Two ways for the Jets to win

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This article was published 22/04/2024 (749 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg loves a deal, so a two-for-one opportunity that’s staring the city in the face ought to garner some attention from its bargain-loving citizens.

That the Winnipeg Jets are involved makes this offer even more enticing.

The National Hockey League team has begun its annual quest for the Stanley Cup, and in a year where there is no prohibitive favourite to win the title, the Jets have as good a chance to carry the famous silver trophy around the ice as any other team.

Few hockey pundits gave the Jets much of a chance to even qualify for the playoffs last fall when the season began, but the team’s stout defence and speedy scorers have brought fair-weather fans back on the Jets’ bandwagon as they face the Colorado Avalanche in the opening round of the playoffs.

Jets fans have learned about hockey heartbreak the hard way, but most will temper their well-worn pessimism, don their team’s white uniforms and join in the spring tradition of the Winnipeg Whiteout.

The Jets and the Whiteout unifies the city around a common cause.

It began in 1987 when the Jets faced the Calgary Flames in the playoffs. When Flames fans garbed themselves in red for the first two games of the series in Cowtown, Winnipeggers responded by wearing white to games at Winnipeg Arena to match the colour of the Jets’ jerseys.

The Jets won the series and a tradition was born, one that survived the franchise’s move to Arizona and the return of the second iteration of the team, even though it wears dark-blue uniforms for its home games.

Winnipeggers have taken to wearing white when they go to school and at workplaces while the Jets are in the playoffs, and on game nights, Whiteouts have spilled out onto the streets outside Canada Life Centre, where the team plays.

True North Sports and Entertainment, the corporation that owns the franchise and Canada Life Centre, began organizing the rallies with Whiteout street parties.

This year, they began Sunday night on Donald Street, which was cordoned off two hours before the game for fans to get the party started early. Some had tickets for the game; others stayed and watched the telecast on giant screens.

The event might have lost some of its spontaneous charm when True North began charging $10 to join in the fun ($5 of which this year goes to United Way Winnipeg).

Tell that to those who bought all 5,000 available tickets for Sunday’s party and those who have done the same for Game 2’s street shenanigans on Tuesday.

While there is no guarantee the Jets will get past the stubborn Avalanche — Colorado won the Stanley Cup two seasons ago — the possibility of a protracted Jets playoff campaign and further Whiteout parties to come remains.

This is where the second part of the two-for-one opportunity lies.

Canada Life Centre is smack dab in the middle of downtown, an area that has struggled since the COVID-19 pandemic.

True North says it contributed $377 million to Manitoba’s GDP in the 2022-23 fiscal year, and Jets playoff games are big business for restaurants and bars near the arena.

The provincial government is betting $75,000 and Economic Development Winnipeg $50,000 on the Whiteout street parties — their investments into the events’ success.

They also wager that those who arrive early for the playoff games or stay downtown afterward to savour the thrill of victory — or, heaven forbid, the agony of defeat — will also choose downtown for future experiences, with or without the Stanley Cup.