‘This is a strong NHL market’: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman downplays Jets attendance concerns

Despite ranking 30th in the National Hockey League in average attendance against capacity this season, the Winnipeg Jets don’t appear to be at any risk of relocating for a second time.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman held a media availability on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the Jets’ game against the St. Louis Blues at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.

The 15,321-seat hockey arena has hosted the Jets since they initially relocated from Atlanta, GA in 2011. But through their first 29 home games of the 2023–24 regular season, the Jets have averaged just 13,140 tickets sold, with large swaths of empty seats in what is already one of the league’s smaller arenas.

Jets chairman and governor Mark Chipman recently made headlines with his comments about the team’s languishing attendance, but Bettman smoothed over some of those concerns in his press conference on Tuesday.

“Obviously, the attendance needs to improve, but it will. I have confidence in the organization and, as importantly, I have confidence in this community,” Bettman said. “This is a place, Winnipeg, where hockey matters. I believe this is a strong NHL market.

“I believe that ownership has made extraordinary commitments to the Jets, to this arena, to the downtown area,” Bettman added. “I’m not sure why people are now speculating that, somehow, they’re not going to be here.”

We’re taking you LIVE to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly's pregame media availability at Canada Life Centre. https://t.co/jIHzmyhXse

— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) February 27, 2024

Bettman also noted that the Jets have been a consistent playoff team in recent years and routinely spend up to or near the league’s salary cap ceiling.

“At the end of the day, we could go through a litany of reasons that are either true or speculated to be true as to how the attendance situation got to where it is,” Bettman said. “It kind of doesn’t really matter because teams go through different ups and downs. I believe that the season ticket base and the attendance will evolve back to where it was.

“I was quoted in 2011 saying, ‘For this to work well, the building’s got to be full,’ and that’s true, and I know that Mark Chipman and [team owner] David Thomson aren’t interested in just surviving in the NHL. They want to thrive.”

The Jets currently lead the Blues by a 3-2 score in the second intermission of Tuesday’s game at Canada Life Centre. With a win, the Jets would move into a tie with the Dallas Stars for first place in the Central Division.

This is the second iteration of the Jets to play in the NHL. The first joined the league in 1979 from the rival World Hockey Association and existed until 1996, when they relocated to Phoenix, AZ to become what are now the Arizona Coyotes.