"It was too cold, too snowy, too dreary, too taxing and just too dull. Teams couldn’t get out of town fast enough."
The following THN Archive story by Eric Duhatschek takes a thorough look at Winnipeg in 1991 through the lens of Eddie Olczyk, who, among others, really stood up for one of the league's smallest markets during his time in Manitoba.
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Winnipeg Really Isn't That Bad
November 22, 1991 – Vol. 45, Issue 10
By Eric Duhatschek
They say Winnipeg is a nice place to live, but you wouldn’t want to visit there.
Ed Olczyk knows what that’s all about.
Early in his career. Olczyk would visit Winnipeg in the dead of winter with his Chicago Blackhawk teammates and thought what many people around the NHL do: That after Quebec, Winnipeg was probably the second-worst city in which to play.
It was too cold, too snowy, too dreary, too taxing and just too dull. Teams couldn’t get out of town fast enough.
“If you took a poll around the NHL, there’s a stereotype about Winnipeg and Quebec—that it’s cold and taxes are high and it’s in the middle of nowhere,” said Olczyk.
Nothing in Olczyk’s background suggested he would adapt to Winnipeg as well as he did. He grew up in Chicago. He played for the hometown Blackhawks. The Blackhawks traded him to Toronto, Canada’s largest city. He was one of the Maple Leafs’ biggest names.
Suddenly, he was headed for one of the NHL’s least-appealing outposts. Olczyk came in with an open mind because, as he put it: If you come in with a negative attitude, the problems are just goin; to mount up.
“Nov. 10 was a year to the day that I was traded here and I’ve found it great,” Olczyk said. “The people are tremendous. We can get everywhere in 10 or 15 minutes. That’s a big difference between here and Toronto and Chicago.
“Plus, there’s a lot of family-oriented things that go on in this organization.”
Okay, that’s one view. How about Troy Murray, the newest Jet? He spent his entire NHL career playing in the bright lights and deafening roar of Chicago Stadium. Surely, this is a comedown for Murray. On the contrary.
“Everybody I talked to here finds it the same way—a good place to live,” said Murray. “Thomas Steen plans to live here after his career is over. That says a lot about a city.
“The only thing they have to gripe about is the money and the tax situation.”
Ultimately, too, that epitomizes the challenge facing the seven Canadian-based NHL franchises.
Until the Canadian government gets around to offering players some significant tax breaks, teams operating north of the 49th parallel will be forced to offer players something other than money to entice them to stay in Canada.
They will have to sell them on lifestyle. For every player attracted to the 4 a.m. bar closings in Chicago, others will be attracted to Winnipeg and Calgary and Edmonton by low crime rates and affordable housing.
More than any other Canadian team, the Jets need the revenues that a new building can generate in the worst way. For now, they do not share in private box revenue or concessions or parking, the same as Calgary and Edmonton and Vancouver. But at least those cities are packing them in at the gate.
Not so in Winnipeg. The Arena features some of the worst sightlines in the NHL. If the Jets were a Stanley Cup contender, maybe people would come out and watch them anyway, no matter how bad the view.
For a middle-of-the-road Smythe Division team, people just aren’t prepared to sit up in the nosebleed seats. From last year to this year. Jets’ average attendance dropped from 12,859 to 11,308 over the first 10 games—and ’90-91 was not exactly a banner year for the franchise.
Now, finally, the Jets’ private owners, Winnipeg Enterprises, the Province of Manitoba and a trio of high-powered local businessmen sound as if they’re finally going to get together on a new, franchise-saving arena.
The rest will be up to Olczyk, Murray and Co.
“I think the only way we’re going to get people out is by winning,” said Olczyk, “and if they don’t come out when we’re winning, the team’s going to be in serious trouble.”