State of the Winnipeg Jets: An exclusive sit-down with co-owner Mark Chipman

[@andrehall23]

'NOT ON OUR WATCH' The Jets ..are NEVER going to leave again. The RICHEST CANADIAN IN THE WORLD now owns them and Winnipeg is still making money and hasn't yet needed to use revenue sharing. This man CARES about his City and the Winnipeg Jets. I'm proud to know him and call him my friend.

[@DogoodPOG]

Might have a lil to do with the fact that your average person in Canada is having a hard time keeping the heat on and food in the fridge 🤔

[@yvanhuberdeau2801]

Exactly. The NHL, the owners and NHLPA need to give their head a shake and understand that!

[@kimcokevin]

The Jets are in good hands, hope they are able to make it work. No millionaire or billionaire wants to write checks to prop up a team infinitely.

[@UncleRosie]

Chipman is the man. He knows. It’s hard times for Winnipegers these days. We ALL want to go to the game! But we gotta eat. Food. Inflation has gobbled up our leisure dollars. Covid crippled small businesses and they aren’t coming back under Trudeau. The thing Bettman and the NHL should not forget is that it’s the blue collar folks that paid for those season tickets, not big corporate interests. The Winnipeg Jets are beloved by hockey fans the world over for the simple reason that they should exist. It would be the blackest eye the league ever took if they relocated them again.

[@Kwolf1]

Hope the Jets can get back to max capacity soon.

[@gprairie1]

I think Chipman is right, they had a good ten years with fans that were excited to have their team back. But they were probably a victim of their own success. Their season ticket base served individuals for year and that is changing so they’ll need to target new ways of selling tickets to fans. This is a good ownership group, they’ll find a way.

[@jamesruscheinski8602]

can the team form groups to buy season tickets? have people sign up for season tickets with how many (and maybe which games) and when enough sign up form a season ticket group?

[@theosiegers6980]

They sell smaller packages now so there isn’t need for groups

[@swish-r9v]

Exciting conversation about a business model ! Fans definitely aren't interested in talk about players

[@LGR910]

The Jets ain't going anywhere when Chipman is in charge!!

[@BigAlvideos101]

Without Mark Chipman, there would be no Winnipeg Jets, as he's the sole reason they even have a team!

[@LGR910]

@@BigAlvideos101 True!

[@BigAlvideos101]

@@LGR910 Well, technically there's David Thomson to thank as well! 😉

[@gprairie1]

I have faith that no matter how bad things get that the Jets ownership group will be able to work with Gary Bettman to prop up the team for years, like they have done for the Coyotes, until the fan base comes back.

[@evictioncarpentry2628]

Im pretty tired of people blaming the pandemic. But if were on the topic, you did it to yourselves, you shut out people from games for 2 years and violated human rights (whether you agree or not, they did and people are mad about it) I know multiple people who dropped their tickets and will never go to a game again because of it. Its not even ticket prices for me, anyway. Parking and food (concessions or having to eat out because of fhe start times during the week) add up. A $50 ticket turns into $200 quickly. I've seen the bomber offer a ticket, discounted food (hot dog or whatever, and a drink. I've never seen the Jets org. Do something like that to draw people in. You have a family with kids and if can be $1000 night to go to a game. I think most canadians would rather keep the heat on and food on the table then see a live sports event right now.

[@Bomber_Boi]

Ah yes, the extra vocal, fringe minority with their big brain conspiracy theory🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@jamesruscheinski8602]

might worker groups / unions purchase season tickets?

[@jasonblouinbaseball8466]

Yeah. That’s what they’re saying which took the biggest hit. I think more of the “small” businesses which withdrew from their season tickets I believe from inflation

[@jeffhembd9471]

This is a great example of an organization's leadership being disconnected with their customers. There are very specific complaints from Jets fans / former Jets fans that are not addressed in this interview. Blaming the pandemic is a lazy, cop out particularly, when the other NHL teams are not having the Winnipeg challenges. It is also worthy of note, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are leading the CFL in attendance and have similarly priced tickets. Thus, blaming the economy or downtown crime is also not getting in touch with what is frustrating your customers.

[@theosiegers6980]

Bombers point is very good.

[@FischerFan]

Ticket prices for the Jets and Bombers are not that similar. Jets' tickets are usually 2-5 times more expensive that tickets to Bombers' games. Depending on who the Jets' opponent is, the most expensive tickets can exceed $500. I agree that blaming the pandemic is inaccurate. I believe that blaming post-Covid inflation is more accurate. Every day, we hear news stories about food prices, housing prices, etc. rising and becoming less affordable for an increasing percentage of the population. As a result, the Winnipeg market simply does not have the available entertainment dollars it did a decade ago.

[@JUVI9596]

They keep raising their prices. Every year

[@brandonlewis5135]

Bombers are taking the spotlight. Once grey cup is over hockey starts.

[@whippin1335]

I always hear from jets fans that tickets are too expensive

[@boreddingercity]

They are way too expensive

[@FAITHandLOGIC]

They're also the 2nd lowest among Canadian teams. It's not Jets tix that are expensive, it's NHL tix that are expensive.

[@davidfitzpatrick6535]

2:06 NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. DO NOT SELL season tickets to businesses. Speaking as a Leafs fan this a) makes it IMPOSSIBLE for ACTUAL HOCKEY FANS TO GET GOOD SEATS b) IT KILLS THE VIBE at games when a bunch of corporate suits are there because its a business meeting for them. One of the biggest reasons why Leafs games are so quiet in the regular season compared to Playoffs is all the good seats are held hostage by corporations who don't really care for hockey or arent hockey fans.

[@carnjohnson4549]

Well, they might consider the fans' lack of attendance

[@Bum_Hip]

I don’t know too much about the man being interviewed, but he sure does seem to “get it.” Seems Winnipeg is in good hands with a self aware leader like him. If one disagrees with me, I am open to your REASONABLE thoughts.

[@theosiegers6980]

I think there is a lot that he doesn’t get. But overall yes we are in good hands with chip.

[@robertoi5016]

❤

[@pickleballer1986]

I do not understand what big issues here it is. Evan flow of business just look at ohl for example I have seen over 3k people in a rink yet

[@red3here]

OHL isn’t as big as NHL.

[@davidfitzpatrick6535]

Ohl is also still affordable even for larger families like mine. Decent seats are 20-30 a pop while in the NHL its over 150 for decents seats and 150 for nose bleeds in Ottawa and Toronto.

[@areacode911]

Thans to Justin Trudeau for wasting the taxpayers money keeping people at home. People not wanting to go back to work and not taking covid shots (which divided people) It ulitmately killed small businesses. Look at their downtown businesses they're gone. True North has to try to repair all of this. He's a pretty good owner and a true love for their team. Not too many owners like that. He brought the team back to that city. Hope their fans go back and start buying season tickets, or they will lose their team again.

[@gib67]

Times are Tough,,,,,,, its not because of the pandemic.

[@Kern_Nico]

Move them to Houston asap

[@SlipStream-l3y]

did it really take covid to realize that for people to afford tickets they have to split it with so many others? Ticket prices are way to much and we all know why. When you pay the players absolutely rediculas amounts of money, amounts that make no sense at all, this is what you get. Doctors saving lives dont make a million dollars but these guys do for playing a sport for 10-20 minutes a night. Its not right, hopefully the future will force a fix

[@red3here]

It’s there job dude they aren’t going to play for free.

[@thatdavidhuynh]

Blame the industry

[@goon8058]

Average Career length of an NHL player is 4.5 years, average career length of a doctor is 33.5 years. If you are looking strictly at average salary per year NHL players make a tremendous amount of money compared to doctors 3.69M vs 224K. So the average NHL player would make roughly double what the average doctor would make over their career with those numbers locked in. It's more complicated than that in that an NHL player retires in their late 20's to early 30's, and doctors retire around 65. You have inflation a doctor would likely make more than double their current salary compared to their salary 30 years from now, an NHL player would not see that swing in salary difference from year one till they retire unless you are Zdeno Chara.

[@bradweirca]

found the new russian bot, pushing the billionaire dick riding lol... prices are set by customer demand... you can pay players .50 cents a season and these ruthless, businessmen will still charge the same for tickets... but i guess the players putting the butts in the seats, doing the work, dont deserve any of the pie.