'It's definitely beyond a rumour': WHL fans in B.C. seem convinced team will move to Winnipeg

Winnipeg appears poised to become the only city in Canada to ice two professional hockey franchisesand a major junior team.

Themounting speculation even forced Western Hockey League fans in Cranbrook, B.C., to abandon theirticket drivebecause organizersbelieve they cannot stop the clubfrom heading to Winnipeg.

"It's definitely beyond a rumour," saidJohn Hudak, director of marketing for the now-defunct Green Bay Committee.

If it happens, Winnipeg's rabid hockey fanswill have another team to call their own, in addition to theNHL'sWinnipeg Jets and AHL'sManitoba Moose, both operated by True North Sportsand Entertainment.

In Cranbrook, Hudak said the fan-led effort to savethe Kootenay Ice has been met with inaction from the very ownership group they were trying to help.

He said he spoke with Ice minority partner Matt Cockell a few weeks ago, who conveyed he and his majority partner, Greg Fettes, were going to watch the season ticket drive unfold from the sidelines.

Average attendancesaggedto around 2,500 a game this fall.

Owners sat on hands: Hudak

"They were going to stand by and observe," Hudak said in disbelief. "They'rethe peoplewho have all the money in the game, the skin in the game, that's an odd stance."

After receiving no answer after inquiring about theteam's future,theydisbanded their ticket drive earlier this week.

Hudaksaid he hasn't heard aresponsefrom Icebrass.

"Theclub has been silent andthe commissioner, theWHL office, has been silent also, which is somewhat perplexing," said Hudak, who's heard from "substantial contacts" of his in the hockey world that the team's move is imminent.

"People are feeling let down by the ownership group."

Attendance jumped last season, the first under the Winnipeg ownership group, which shows Fettes and Cocknell tried to make the league's second smallest market work, said Keith Powell, publisher ofKootenayBusiness. He hopes they haven't given up.

"They've built that foundation which they can build on.I don't think they should give up on the market."

Winnipeg roots

Meanwhile, all signs point to Winnipegas the future home of the club.

Fettes and Cockell, both from Winnipeg, acquired the franchise in April2017 fromthe Chynoweth family. Fettesis the founder of 24-7 Intouch, a global customer service outsourcing company, and Cockellis a former True North Sports and Entertainment executive.

The team's head coach and communications director hail from Winnipeg originally, as do their first and third picks in the 2018bantam draft Carson Lambos and Skyler Bruce, respectively.

A Winnipeg-fronted team would be the city's firstshot at theWestern Hockey Leaguesince 1984 when the Warriors, plagued by waning attendance and a lacklustreon-ice product, hung up the skates.

Recent media reports have suggested the team wouldplay out of the University of Manitoba's 1,400-seat Wayne Fleming Arena as they waitfor The Rink to build a new arenaoutside Winnipeg, off of McGillivray Boulevard.

TheKootenayIce, however, cannot be moved without two-thirds approval from the league's board of governors.

Requests for comment fromFettes, the KootenayIce and The Rink were not returned.

RM of Macdonald Reeve Brad Erbsaid he's only heard rumours a 5,000-seat arena would be built in his municipality, at the southwestern edge of Winnipeg.

With the Jets, Moose and a new WHL team, Winnipeg would suddenly become a crowded hockey market.

A University of Winnipegprofessor who'sstudied the economics of sportsaid amajor junior offering wouldhave tocarve out a new identity.

"I would have been more optimistic if the Moose weren't here,"said economics professor PhilCyrenne.

"The lower-end market niche, the Moose, I think, is filling a little bit. The only way it could survive is if they really focus on locallocal players."

Under-servedmarket

While Cyrenne acknowledged they'd belimited in terms of which players theycan draft and trade for, he said Winnipeg is under-served by junior hockey.

Rick Brownlee, executive director of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, said the previous iteration of a Winnipeg WHLsquad was "almost destined to fail."

AsWinnipeggers, we sometimes tend to be pessimistic when we get new things coming to us-DaynaSpiring, president and CEO of Economic Development Winnipeg

Fans didn't havetime for shoddy hockey after their Jets, a dynasty in the late 1970s, was picked apart as a condition of the WHA's merger with the NHL.

"People were resentful thatthat's what happened to our beloved franchise, so there was not much of an appetite for a losing hockey team," Brownlee said. "It showed at the NHL level and Ithink it trickled down."

With the city growing to 700,000 residents, he thinks Winnipegcan handle a WHLfranchise if tickets are priced differently thanthe going cost forNHL and AHLgames.

Brownlee's concerned, though, for the future of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League's Winnipeg Blues, which have survivedattendance woes for years. They are the only city team remaining in the MJHL.

If the Kootenay owners choose to uproot to Winnipeg, Hockey Manitoba's Peter Woods is confident they will know what they're getting into.

"I'm sure they'vedone their due diligence and they feel that there's a market there."

Hockey town

DaynaSpiring, president and CEO of Economic Development Winnipeg, said it'd be an interesting "claim to fame" if Winnipeg welcomes aNHL, AHL and a major junior team.

The last time that's happened anywherewas in Toronto in 2007, according to hockey historian Eric Zweig.

Spiring said Winnipeg is clearly a hockey town, evidenced recentlybythe whiteout street parties during the Jets' Stanley Cup run this spring.

"As Winnipeggers, we sometimes tend to be pessimistic when we get new things coming to us," Spiring said."Ithink there are a lot of peoplethat are going to do the business case andmake sure the numbers make sense, but Ithink Winnipeggers will come behind their team."