Winnipeg Jets Roller Coaster

Here we go again...they're back! Its a done deal. We'll have a franchise next year. Yes Winnipeggers are resilient thanks to half our lives being buried in snow and the mysterious "windchill" which is actually not the real temperature, but the one which tells us whether we'll be walking to the store or raiding the fridge for scraps of food.

Can this really be happening again? Could I have actually fell for it again?

I sat and listened to Hustler & Lawless' debut on 1290 sports radio talking about this being the biggest crossroads we've come across in 15 years. But before the show was even done, doubt seemed to be the theme.

Yes, we are NHL compatible. Yes, we're likely next in line to get a team should one move. SHOULD ONE MOVE. Hustler said he'd never covered this in the past because it never seemed real, and to report on it would be career suicide, but now its more real than ever. Well Hustler...I hear Rona has a sale on nooses and stubby stools to stand on.

Regardless of the efforts of the Goldwater Institute or all the press about how hockey should return to the 'Peg, we're no closer than we were last year at this time when saliva was flowing from the mouths of hungry Jets fans.

I'm proposing we put a ban on all local media reporting anything Jets related until the official press conference is ready to be announced. At this time of year, its bad enough dealing with the black cloud that rests over every Winnipegger's head who can't afford to travel somewhere warm to recoup their sanity. We're already one of the most miserable city populations on Earth, we don't need empty promises to raise the water levels above our noses.

Any city who thinks you can freeze property taxes for 15 years and progress in infrastructure are too cheap to sustain a franchise anyway. Don't get me wrong, I'd be all over the season ticket band wagon - that is collectively with a large group of friends for a portion of the season's games. None the less, I'd be among the sea of white. However, until this town learns that you need to have the attitude of a big city to support big city ideas, we'll always be the place people move from not to. That is unless of course you were born here, than you always move back after your first rent bill in a bigger town.

Anybody got a quarter to keep this merry-go-around spinning? I'm sure 1290 sports or the Free Press will since all this is is a play on our emotions to sell advertising.

Shhh...I think I hear the Jets coming.