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Big on the big leagues

61% favour NHL's return, 54% will buy tickets: poll

By: Geoff Kirbyson

Posted: 06/30/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

BEN KAHLER / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Enlarge Image

If Mark Chipman and David Thomson had any doubts that Winnipeg would support a National Hockey League team, a new survey may put their minds at ease.

A Probe Research poll conducted earlier this month found 61 per cent of Winnipeggers are in favour of the NHL returning to the Manitoba capital, an eight per cent rise from a year ago. On the other side of the puck, the number of residents opposed to big league hockey coming back to Winnipeg is going in the opposite direction -- from 37 per cent a year ago to 26 per cent today.

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Darren Ford, founder of the Return the Jets campaign, believes poll results will only become more favourable to the NHL's return as time goes by. (DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

It's a guy thing

Men are more likely than women to favour the return of the NHL to Winnipeg (66 per cent versus 56 per cent)

Younger adults in the 18- to 34-year-old age bracket are the most likely to feel positively about the possible return of the NHL (74 per cent), followed by 61 per cent for 35- to 54-year-olds and 49 per cent for those age 55 and over.

High-income households (those earning more than $60,000 annually) were more likely to favour NHL hockey coming back to Winnipeg at 69 per cent, versus 53 per cent of those earning between $30,000 and $59,999 and 54 per cent of those making less than $30,000 a year.

Putting your money where your mouth is: The Probe poll found the average person who would support an NHL team would go to 6.6 games per year. The biggest percentage (40 per cent) would go to "one or two" games a year, followed by 30 per cent (three to five games), 16 per cent (six to 10 games), seven per cent (more than 10 games) and three per cent said they would go to all 41 home games.

The poll of 600 random Winnipeggers was conducted via telephone interviews during the second and third weeks in June. It is considered accurate within four percentage points 95 times out of 100. The margin of error is higher within the survey's sub-groups.

-- Source: Probe Research

Not only that, but the poll found Winnipeggers are willing to put their money where their mini-packs might be. More than half of city adults (54 per cent) would buy a ticket to at least one game a year at an average price of $70.

While 39 per cent of respondents said they wouldn't spend a single entertainment dollar on an NHL game, 20 per cent of adults who are opposed to the NHL returning to Winnipeg said they would nonetheless expect to go to at least one game annually. On the flipside, 19 per cent of those in favour of the NHL's return said they were unlikely to attend any games.

Scott MacKay, president of Probe, said extrapolating the poll's results over the entire city indicates there would be more than enough people willing to go to games. In fact, if the raw numbers are to be believed, the demand would be such that the MTS Centre, which holds 15,003 people, could be filled twice for each game.

"It would depend on which team was playing. If it's Florida in the middle of January and it's -40, they all might not show up. But if it was Calgary, Montreal or Chicago, there would be more interest," MacKay said. "You can't say every single seat would be full for every game. But with one of the smallest arenas in the NHL, it wouldn't be that far-fetched to fill it up. It's not like filling the Air Canada Centre (in Toronto)."

MacKay said how high support can go for an NHL team doesn't really matter at this point.

"Sixty-one per cent, that's sufficient strength from a commercial perspective. If the object is to fill the seats at MTS Centre, they look like they have enough interest to do that. The poll indicates there is sufficient support for it and it's growing. There's a buzz and excitement about this that's causing the interest to intensify," he said.

Darren Ford, founder of the Return of the Jets campaign and the jetsowner.com website, said public sentiment has come a long way in the last few years.

Ford said he believes future poll results will be even more favourable.

"As soon as you become the majority, the whole pendulum swings and your bandwagon fills up rapidly. Hopefully the next poll could be about who's going to win the game," he said.

A spokesman for the NHL declined to comment on the poll. He referred the Free Press to previous comments made by the league's commissioner, Gary Bettman.

Fifteen years after approving the Winnipeg Jets' move to Phoenix, Bettman has become a recent fan of Manitoba's capital, saying in multiple interviews and speeches that he is aware of the hockey interest level in the city and that he's confident it could support a team.

A spokesman for the Manitoba Moose and True North Sports & Entertainment also declined to comment.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 30, 2010 A3

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