WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF EVERYONE IN WINNIPEG GAVE $10 TO BE AN NHL OWNER?
Joe O'Connor, National Post
Published: Saturday, May 23, 2009
Ian Hudson remembers. He is 41 years old and grew up in Winnipeg, so of course he remembers. Now an economics professor at the University of Manitoba, he went to plenty of Winnipeg Jets games. Thomas Steen was his favourite player. He had almost forgotten -- well, he did, for the briefest of moments -- but there is a Steen sweater in his basement.
Hudson is not alone.
There are Jets souvenirs hiding in basements all across the city, and memories that are lying deeper still. Those dusty, bittersweet recollections of the franchise that flew away to Phoenix to become the Coyotes -- the team currently at the heart of the pistols-at-20-paces legal duel involving the National Hockey League, Jerry Moyes and, by extension, Jim Balsillie --are much more valuable than the trinkets to Winnipeggers.
The far-away fight for a franchise Winnipeg lost to the desert 13 years ago seemed pretty distant at first. But a court filing in Arizona, consisting of an e-mail sent by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to his chief lieutenant, Bill Daly, included 13 magic words: "If this team had to move, it should first be offered to Winnipeg."
Could it possibly be true? And, if it could, how would it possibly work? There is no Winnipeg billionaire, at least not one that Prof. Hudson is aware of, standing at the corner of Portage and Main with a US$212.5-million-plus cheque in his pocket looking to pluck the Coyotes out of bankruptcy protection.
But maybe there is another way. Winnipeg is a Prairie town, and neighbours help their neighbours on the Prairies. Canadian social democracy was born in the West, where the collective matters, and if Manitobans from Flin Flon to Neepawa to Brandon to Winnipeg, population 703,900, were to pass around a hockey helmet and pool their money together, perhaps all the nickels and dimes would add up to a few hundred million and a homecoming parade for the Winnipeg Jets.
"I would throw into the giant helmet," Hudson says, without pause. "The giant helmet could work in the short term. I think you could drum up enough enthusiasm for a large number of people to make small contributions."
Community-based ownership on a substantial scale may sound quaint, like a throwback to the horse-and-buggy era of professional sports when the conquering heroes went back to the farms in Manitoba or Saskatchewan during the offseason to bale hay and earn a couple of extra bucks.
But the community model has been successful in modern times. Nowhere more so than in Green Bay, Wisc., home of the NFL's Packers. The Packers have 112,088 shareholders (the population of Green Bay is 101, 203). Each stockholder has voting rights, and every vote counts in electing the club's board of directors. Dividends are never paid out on shares, and the stock never increases in value.
North of the border, and right next door to Manitoba, are the community-owned Saskatchewan Roughriders. The CFL franchise has 6,000 shareholders.
"It is $250 for a share, so it is not a small decision for most folks," says Jim Hopson, the Roughriders' president and CEO. "But obviously, with over 6,000 shareholders, people have said, 'Yes, I want to be a shareholder. I want to be able to vote and to run for the board.' And yes, we do offer some perks. But more than that, I think it is: 'I am an owner.' There is pride in ownership. You know, people are pretty proud of the team around here."
And people in Winnipeg pine for their Jets.
Ken Morrissette, a local event planner, is already tapping into the Prairie collective with the "Winnipeg Jets Fan Challenge," a Facebook-driven campaign. Morrissette's master strategy: Create an online community of 100,000 members and have every member contribute $500 toward creating a $50-million pot, one capable of showing the NHL -- and Winnipeg's business leaders -- the little people are serious about bringing a team back.
Morrissette's Facebook page currently boasts 5,792 members, and features some lively comments, including one fan's pledge to "buy season's tickets every year if the Jets were to come back" and another's honest query: "Ummm, do u have to give $500?"
Alas, even if the group did reach its goal and win over some bigger investors and come up with a bank balance large enough to lure the Jets home, Hudson, the economics professor, says the community ownership model is rife with potential pitfalls.
"What happens if the team comes back here and is losing money hand over fist?" Hudson says. "Who is going to absorb those losses? Is it going to be absorbed by the very small owners? Well, they probably do not have the money to afford that. Is the government going to be asked to step in and try and keep them here? That is where things get problematic."
They could get worse if the Canadian dollar cratered (remember what 65 cents to the U. S. dollar felt like?) and the NHL salary cap, which kept on rising year over year before the recession, rebounded with a sustained salary-fattening run.
Amid all the hypothetical scenarios, there might be some genuine hope.
Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz is about 15 years older than Prof. Hudson. Katz's hero was Bobby Hull. Somewhere around his house there is photo of the politician at another point in his life, with Hull and Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, from the World Hockey Association era Jets. "Those three," says the mayor, "were as good a line as you are ever going to see in professional hockey."
Katz is cautiously optimistic about Winnipeg's chances of reclaiming its place among NHL cities. He remembers the Save the Jets campaign back in 1996, and how little kids were cracking into their piggy banks to chip into a cause that was doomed nonetheless. Winnipeg has been burned before, and false hope can lead to further heartbreak. Plus, says Katz, when it comes to the Coyotes he does not want to start a fight with Hamilton. He believes both cities are deserving of an NHL team.
Katz's city does not have a billionaire on hand, although the mayor believes the 703,900 citizens would be a pretty good place to start passing around the giant helmet.
"With the Green Bay Packers, these people are all shareholders. They put up money, and I am not convinced there is a better form of ownership, to be frank. It is as broad a base as you are going to get in professional sports," Katz says. "And if there is a team available for Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, I would be happy to lead the charge and see if there is a group of people, or thousands of people, who are interested."
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(but that request would probably bring the total up by another $50-M 
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