An outdoor game would benefit the Winnipeg community.
Now that the National Hockey League is back in Winnipeg, can an outdoor hockey game be in the future plans?
It just makes perfect sense, economically and on so many different levels.
"Will Winnipeg get that opportunity? Perhaps," said Joe Daley, former goaltender for the Jets during their championship years in the World Hockey Association and later in the National Hockey League.
Daley, who grew up in Manitoba, has operated a sports memorabilia store with his son, Travis, in Winnipeg for the last 21 years.
"We've staged some pretty big things in Winnipeg over the course of time and they've always been successful. We always feel that that's one strength we have as a community - that when it's called upon to host something that the world is going to view we do a bang-up job."
Winnipeg has played host to world junior hockey championships, national and world men's and ladies' curling championships, Grey Cups and just had 50,000 or so people attend a U2 show. It's not like something as dramatic as outdoor NHL game could not happen or the infrastructure would not be there.
Canad Inns Stadium, the current home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, has seating capacity for just under 30,000, but was expanded for the U2 concert.
A more likely venue for an outdoor game in Winnipeg would be the new stadium that is being built for the Bombers in another part of the city. It will have seating capacity for 33,000 and is scheduled to be ready for the start of the Bombers' 2012 season.
The Canad Inns site may be used by the province for redevelopment to help pay for the cost of the new stadium. Would it possibly be considered as a site for a new hockey arena, one that would provide more seating than the MTS Centre, directly across the road and which currently has room for 15,000? Maybe. Paying for two sports facilities may be a bit burdensome financially unless private ownership buys the land and helps pay for a new arena.
One of the co-owners of the hockey arena is multi-billionaire David Thomson. It's not like money would be an object for this idea. But we digress. Let's just look at the idea of an outdoor hockey game.
"That would catch fire in this city and province like you wouldn't believe," said Troy Westwood, who played 17 years for the Blue Bombers and has never been shy about expressing an opinion. "The place would be absolutely jam-packed."
Bob Irving, the radio play-by-play voice of the Bombers for more than 30 years, also likes the idea.
"I know the NHL doesn't want to have more than one a year and sort of wear them out early, but I think it's a perfect fit," he said. "You have a new stadium, a team in the NHL, you're in a part of the country where outdoor hockey is a way of life. I'm sure the Bombers and the True North, who co-own the hockey team now, will at some point have a discussion on it."
The game could be part of a festival that would also include an Oldtimers' Game featuring former members of the Winnipeg Jets against an NHL Oldtimers' team, comprised of players from other teams. The Jets and the Oilers would be a natural.
Seeing Bobby Hull - the original Jet - would be a treat in itself. As an aside, the Golden Jet is currently recovering from two shoulder operations.
An outdoor game would provide something that an indoor game at the MTS Centre couldn't: an opportunity for more people to watch the game and in a truly unique setting. Think about it: the plan is to try to sell 13,000 season tickets to fill the MTS Centre, thus assuring immediate revenue for operating costs and filling the building. That would leave only 2,000 tickets for sale for each game. It just stands to reason that there would be a greater supply of tickets available to the general public for a game (or a festival) of this nature.
It would also unite the past with the present. A new generation of hockey fans has been born since the Jets left Winnipeg in 1996 but it probably has family members who were diehard fans of the old team.
"Do I think something like that could be pulled off? I really do," Daley said. "I see the games when they have them, I see (the players) talk about it and I guess what it does is it takes you back to your youth. Maybe not so much today because most of the kids growing up and certainly all through their junior or amateur careers they're playing indoors. But as a kid myself growing up in Winnipeg and playing on outdoor rinks and not having a chance to play on an indoor one until well into my teens it would take you back to your youth."
Weather would be an issue; it usually is for these types of games. It's been brutally cold in games in Edmonton and Buffalo and played in the rain in Pittsburgh. Given that hockey fans in Winnipeg have waited a long time for the return of NHL hockey, it's unlikely weather would be an issue for watching an outdoor game.
Cool would have more meaning than just the temperature.
