REPORT: ATLANTA TO WINNEPEG COMPLETE

Oh oh, Big Ev's drunk and belligerent.

I don't see how Winnipeg will be able to support a team. Ottawa barely can and we have about 60% more population in the metropolitan area. It seems doomed to fail once our dollar recedes back to .75-.80 cents.

At least their arena is downtown.

Oglethorpe wrote:I don't see how Winnipeg will be able to support a team. Ottawa barely can and we have about 60% more population in the metropolitan area. It seems doomed to fail once our dollar recedes back to .75-.80 cents.

At least their arena is downtown.

So is ours. Kanata is a town.

God I hate Kanata

Dreger saying it's not complete. I guess we'll find out soon enough...

I wonder if the BOG had pre-approved a move to Winnipeg pending a deal and all that's waiting is the deal to be finalized.

wprager wrote:

Oglethorpe wrote:I don't see how Winnipeg will be able to support a team. Ottawa barely can and we have about 60% more population in the metropolitan area. It seems doomed to fail once our dollar recedes back to .75-.80 cents.

At least their arena is downtown.

So is ours. Kanata is a town.

I'm going to assume you forgot to put the winky.



Population of the entire province of Manitoba: approx. 1.2M
Population of the city of Winnipeg: 633,451 (2006 Census)
Population of the Winnipeg metro area: 694,668 (2006 Census)

The metro area includes ten nearby rural municipalities and a First Nations reserve.

I think they are really going to struggle to support this team long term.

Big Ev wrote:God I hate Kanata

Why? I've been living here almost as long as you've been living. Nice place. Could have done better staying out of amalgamation, perhaps. They could have saved some money getting rid of the by-law enforcement crap and some city planner (who obviously did nothing useful anyway). Sure, you've got that useless golf course in the middle that does nothing but slow you down trying to get from one place to another, it's spread north-south like Chile with about 127 traffic lights from Bridlewood to March Rural (it's faster to bike it than use a bike/car), one Beer store for 79,000 population. The only place I know where they put in a 24-screen megaplex movie theater and then have a single 1-lane access way coming off the highway to service it, and that access way allows Loblaws shoppers to turn left against traffic into the Loblaws parking lot (thank God the show doesn't start until after a half hour of ads are crammed down your throat). Most of the greenspace I used to enjoy is now gone in favor of more housing. No schools, mind you, so you see portables stacked on top of each other and schools *open* at 170% capacity in their first year. Flooding in Glen Cairn. Tornadoes on the soccer fields. Putting up with traffic tie ups with the Sens' home games and concerts -- good luck to you if you need to get across Kanata. And who decides which streets get plowed first - if at all? They let developers get away with crap like putting in 2 inches of top soil but charge me $5,000+ per year in property taxes to support all this expansion -- why not charge the freaking builders? They aren't putting up schools or two-lane access roads or re-inforced junction boxes to hang a dining room chandellier or anything to make you excited in a good way. At least the brownouts are down, but that has a lot more to do with layoffs in the high-tech sector than anything else, I'd bet. Dandelions, skunks, grubs, turkeys, deer droppings -- how can you maintain a lawn like that?

I guess I'm with you after all Big Ev. Kanata sucks. But it's still better than Barf Heavin'

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:

Oglethorpe wrote:I don't see how Winnipeg will be able to support a team. Ottawa barely can and we have about 60% more population in the metropolitan area. It seems doomed to fail once our dollar recedes back to .75-.80 cents.

At least their arena is downtown.

So is ours. Kanata is a town.

I'm going to assume you forgot to put the winky.



Population of the entire province of Manitoba: approx. 1.2M
Population of the city of Winnipeg: 633,451 (2006 Census)
Population of the Winnipeg metro area: 694,668 (2006 Census)

The metro area includes ten nearby rural municipalities and a First Nations reserve.

I think they are really going to struggle to support this team long term.

Well, with all the people moaning about the drive out to Kanata, I'd say it's mostly the 79,000 that live *in* Kanata, that support the Sens. Certainly, no-one from the Quebec side would come down, at least not in any large numbers. No-one from the far east, Orleans, would either. Take downtown Ottawa (population: 357 after 4:30 PM), Nepean, Kanata and half of Barrhaven, and you don't have any more population than Winnipeg. I'd say they'll get just as many season ticket holders because the population *near* the arena is probably likely greater. It's all nice to say that the Greater Ottawa Area has a population of over 1 million, but the truth is that the population that would consider getting season tickets is much, much smaller than that.

Valid points. The "city" of Ottawa has close to a million people now, so a larger pool to pull from.

Hopefully Winnipeg's thirst for getting a team back will help it get the support the team needs.

I know several season ticket holders right here in Morrisburg plus groups of kids go to the odd game as well.

shabbs wrote:Valid points. The "city" of Ottawa has close to a million people now, so a larger pool to pull from.

Hopefully Winnipeg's thirst for getting a team back will help it get the support the team needs.

It's a different population, though. I don't know if it's because there's less going on or what. Personally, even if I had the money I could hardly find the time. And I suspect a lot of people in high-tech are in the same boat. It's a bit of an irony that way -- they have the money but not the time. And then there's the government workers, who have the time but not the money. The population is aging, though, and government pensions are probably going to help to fill some more seats.

Anyhow, back to my point. Winnipeg has supported their Blue Bombers, which is something that Ottawa has not been able to do. They've lost their football team twice, and it's baseball team, as well. It looks like the people who b*tched and moaned about the SBP location don't have an excuse there. And the cash outlay was certainly much less (and in the case of the Rough Riders the time commitment was very small by comparison.

And at the end of the day, Winnipeg will out-draw Atlanta, there's no doubt about that.

SeawaySensFan wrote:I know several season ticket holders right here in Morrisburg plus groups of kids go to the odd game as well.

"Several" doesn't fill the upper bowl.

Winnipeg also has a smaller arena to fill. The arena is also downtown, which is a huge plus. I have a lot of friends here who simply don't go to games as it is a huge inconvenience.

Welcome home...



Logos and jerseys from the old days...

http://www.winnipegjetsonline.com/logosJerseys.htm

From their inaugural season in the WHA...

wprager wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:I know several season ticket holders right here in Morrisburg plus groups of kids go to the odd game as well.

"Several" doesn't fill the upper bowl.

I didn't have time to finish what I started here. My point is that the ticket-buying fanbase reaches even beyond the NCR.

So who goes East? Nashville or Columbus? Geographically, Nashville is closer but they also have a good thing going in the WC. I think it will be Columbus. The league knows that franchise is bleeding money so getting Crosby and Ovechkin into the building more, plus lower travel costs, helps the CBJ.

dennycrane wrote:So who goes East? Nashville or Columbus? Geographically, Nashville is closer but they also have a good thing going in the WC. I think it will be Columbus. The league knows that franchise is bleeding money so getting Crosby and Ovechkin into the building more, plus lower travel costs, helps the CBJ.

I'm willing to bet they just slot Winnipeg in where Atlanta was in the South East for next season for a "quick fix" and then they'll look at a re-balancing after next season.

Detroit going east makes the most sense. Put Detroit in the South East and put Winnipeg in the Central.

Done.

And nice spelling of Winnipeg there in the thread title Spezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....