True North Sports & Entertainment Chair Mark Chipman "confirmed weeks of speculation Friday night at the NHL's entry draft" when he revealed that Winnipeg's NHL franchise will be named the Jets, according to Tait & Kirbyson of the WINNIPEG FREE PRESS. Chipman said that the name "wasn't as much a slam dunk as so many would believe." True North officials "carefully considered other options," and they "wrestled with the idea of using Manitoba instead of Winnipeg." True North's AHL franchise was named the Manitoba Moose, and Chipman said, "We felt strongly about 'Manitoba' in a number of scenarios and carried that name for the past 15 years and were very proud of the name we had and the success we had." However, the "overwhelming fan support for the Jets name ultimately helped confirm their decision," and "history was a critical factor." Chipman: "Winnipeg Jets has got so much equity in it, well-deserved equity, it seemed right to take it forward and not mess around with taking forward in its original form." Chipman said the decision was not official until last week when it "became absolutely clear to me that it was the right thing to do." Tait & Kirbyson noted the team "will sport a different logo and colours" than the Jets did previously, and Chipman said that the "new look likely won't be unveiled for quite some time -- perhaps not until late summer" (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, 6/25). Chipman: "It will be a very different look than what we had when the team left back in 1996. It won't be (ready) for some time here. We would have loved to have a prototype out there (Friday) but there's some concern it would be knocked off quickly and sold in an inappropriate way" (WINNIPEG SUN, 6/25).
JUST MAKES SENSE: Chipman said, "It wasn't a real easy decision to make at first. We thought about the possibility of doing something new and going in a different direction. But in the end, we just kept coming back to it. It was the right decision to make -- so much great heritage and history behind the name" ("2011 NHL Draft," Versus, 6/24). In Winnipeg, Ted Wyman wrote naming the franchise the Jets "makes sense on so many levels." The name "not only honours the city's hockey history, but returns a piece of Winnipeg's identity that lingered on life support for 15 years after the original Jets left town." Wyman: "It's for the people who grew up with the Winnipeg Jets and felt heartbreak when they left but never really let them go." There is "no doubt some people in the True North organization wanted to go in a different direction," and that "would have been OK too, but it would not have been the same." Wyman: "There is an attachment to the name Jets that runs deep in this city" (WINNIPEG SUN, 6/25). YAHOO SPORTS' Nicholas Cotsonika wrote naming the team the Jets "just makes sense." Cotsonika: "The Jets were the team they lost. The Jets were theirs, and even if the Coyotes will keep the old team's history, even if the new uniform will look nothing like the old one when it is eventually unveiled, the Jets are now theirs again." It was "simply right to listen to the wishes of fans who had snapped up" all available season tickets "within minutes" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 6/25).
ENTHUSIASTIC RESPONSE: In Winnipeg, Meghan Potkins noted True North Friday held a draft viewing party at MTS Centre, and the arena "thundered with the grateful roar of nearly 4,000 hockey fans" when the name was announced prior to the team's first-round pick. Chipman introduced the nickname by saying "on behalf of the Winnipeg Jets," and that phrase "seemed to hang in the air for only the briefest moment before a deluge of ecstatic sound erupted in the arena" (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, 6/25). Chipman said “The community has responded in such an incredible way, beyond what we really ever could have expected. It makes it very gratifying that everybody is as excited and as fired up as they are right now” (“2011 NHL Draft,” Versus, 6/24).
KEYS TO THE RETURN: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, when asked Friday how Winnipeg got "to the top of your list" for a relocated franchise, said, "It was a combination of persistence, professionalism, preparedness and the right circumstances. The circumstances were twofold. One, you have owners who were NHL-calibre who wanted to do it and two, you had a new arena. Those two things were markedly absent 15 years ago. The third factor was that this was an opportunity with the change in circumstance that if a team became available, to go back to a place where we believe NHL hockey would work again." Bettman added, "Winnipeg has withstood the recession perhaps better than any major city in Canada. The population base, the economic base, they are stronger than they were when the Jets left" (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, 6/25).
HOW THE STORY'S TOLD: The Winnipeg Free Press is "pairing with Penguin Books to publish a commemorative book that will mark Winnipeg's historic re-entry" into the NHL. The book, entitled "Back In The Bigs: How Winnipeg Won, Lost and Regained its Place in the NHL," will be written by the Winnipeg Free Press' Randy Turner and is "due out in September" (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, 6/25).
