Quote:
Originally Posted by thurmas
Bell MTS Place is kinda stuck. It's a bland cookie cutter early 2000's arena. The jets have done a decent job with upgrades to it. However with it's location downtown and tight footprint it would be very expensive to expand and the jets don't need more seats maybe a few more suites and roomier concourses would be nice but the buzz the jets had a few years ago in town has definitely worn off and they will need to get creative if the team has down years to keep filling the place. Concert wise it serves its purpose and the upper deck can be curtained off to make it more intimate for a 8000 seat Brian Adams concert or whichever act is in town. A major turn off to the rink is the cost of parking and parking availability downtown compared to the WHL and new Winnipeg Ice team when they build a new 5000 seat arena on the southwest corner of the city with ample free parking. Winnipeggers are a thrifty bunch and paying $10 bucks for parking in the middle of January to see the Carolina Hurricanes is not that appealing.
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I think most venues outside of the largest in the country and limiting their capacities in order to keep the place selling out. I don't foresee MTS Place needing any expansion - I'd imagine True North will happily just raise ticket prices when demand is high and the Jets are doing well and trim them when they do less well.
I don't think the NHL is too worried about the WHL stealing fans with free parking - I might be concerned that the current high cost of tickets for the Jets may put people off seeing them moreso than $10 for parking.
It's also interesting to note that arenas in the suburbs (at least in the NHL's case) do relatively poorly compared to arenas downtown. This might have something to do with the teams themselves, but I don't think there's been a suburban arena built since the late 1990s.
Edit: Gila River Arena opened in 2003.