Not sure where to post this so I'll post it in here. Also keep in mind I am very busy and haven't kept up with the Jets as much as I used to, so forgive me if some of this is common knowledge.
Today Mark Chipman came and spoke to my faculty for an hour during lunch. It was pretty informal, he spent the first half going over this history of his involvement with hockey in Winnipeg starting with the Moose in 96, and moved forward to today. The second half of the time was a Q and A.
Some interesting points I gathered:
- The NHL was pretty interested in coming back to Winnipeg, as Bettman let Chipman know back in 04 when the MTS Centre opened that he regretted that the Jets 1.0 (and yes Chipman referred to those Jets as 1.0 so take that 3.0 people
).
- In late April of 09 Chipman had an offer to purchase the Coyotes but turned it down, for one thing the Moose were deep in the playoffs - made the Calder Cup Finals that year, and two, he didn't feel there was enough time to relocate the team (later attempts over the next few years made the process easier as a lot of the process had already gone through so time wasn't a big factor in 2011). In 2010 he had another offer to buy the Coyotes, and accepted it, and had the press conference ready to go, but it was subject to Glendale not coming up with the $25mil by a deadline. Glendale did, and the deal was off, but he said he had a "coupon" from the NHL which was valid to buy the next available team, and eventually used on the Thrashers.
- On firing Noel, he said it was a mutual decision made by himself, Chevy, and Heisinger. He said it was a tough decision, as it was the first time in the roughly 18 years he has been involved in professional hockey that he fired a coach, and that Noel is such a great guy. Additionally, he doesn't buy into the "shelf-life" argument, he said he finds it to be made up, and could be just a product of the media.
Lastly, Chipman came off as a real genuinely great person, who seemed to take pride in what he has done. Additionally, it was clear that if he said something, he meant it, and that he came off as a seriously hard working and humble person. We are lucky to have him not only as an owner, but as a member of the Winnipeg community in general.
EDIT - please don't take what I post as verbatim for what Chipman said.
