OT: Winnipeg ICE 2021-2022 [ICE @ Brandon Fri Dec 17]

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jetsmooseice

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Has ground been broken on their new arena?

There was a news article last week that said between zoning issues and the pandemic, the arena project has been delayed enough that the Ice will be playing one more year (through 2021-22) at Wayne Fleming Arena. And you can probably bet there are other issues that weren't mentioned in the article.

I wonder what the prospects are for the WHL's 2020-21 season at this point?
 

Al Camino

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Jul 18, 2018
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There was a news article last week that said between zoning issues and the pandemic, the arena project has been delayed enough that the Ice will be playing one more year (through 2021-22) at Wayne Fleming Arena. And you can probably bet there are other issues that weren't mentioned in the article.

I wonder what the prospects are for the WHL's 2020-21 season at this point?
I would think until they can play in front of people they likely won't be playing. Most if not all of the operating money comes from gate and people in the arena.
 

lanky

Feeling Spicy
Jun 23, 2007
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I'm hoping they give up on expanding at McGillivray. Build at UofM instead.

-rapid transit
-Bison mens and womens teams benefit
-Winnipeg tax revenue instead of RM of MacDonald
 

Al Camino

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I'm hoping they give up on expanding at McGillivray. Build at UofM instead.

-rapid transit
-Bison mens and womens teams benefit
-Winnipeg tax revenue instead of RM of MacDonald
I'm not a fan of that location either. Not much going out there as far as amenities and traffic but I suspect that the costs of building, taxes etc are the main reason for it. I know the owners have deep pockets but I can't imagine they want continue to play in a 1,600 seat venue for a season beyond next year. That's less then they were drawing in Cranbrook.
 

Guardian17

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Aug 29, 2010
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There was a news article last week that said between zoning issues and the pandemic, the arena project has been delayed enough that the Ice will be playing one more year (through 2021-22) at Wayne Fleming Arena. And you can probably bet there are other issues that weren't mentioned in the article.

I wonder what the prospects are for the WHL's 2020-21 season at this point?

Is this the article?

Fettes said the ownership group, which also includes Ice president and general manager Matt Cockell, will need at least two years to build a new arena. Since construction has yet to begin, the team will need to spend an additional year at the U of M.

Now, the earliest the Ice will be playing in its new home would be the start of the 2022-23 season.


Ice's shift to new arena pushed back
 

jetsmooseice

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Is this the article?

Fettes said the ownership group, which also includes Ice president and general manager Matt Cockell, will need at least two years to build a new arena. Since construction has yet to begin, the team will need to spend an additional year at the U of M.

Now, the earliest the Ice will be playing in its new home would be the start of the 2022-23 season.


Ice's shift to new arena pushed back

That's the article.

It will be interesting to see whether there is going to be a WHL season this year and if not, what effect that will have on the Ice and their plans including for a new arena. This team is poised to do great things so I really hope we'll get to see them play.
 

Hollywood3

Bison/Jet/Moose Fan
May 12, 2007
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Is this the article?

Fettes said the ownership group, which also includes Ice president and general manager Matt Cockell, will need at least two years to build a new arena. Since construction has yet to begin, the team will need to spend an additional year at the U of M.

Now, the earliest the Ice will be playing in its new home would be the start of the 2022-23 season.


Ice's shift to new arena pushed back
All I can guarantee is that there is no money from the U of M. However, they do have land.
 

jetsmooseice

Let Chevy Cook
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All I can guarantee is that there is no money from the U of M. However, they do have land.

Money from U of M was never part of the plan, 50 Below was always planning to build the WHL arena by itself on its land out at The Rink on McGillivray. Although with the way things have gone this year, who the hell knows anymore.

In related news, WHL import draft goes today... Ice have the maximum two picks. (Does that mean Teply isn't coming back? We already know Kinder is going to Berlin of the DEL.)
 

TS Quint

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Sep 8, 2012
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The ICE are starting to get interesting. Nikkanen, Lambos, Savoie maybe Krebs still around.

How come I can watch the Neepawa Natives on tv and not the ICE? Someone needs to get on this.
 

jetsmooseice

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Gary Lawless reported yesterday that Peyton Krebs made the VGK playoff roster. Will be interesting to see if he gets any game action in, but either way still pretty impressive.
 

lanky

Feeling Spicy
Jun 23, 2007
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WHL previously said they won't play without fans, right?
If that's the case the season isn't happening.
 

jetsmooseice

Let Chevy Cook
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WHL previously said they won't play without fans, right?
If that's the case the season isn't happening.

WHL previously said all arenas must be at minimum 50% capacity in order to have a season. That is starting to look unlikely at this point, though. I can't imagine that the authorities in Saskatchewan, for example, will give the green light to having up to 3,300 fans at the Brandt Centre in a few months time.

That said, the Ice operated with all but a handful of games drawing less than a thousand fans. I remember going to some midweek games where it looked like there were barely 500 people in the joint (even if the official attendance was much higher). So what if every WHL team could have up to, say, 1,000 fans? Could they run a season then?
 

Al Camino

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WHL previously said all arenas must be at minimum 50% capacity in order to have a season. That is starting to look unlikely at this point, though. I can't imagine that the authorities in Saskatchewan, for example, will give the green light to having up to 3,300 fans at the Brandt Centre in a few months time.

That said, the Ice operated with all but a handful of games drawing less than a thousand fans. I remember going to some midweek games where it looked like there were barely 500 people in the joint (even if the official attendance was much higher). So what if every WHL team could have up to, say, 1,000 fans? Could they run a season then?
I don't think they can. teams will small buidlings are going to have a hard time. I've been spectical that the ICE are viable in Winnipeg for a number of reasons and this won't help.
 

Al Camino

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The ICE are starting to get interesting. Nikkanen, Lambos, Savoie maybe Krebs still around.

How come I can watch the Neepawa Natives on tv and not the ICE? Someone needs to get on this.
Neepawa public TV is a wastly underated chanel. This is making me consider switching back to Bell!
 

jetsmooseice

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I don't think they can. teams will small buidlings are going to have a hard time. I've been spectical that the ICE are viable in Winnipeg for a number of reasons and this won't help.

In some respects teams with smaller venues could feel the pinch less right now. What's the current limit for gatherings in Manitoba, like 500 people? Like I said before, I went to some weeknight Ice games where there were less than a thousand people in attendance (barely 500 some nights), and I doubt they all paid for their tickets, so the numbers could potentially be not that far off from how they were last season. Much bigger hit in places like Calgary where they have thousands of paying customers a night.

But yeah, this doesn't say much for the Ice's prospects at this point. You have to wonder when or even if the new rink will get built given that no one knows when sports will return to normal. The Ice are possibly one of the worst-timed sports franchises in history... they came to Winnipeg once it already had NHL and AHL teams established, they play in the tiniest building in the CHL, and as if that wasn't tough enough now we have a pandemic on our hands. I really hope they can make it through but this is about as daunting a set of circumstances as I can imagine for a new team.

***

In happier news, today's Free Press is reporting that import G Eugen Rabcan has signed with the Ice. (Weird, no mention of it on the social media channels.) Apparently Nikkanen is waiting to see if the Finnish league gets going this fall before he makes any moves although it would be awesome to see him here this season. No one seems to know what the Hawks have planned for Teply and whether or not he'll be back.
 

Al Camino

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In some respects teams with smaller venues could feel the pinch less right now. What's the current limit for gatherings in Manitoba, like 500 people? Like I said before, I went to some weeknight Ice games where there were less than a thousand people in attendance (barely 500 some nights), and I doubt they all paid for their tickets, so the numbers could potentially be not that far off from how they were last season. Much bigger hit in places like Calgary where they have thousands of paying customers a night.

But yeah, this doesn't say much for the Ice's prospects at this point. You have to wonder when or even if the new rink will get built given that no one knows when sports will return to normal. The Ice are possibly one of the worst-timed sports franchises in history... they came to Winnipeg once it already had NHL and AHL teams established, they play in the tiniest building in the CHL, and as if that wasn't tough enough now we have a pandemic on our hands. I really hope they can make it through but this is about as daunting a set of circumstances as I can imagine for a new team.

***

In happier news, today's Free Press is reporting that import G Eugen Rabcan has signed with the Ice. (Weird, no mention of it on the social media channels.) Apparently Nikkanen is waiting to see if the Finnish league gets going this fall before he makes any moves although it would be awesome to see him here this season. No one seems to know what the Hawks have planned for Teply and whether or not he'll be back.
Full disclosure, I'm a Wheat Kings fan and the only way I would cheer for the ICE was if they were playing the Oil Kings or Hitmen or Kelowna! It is fun to speculate and makes for good conversation that's for sure. I always thought that the proposed location was going to be an issue and would Winnipegers pay 30-40 bucks to attend games. I suspect it was part of a grand plan with the Rink Acadamy but who really knows. As someone that works with business plans and balance sheets I would like to have seen the plan and research that would make them think that they could make it in market that has two teams already in an arena in that location.
 

jetsmooseice

Let Chevy Cook
Feb 20, 2020
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Full disclosure, I'm a Wheat Kings fan and the only way I would cheer for the ICE was if they were playing the Oil Kings or Hitmen or Kelowna! It is fun to speculate and makes for good conversation that's for sure. I always thought that the proposed location was going to be an issue and would Winnipegers pay 30-40 bucks to attend games. I suspect it was part of a grand plan with the Rink Acadamy but who really knows. As someone that works with business plans and balance sheets I would like to have seen the plan and research that would make them think that they could make it in market that has two teams already in an arena in that location.

Thanks for the interesting perspective. I think the 'grand plan' with the Rink has the potential to work, I take my kids there and it's clearly a big money operation and having a WHL team adds a lot of lustre to the whole organization. I guess the question mark now is how do you justify building the new rink when large spectator events could be off the table for the next couple years... do they have the money and frankly, the interest to drag this out until conditions improve? Who knows. I get that the team is owned by rich guys who can withstand a few years of losses, but if the situation looks more dire than they expected, will they want to stick it out?

If there is a season this year I will be very curious to see how the team develops and in particular, if the crop of top draft picks from the last couple years step up and show signs of becoming top tier players. Looking mainly at Savoie, Lambos, Geekie…
 

Al Camino

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Jul 18, 2018
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Thanks for the interesting perspective. I think the 'grand plan' with the Rink has the potential to work, I take my kids there and it's clearly a big money operation and having a WHL team adds a lot of lustre to the whole organization. I guess the question mark now is how do you justify building the new rink when large spectator events could be off the table for the next couple years... do they have the money and frankly, the interest to drag this out until conditions improve? Who knows. I get that the team is owned by rich guys who can withstand a few years of losses, but if the situation looks more dire than they expected, will they want to stick it out?

If there is a season this year I will be very curious to see how the team develops and in particular, if the crop of top draft picks from the last couple years step up and show signs of becoming top tier players. Looking mainly at Savoie, Lambos, Geekie…
If Savoie and Geekie turn into what they’re supposed to be this team will be very good.

The location and crowed market were what makes me sceptical. Winnipeg used to have 5 MJHL teams now it’s one. Bisons play in front of almost no one. It’s definitely a Jets town. WHL hockey while affordable isn’t exactly a cheap ticket.
 
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lanky

Feeling Spicy
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I guess the question mark now is how do you justify building the new rink when large spectator events could be off the table for the next couple years
I don't think you do. Instead, you thank your lucky stars that you're not paying a multi million mortgage on an empty arena.
 
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