It's Hell Without the NHL

No one but a Winnipegger can understand the psychological effect of the Jets, our short-lived NHL team, who were relocated to greener pastures in Phoenix in 1996, when I was but twelve years old. At that point, a city already dealing with an inferiority complex was dealt a crucial blow. It is part of the Winnipeg imaginary that we are not world class, we are not an important capital, we do not have any attractions that tend to draw observers from the outside world (there’s that Golden Boy, who sits atop our provincial legislative building, but he doesn’t even have a penis. So what good is he?). But all this may be changing, because hockey may be leaving the desert and coming back to the blizzard.

For any follower of the NHL, it’s not news that the Phoenix Coyotes have had financial problems for a long time, thanks to a generally dismal on-ice product and uninterested audiences who show their disinterest by not buying tickets. But things are coming to a head, as investor Matthew Hulsizer, who has serious intentions to buy the team and keep it in Glendale (where the Coyotes play), is being held up at every turn by the righteous Goldwater group. The Goldwater group, from what I can understand, is a private group consisting of the wealthier sect of Glendale, who has the cache to just step in and interrupt civic processes. They’re rich, so I guess it makes sense. But it’s crazy that even Elaine Scruggs, the mayor of Glendale, is supporting Hulsizer’s bid, and this is still not enough to stop the Goldwater group in its tracks. The Goldwater group has several objections to the Coyotes remaining in Glendale, and they claim that their objections are representative of the whole city’s concerns. Fair enough. Either way, I’m on board with these rich folks. If their interfering halts the deal and brings a hockey team to my city, I’m behind the richies.

There’s a lot of dissention on this subject within the NHL, several players of the Coyotes already voicing their distaste at leaving the desert for the prairie. My sensitive response to this concern is: fuck yourselves, millionaires. Hockey was born in our country, and it was a travesty when Winnipeg lost the NHL, just as it was a travesty when Quebec City lost the NHL in 1995. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has to admit that his short sighted expansion experiment has, in large part, failed. Certainly the return of the NHL to Colorado and Minnesota is justifiable, as these communities love hockey and need teams. But why are we even pretending that the NHL should be in Tampa Bay, or Phoenix, or Atlanta? People don’t give a shit about hockey in these communities, and though the teams can often muster enough cash to land big time players, the audiences speak for themselves. My feeling is that these crowds see hockey largely as a spectacle, and that once they’ve seen a game or two, it’s back to the bayou with the camera. And that’s fair enough. It’s not in their blood, like it’s in Canadian blood. True to their sluggish nature, Americans prefer sports that aren’t so fast-paced, like baseball. It hurts their eyes to move too quick, their heads to think too quick. Remember when Fox Sports had that blue light around the puck?

All we can do is wait, and hope, as the situation with the Goldwater group, Matthew Hulsizer, the city of Glendale, and Elaine Scruggs gets strung along and strung along. It looks good right now, but Gary Bettman will clearly do all he can to keep the NHL in his beloved United States, even if the people of that country meet his misguided efforts with apathy and low ticket sales. If all this doesn’t pan out for Winnipeg? We wait out the Atlanta situation, I guess.

Comments

[G]

Ha, hey Trevor; funny...I'm actually from the Peoria/Glendale area and was also about 12 when the Coyotes (formerly the...whatever they were ;)) came to Arizona. They broke out with a lot of attention and good publicity, it's too bad it didn't last.

My childhood friend/travel partner and I are hockey players ourselves and went to a game a couple of years ago and it was truly abysmal. Even having a nice guy give us seats down against the glass didn't redeem it - then we could just be bored up close. There were no big names to connect with, and Phoenix - in our opinion - has a terrible habit of trading or selling off players, in all pro sports, just as soon as you do start getting used to certain names and faces.

Still, we've gotten pretty used to having all 4 major sports in AZ (we HATE baseball btw...though being in the World (snigger) Series was kinda cool and made it almost fun for a minute). It'll be weird if we go back to the States and have no team there anymore... :(