The way I look at it, the Jets will remain here as long as the Thomson family wants them to. I'm not sure what the percentage split for ownership is between Chipman and Thomson, but I don't think Mark Chipman or his family has the capital to take over full ownership of the team if David Thomson (or his siblings/children should he pass on) decide to sell off that portion.
As for the attendance issues...I'm not overly surprised. When the NHL returned here back in 2011, I remember hearing about people getting or trying to get season tickets, and all I heard with those people was splitting tickets between groups of six, groups of eight, even groups of twelve. Didn't hear much about individuals getting season tickets of their own. If the season ticket base was truly more the former than the latter, there's no way that was sustainable long-term, especially when the corporate sector wasn't holding up its end of the bargain in that regard. I mean, businesses account for only 15% of the season ticket count, when the lowest in Canada is around 45%? Yikes!
Of course, having an arena that only seats 15,325 (less than the old Winnipeg Arena's capacity of 15,565 somehow) means that there's a distinct lack of cheaper tickets available. I had to look up what the cheapest ticket that one could get for any of the remaining games this season, and the cheapest one I could find was $63 for a Jets vs. Blues ticket up in the nosebleeds. I realize that $63 likely wouldn't even get you into Rogers Arena - let alone get a seat - but you have to keep in mind that Winnipeg is a notoriously cheap city, and I say that as someone who has lived here my whole life. Add on things like parking fees and getting anything from concessions (the latter of which sounds like it's fairly pricey itself) and...yeah, it adds up.
Add on top of that having an AHL team playing in the same arena at the same time likely cuts into their fanbase. Yeah, they're owned by True North, but having a second pro hockey team here seems counterproductive, especially when it comes to corporate dollars. Thank goodness the Winnipeg Ice moved after last season, though I don't know how much of a dent they made in the Jets/Moose's bottom line given that even
they couldn't sell out their arena every game as one of the best teams in the WHL, and the Wayne Fleming Arena seats less than 2,000!
The pandemic certainly didn't help matters, but the sellout streak ended
before it hit. Seems appropriate that it happened against the team formerly known as the Winnipeg Jets. It happened a
few more times before the regular season was cancelled, though in fairness, two of those games were only single digits off from a sellout. Still, the days of the endless sellout streak are over, as is the season ticket waiting list that had several thousand people on it at one point. It was always a fool's errand to expect the MTS Centre/Bell MTS Place/Canada Life Centre to sell out games into perpetuity.
That's not even getting into the Jets themselves! They're playing fine this season, but I wouldn't doubt that some of the fans are frustrated by how conservative Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has been throughout the years, and it's hard to say if holding back on making big trades or signings in the past has been for the best. The moves that have been made this year (PLD traded to LA, Monahan coming in, etc.) seem to be working out so far. We'll see about the rest of the season.
It also probably doesn't help that the current Jets have a playoff record that's only slightly better than the previous Jets! You know, the one that moved to Arizona in 1996? Both teams missed the playoffs six times each, the current Jets have won three playoffs series to the previous Jets' two, and the current team has even made it to the Conference Final! On the plus side, at least the newer version of the team has five more years (the old Jets lasted 17 years in the NHL before moving) to improve on that record.
