Fueled by the success of his 2007 Provincial Election platform, Tory Leader Hugh McFadyen continues to doggedly pursue the issues that matter most to Manitobans:
The premier confirmed support for the world junior bid in the legislature this morning during questioning by Opposition Leader Hugh McFadyen on the chances of an NHL franchise coming to Winnipeg.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: hugh mcfadyen, PC Manitoba
$240 million is the going rate for the team? For how long? If a purchase price is supposed to be based on expected future cash flows, how much money are they planning on earning when women’s bowling draws in higher ratings than NHL hockey on US sports television? What about the gaming of attendance numbers in some of the NHL’s weaker markets? If those markets are doing so well, why are they counting freebies, etc.?
And now that the US economy is essentially in the tank, sports fans in general are going to be even pickier about the sporting events they can attend. I’m thinking baseball, football and basketball are even in for a bumpy ride. Let’s face it, hockey is not exactly top of mind for the southern US.
Hugh’s plan was based on a changing of the economics of NHL hockey. It looks like in another few years, he may well just be vindicated. The planets are not aligning very well for the NHL right now. Are fire sales of marginal teams on their way in another couple of years?
“Hugh’s plan was based on a changing of the economics of NHL hockey”
The premier of Manitoba can’t do a damn thing about what goes on in the NHL. When will tories finally admit this was a stupid promise and move on ? Are they going to be still talking about this NEXT election, which is just 3 years away ? If I were Hugh McFadyen ( I’d be wondering why I wanted to lead the tories in the first place ) , I would get as far away from the Winnipeg Jets as I could.
Manitobans are concerned about Health care and roads, not million dollar hockey players. While if the Jets did come back, I might attend a game or two a year, there is no way we our identity as a province should depend upon the NHL. Saskatchewan seems to be booming, and they have a nothing higher than the WHL. Perhaps Manitobans should get behind their junior teams more. The tickets are lower in price , the hockey is better( lots of fighting ) and the fans have more fun.
Proud and Un,
We all realize it may have been the thrill of your life to get to be right there when Baby Hughie and Thomas Steen announced that the Tories wanted to waste government money to bring a hockey team to Winnipeg, but the fact that over a year later you and other Tories have not been able to smarten up and drop an issue that clearly was not a vote driver and only served to undermine your party, is kinda sad.
If a few rich guys with more money than brains want to bring an NHL team to Winnipeg to feed their ego than I will be right there to buy season tickets, but I don’t want the government involved in any way and the fact that Hughie still is wasting time on this issue shows how lacking in leadership the PC party is.
Trust me – I took more than enough flack at the door for this issue. However, I still believe the NHL will be in for a bumpy ride over the next few years and you will see “market” (I use the term very loosely given the NHL’s propensity to game their numbers) valuations for marginal teams fall precipitously.
PITT and PF – if government shouldn’t be involved in professional sports, what about the rink downtown housing the junior hockey PITT was talking about? Wasn’t government instrumental in making that happen? Why is the board of the Winnipeg Football Club stacked with NDP stalwarts like Kostyra? Didn’t government also help out the Goldeyes? If a discussion on the merits of government involvement in sports is a sore spot, there is no shortage of examples here. Why is indignation reserved for the Jets?
As a staunch proponents of free markets, I would like to see professional sports free of government involvement. Unfortunately, the reality is that Winnipeggers and Manitobans are ALREADY on the hook for every professional sport in Winnipeg. Compared to how much money (and I am including property-tax forgiveness as there are opportunity costs associated with a willingness to forego tax revenues) has been shovelled into the rest of Winnipeg’s professional teams, I think a bond guarantee (conditional on approval of the citizenry no less – likely by a guaranteed number of season ticket sales) pales in comparison to what has been done for everyone else.
@Proud – I’d love the NHL to return. And if the provincial government could facilitate that then I’m all for it, even if it means a modest one-time financial contribution.
However, I do think it was an idiotic idea to roll out during the last election. And given how it flopped, I can’t believe that Hugh is continuing to ask questions about it a year later.
And BTW, I hope that remark about the thrill of my life was tongue in cheek. My life was full of “thrills” prior to the election – I didn’t really need the littany of NDP extremists calling my wife at the campaign office, calling her a b*tch and wishing for the death of my children. True story – my wife still tears up when she thinks how malicious some people can be. What a thrill.
Why did I run? Because after my kids were born, watching the current government have little or nothing to show after eight years was not the legacy I wanted for my kids. So what would have been my thrill? Stopping the runaway costs of healthcare and education – if more money goes in, more results should come out. After all, a jump from $2 billion to $4 billion should have SOME corresponding increase other than marginal improvements.
Millions of dollars should have not been frittered away on the Floodway, thereby causing a reduction in scope of the project. And yet there is still a 1 in 100 year bridge that may have to be blown up to save the day should a big flood come. Funny how that never seems to be an NDP bragging point.
What of the bridge on the Trans Canada at Portage? A wiser man than me made the point that bridges don’t go from working to nonfunctional. It takes years of neglect. Feel any safer on our roads?
And here’s one that Hugh was too classy to mention during the election but I will – Phoenix Sinclair – how can a party that is supposed to champion the lesser fortunate allow a child to fall through the cracks? And she wasn’t even the only one.
I also wanted my kids to grow up never knowing what a level four car thief is. It took a move to Nova Scotia to make this possible. Manitobans have come to accept property crimes against themselves as some sort of rite of passage. Heck, people affected by the murder of a loved one can even be taunted in front of the very institutions designed to uphold the laws that were meant to protect them.
Oh and then there’s Crocus. From an early age, I was raised to respect the fact that an entrepreneur can come to a country from an oppressive communist regime and make miracles with credit. And yet, the government seems insistent on scaring away the investment capital that will make future Manitoba entrepreneurs.
So what made me run and what “thrilled” me? Basically everything other THAN the Jets campaign – and yet that’s all that voters seemed to be concerned with. So I hope you “all” realize the thrill was the honest belief that I would have been able to make change, photo ops be damned….
468 words! Proud, that’s almost wandering into “guest post” territory.
Hahaha – thanks. It felt cathartic – you’re not going to bill me for therapy are you?
I am continually amazed at how much Hugh gets villified for what amounts to co-signing a loan once he makes sure that there is enough money in the bank to pay for it (i.e. a commitment via season tickets). Done properly, the government wouldn’t have to make an outlay or forego taxes based on some nebulous “economic spinoffs” voodoo.
And yet, many of these same people embrace giving away the Bombers for 25 cents on the dollar, paying for an arena and subsizing baseball.
PandUpEX PEGGER…..
it’s too bad you left, but I don’t blame you one bit. You raise alot of concerns , and it’s too bad Hugh McFadyen didn’t ask for input from people like yourself when coming up with his election platform. I am sure if he put the Jets issue to his candidates before he announced it , it would have never been announced , and Hugh might have a few more seats. The biggest problem with the PC Party , is that they do not listen to the grassroots members. That’s why I am not a member , and want nothing to do with them .
When Hugh McFadyen was running for leadership , he was going to include grassroots members and open a office in Brandon…none of that happened.
When I talk about Junior Hockey, I don’t talk about the Manitoba moose, I talk about the selkirk steelers, the Dauphin Kings, and teams like that.