The best team in the NHL resides in the league’s smallest market and features the NHL’s second-lowest valuation, per Sportico. And despite getting a second chance at life in the league, it’s struggled at the gate.
The Winnipeg Jets come into their Tuesday night showdown in New York against the Rangers after a 14-1-0 start, the best through a team’s first 15 games in NHL history. Much of the fast-opening month comes off the superb play in net from goalie Connor Hellebuyck, but the Jets also boast the league’s best power play and total offense.
Just a few months ago, there was talk about a potential relocation as season ticket deposits had dropped by 27% over the previous three seasons—from just shy of 13,000 to around 9,500 last year. Despite boasting the second-best record in the Western Conference in 2023-24, the Jets drew under 88% capacity in what was already the smallest NHL-primed rink in the league, the 15,004-seat Canada Life Centre. (The defunct Arizona Coyotes—now Utah Hockey Club–played in a 4,000-seat college arena at Arizona State.)
This wasn’t rampant speculation from the nether corners of social media, as team chairman Mark Chipman had openly wondered about the team’s future in Winnipeg in an interview with The Athletic last spring. “I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t say, ‘We’ve got to get back to 13,000,’” Chipman said about the season ticket renewals. “This place we find ourselves in right now, it’s not going to work over the long haul. It just isn’t.”
With a total value of $1.1 billion, the Jets are 31st in Sportico’s latest NHL franchise valuations, which were published in late October. That’s second-to-last among all teams and just $40 million more than the Columbus Blue Jackets. Separating the Canada Life Centre, which is worth $80 million on its own, the team itself is valued at $1.02 billion, which is last in the NHL. Last season, the Jets earned $169 million in revenue, a 6.3% increase from 2022-23 and a 13.7% rise from 2021-22. Five teams pulled in less revenue.
While it may be too early to determine if the True North-owned franchise has turned a corner, the historic start has filled a few more seats at the home rink. In nine home games, the Jets have averaged 13,764 fans, which is a nominal uptick from the 13,490 average per game for all of 2023-24. Canada Life Centre is at 91.7% capacity compared to last season’s 88%.
The Jets have only sold out two of their home games —their lone defeat against Toronto on Oct. 28 and the last contest against the Dallas Stars on Nov. 9—with three straight home games with around 12,900 fans in between. However, whereas the Maple Leafs are a historic draw for the other six Canadian teams, packing the house for a solid team from Texas may be a step in the right direction.
The Jets’ lack of drawing power hasn’t been as simple as fielding bad teams. Winnipeg is coming off a 2023-24 campaign when it tied a franchise record with 52 wins and earned 110 points. Since the franchise relocated from Atlanta (formerly the Thrashers) ahead of the 2011-12 season, the Jets have finished with a sub-.500 record just once.
However, just like the original Jets who played in the city from 1972 in the World Hockey Association until 1995 when they moved to Arizona, Stanley Cup playoff disappointment is littered through Winnipeg’s history. (It won three titles in the WHA before joining the NHL in 1979.) Back-to-back first-round exits in the last two years and a single conference finals appearance (2018) hasn’t exactly inspired fans to keep coming to games.
There are also the economic realities of the city itself. Winnipeg, a prairie city known mainly for agriculture and manufacturing, lags its larger-market brethren in Canada and the U.S. in having a bevy of corporations to buy ticket packages and premium seating. The Jets are more reliant on fans keeping season tickets within their families, a shaky proposition for those who have dealt with job losses and other financial hardships.
Winnipeg begins a challenging stretch of games through early December, starting with the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Eleven of its next 13 games will be away from Canada Life Centre, including a six-game stretch in Pittsburgh, Nashville, St. Paul, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Dallas. If the Jets keep up their torrid pace through these road-heavy weeks, chances can only improve for home sellouts during the holidays and an eight-game homestand in January.