WINNIPEG SEAT CAMPAIGN SPUTTERS

     The Manitoba Entertainment Complex (MEC) "has hit a wall"
with its marketing campaign to sell 40 skyboxes and 1,500 club
seats in the Winnipeg Jets' new arena by the end of November.
Karen Theobald of FL-based Theobald & Associates Marketing is
handling the campaign and says so far 38 luxury boxes and "barely
over 500" club seats have been sold.  Theobald is "really
frustrated" by the club seat response:  "There are major
corporations that owe their success to this community and yet
they haven't purchased. ... This isn't about the Jets and tickets
to a few hockey games.  The Jets are part of it, but this is
about a building.  This is about Winnipeg's future" (Scott
Taylor, WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, 11/2).  MEC Chair John Loewen said
his group is considering a telethon as part of the campaign (Ed
Willes, WINNIPEG SUN, 11/2).  In a separate WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
piece, Scott Taylor profiles Theobald.  "Those who know her call
her 'a firecracker,' and those who don't wonder how an 'outsider'
got a contract many Winnipeg executives would die to have"
(WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, 11/2).