅

[@ChelseaSteele-o2x]

Goof took away a third consecutive shutout 😮Stanley needs to go!!!

[@user-MGTOWer]

Use the jets as click bait then talk about other teams, you guys are a joke

[@arcticmonkey3]

You must be high.

[@Rudystone1970]

Hello from Winnipeg 🇨🇦🐈🏒🍺👻!