Jets games on big screen on Portage?

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This article was published 14/04/2015 (3835 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LOOKING for a central meeting place to watch Winnipeg Jets playoff hockey?

How about Portage and Main?

Nothing is official yet but officials at Harvard Property Management Inc., manager of 201 Portage Ave., are looking into broadcasting Jets home and away games on the giant screen overlooking the courtyard.

“We’re working on a plan on that as we speak,” said Terry Orsulak, property manager at Harvard. “Plans are in the works to carry out some type of entertainment for the people of Winnipeg with respect to the Jets finally getting into the playoffs.”

It’s a little more complicated than simply picking up the city’s biggest remote control and flipping channels. Orsulak said Harvard has to ensure it wouldn’t be violating any broadcasting rights before going live with anything.

“We’re working with a number of different players to put all the pieces together. Once we do, we’ll be able to make an announcement,” he said.

The 470-square-foot “media panel,” which was unveiled six years ago, is technically at the corner of Portage Avenue and Notre Dame Avenue, just a stone’s throw from the city’s iconic intersection.

Other cities have created public meeting places to watch sporting events, such as Toronto Raptors games outside the Air Canada Centre and Canada’s Olympic team’s games outside what is now called Rogers Arena in Vancouver in 2010.

There’s a possibility the Jets may open up the MTS Centre during away games, too.

“We’ve had some discussions and we’re still having them. We’re weighing the pros and cons of the start times. Would people come down (to the MTS Centre) for 9:30 p.m. on a weeknight? It might work better on a weekend,” Jets spokesman Scott Brown said.

Portage and Main, of course, has been the celebratory gathering place of Winnipeg’s biggest hockey triumphs — the signings of Bobby Hull and Dale Hawerchuk, three AVCO Cup championships, the 2011 return of the Jets and last week’s clinching of the first NHL playoff spot in 19 years.

It has also been the site where Winnipeggers gathered to try to save the original Jets and to mourn their move to Phoenix in 1996.

Neither The Forks nor the Downtown Business Improvement Zone (BIZ) have plans to broadcast the Jets playoff games. They will, however, be shown at every bar, restaurant and pub in town.

The Jets’ first playoff game against the Anaheim Ducks begins Thursday at 9:30 p.m.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca