Winnipeg Jets Won’t Need Help From NHL’s Revenue Sharing Program

Half the league participates in the NHL’s revenue sharing program, in which revenue from the top half of the league is redistributed to the bottom half. In order to be eligible for revenue sharing, teams must be located in a media market under two million people and must rank in the bottom 15 in per-team revenue.

The Jets have sold out all 41 games at the 15,000-seat MTS Centre this season, but those numbers on their own are highly predictable. Higher-than-expected revenues via merchandise sales and broadcast partnererships fueled Winnipeg’s jump into the NHL’s wealthy tier.

But in the end, after the real jerseys were announced, how close did the counterfeiters actually come to nailing the design? Let’s take a look. First, here’s a look at the fakes:

Compared to the real jerseys, though, they really aren’t that far off. Via the Jets:

Jerseys will not be available until October, which doesn’t make sense at all. But as general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said, the jersey design and approval process usually takes much longer than it did this summer for the Jets, so perhaps that’s part of the reason why. Pre-orders are available immediately on the Jets website, however.

For more on the Jets all season long, check in with Arctic Ice Hockey.

They feature the same red, white and blue color scheme as the old Winnipeg Jets that left town in the ‘90s, although the actual logo is actually quite different. Via the team:

The logo on the left is the primary logo, and it is indeed the logo that was leaked prior to the announcement. Shortly after that leak, the word came out that the Jets were going to officially make this announcement, so it’s possible the leak had something to do with the timing here.

After a few weeks of the True North group debating about what the new Winnipeg team should actually call themselves, it seemed that they finally buckled into fan pressure in bringing back the old Jets moniker after the original team left for Phoenix back in 1996.

The Jets will eventually debut their jerseys at some point in the summer and the one thing that we know is that those jerseys will fly off the shelves fairly quickly. The Jets fans have shown that they are a diehard group of fans.

Of course, the problem with that is simple: we still can’t call the Winnipeg NHL team anything but the “Winnipeg NHL team,” and that makes everything really awkward. They have no identity. As you might imagine, the new website reflects this pretty well.

If you’re still not getting the link concept on the Internet, don’t worry. This is what winnipeg.nhl.com looks like.

This isn’t really news, other than the fact that it’s news. We knew it would happen, and there was literally no doubt in anybody’s mind that this wouldn’t happen.

Next on the agenda is the building of a hockey team, and new general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has a lot more to do. There’s still no head coach for the team, and of more importance to most people, there’s not even a name for the club yet. At the draft on Friday night, when Cheveldayoff and Co. select 8th overall, it’s expected that they’ll just hand off a generic jersey to their pick. Should be fun.

Winnipeg’s new NHL team is this much closer to having a new head coach, but it means that they’re current head coach won’t be making the move. Craig Ramsay will be sticking around in Atlanta when the Mayflower vans move out, as the new owners told him on Monday that he’s out of the running for the new head coaching job in Winnipeg.

It’s understandable: presumably, the new ownership wants to put their own guy in charge. It’s common in every business, not just hockey, and it also looks like their guy will be either Chicago Blackhawks assistant Mike Haviland or former Manitoba Moose head coach Claude Noel.

They’ve been in hospice care, and today we pull the plug. Today is the final day of the Atlanta Thrashers.

Any change in ownership needs to be approved by three-fourths of the Board, while the relocation bid to Winnipeg only needs to be approved by a majority of the Board. When looking at relocation, the Board is supposed to take into account things like the viability of the new market and if there were legitimate reasons to leave the original market.

Believe it or not, America doesn’t get most of it’s imported oil from the Middle East. Instead, most of it comes from the vast oil fields of Western Canada, and if as a hockey fan you didn’t realize they had oil in Canada, perhaps you should think about that hockey team that plays in Edmonton.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart did a fierce expose on our “Canadian Oilverlords” on Thursday night, analyzing the hold they have over us and why they hate us so much. As it turns out, it all comes back to hockey.

Reports from various outlets have followed that Kevin Cheveldayoff will take over as general manager. Cheveldayoff has led the IHL/AHL’s Chicago Wolves since 1997, and in that time the team won two IHL Turner Cups and two AHL Calder Cups. Perhaps ironically, Cheveldayoff worked with the Thrashers organization previously, as the Wolves were their AHL affiliate.

Manitoba Moose general manager Craig Heisinger will also have a position within the new organization, although it’s unknown if he’ll be working in St. John’s, where the AHL team is relocating, or if he’ll be sticking around in Winnipeg with the NHL club.

Over the weekend, a report surfaced suggesting that “Winnipeg Whiteout” could be the new name of that city’s NHL team. Not the Jets or Manitoba Moose or anything -- but the “Whiteout.” If you’re thinking that sounds terrible lame and minor league, you’re not alone. It does.

So why would somebody think that’s the name? Chris Creamer over at SportsLogos.net did some detective work using the Canadian Intellectual Property Office’s online database, and found that, to date, the only trademark that’s been registered by True North Sports and Entertainment is the “Whiteout.” See for yourself right here.

Hope you didn’t sleep in on this Saturday, Winnipeg NHL fans. If for some reason you weren’t around to buy season tickets to your new hockey team at 12 p.m. CT, you’ve already lost your chance.

That’s just absolutely incredible, and it sends a damn strong message to the NHL’s Board of Governors that Winnipeg’s population will throw their support behind NHL hockey. The Board votes to approve or disapprove the relocation bid on June 21.

It was expected that the City of Winnipeg would jump out of their seats to buy up season tickets to their shiny new NHL team, and that’s exactly what’s happened.

True North Sports and Entertainment, the new owners of the Atlanta Thrashers, haven’t even opened sales up to the general public yet, and as of 4:30 p.m. local time on Friday, they had sold 7,158 season ticket packages. The presale, open since Wednesday, was open to corporate sponsors and former season ticket holders of the AHL’s Manitoba Moose.

True North Sports and Entertainment is in the midst of their Drive to 13,000 season tickets, and according to CBC News, they won’t announce a team name until that campaign is over. Scott Brown of TNSE said that the company doesn’t want to get people ahead of the curve, and that they want the focus to remain on the all-important ticket drive.

The campaign will have to end by June 21 at the latest, when the BoG meets to vote on the relocation proposal. Likely, it will end before that, but that’s dependent on when the 13,000 goal is met. It could be a day after tickets go on sale to the general public on Saturday, or it could be a week or two after.

There’s a bit of intrigue this Thursday on the sale of the Atlanta Thrashers to True North Sports, the group that’s relocating the team to Winnipeg.

As you are likely aware, True North has started a ticket campaign, trying to get 13,000 season tickets sold for the new team in advance of the NHL’s June 21 Board of Governors meeting. At that meeting, they will vote to allow the relocation, and part of the terms of accepting that relocation are that Winnipeg can support an NHL franchise.

Fans of the new NHL team in Winnipeg, the relocated Atlanta Thrashers, purchased 1,870 tickets as of 4:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday, according to True North’s driveto13.com Web site.

Tickets were made available beginning at 12 p.m. local time on Wednesday to a select group of current Manitoba Moose season ticket holders. Between the start of the pre-sale and Noon local time on Saturday, Moose season ticket holders will all get their chance to grab tickets before they go on sale to the general public.

True North Sports and Entertainment chairman Mark Chipman appeared on Hockey Night In Canada Radio on Wednesday afternoon, and among other things, he noted that the new Winnipeg NHL franchise will keep Nos. 9 and 25 retired in the rafters of the MTS Centre.

Bobby’s son Brett Hull briefly played with the Coyotes in 2005 and the team “unretired” No. 9 briefly so he could wear it.

Over the last two days, however, we’ve learned these things are either A) not true or B) not a hinderance.

On Tuesday in Winnipeg at the sale announcement, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told media that the NHL would allow the Winnipeg franchise to use the Jets name if they so desired. The NHL currently owns the Coyotes franchise, and thus has control of that name until they sell.

With the NHL’s return to Winnipeg, there’s been a lot of talk and speculation on exactly what could happen with the AHL team that’s called the ‘Peg home since 1996. Both the NHL club and the Manitoba Moose can’t call the MTS Centre home at the same time, and as a result, the Moose will be on the move.

Until today, there was only speculation. Now, we know where they’ll be going. According to The Telegram of St. John’s, N.L., the Moose will be on the move to their city.

In the meantime, as the new owners are busy selling season tickets in an attempt to prove that Winnipeg is a viable NHL market, the hockey world keeps spinning. There’s a team assembled in Atlanta and those hockey operations will be on the move to Winnipeg.

We don’t know exactly who will head up those operations, with True North’s Mark Chipman saying that he’s yet to talk with Thrashers GM Rick Dudley and that current Manitoba Moose general manager Craig Heisinger will play some role in operating the new Winnipeg NHL club.

The NHL is heading back to Winnipeg.

That move is pending approval from the NHL’s Board of Governors, but given the presence of Commissioner Gary Bettman at the press conference today and the nice shiny NHL logo on the back drop in the interview room, that’s only a formality. The Board of Governors meets on June 21.

You can watch that press conference live here, via this stream from the Winnipeg Free Press. It’s now scheduled to start around 12:15 p.m. ET.

This announcement will provoke parties in the streets of Winnipeg. Local officials are telling fans to avoid the usual party spot of Portage and Main in Winnipeg’s downtown -- after all, it is a work day today -- and instead are urging fans to party at The Forks, another local gathering spot where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet.

Any deal is pending Board of Governors approval from the NHL, but it’s expected that’s just a formality. The BoG meets next in late June.

The Winnipeg Free Press is reporting that the deal is not yet through, but that both sides, plus the NHL, feel comfortable enough to announce the deal today. It makes sense: the NHL doesn’t want this taking away from the Stanley Cup Final, which begins Wednesday, and surely without an announcement, it would be the dark cloud hanging over the head of the entire league.

Over the Memorial Day weekend in the United States, the news came out of Atlanta that there was another potential local owner interested in purchasing the Thrashers and keeping them in town. So much for that.

McKenzie reports that the lawyers for True North have signed the deal, and they’re just waiting on the lawyers with Atlanta Spirit Group to do the same. He notes that if that happens today, the deal will be announced on Tuesday morning. Who knows exactly how the holiday impacts things, but presumably lawyers still have their pen skills despite the day of remembrance.