‘This is a strong NHL market’: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman downplays Jets attendance concerns

Despite ranking 30th in the National Hockey League in average attendance against capacity this season, the Winnipeg Jets don’t appear to be at any risk of relocating for a second time.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman held a media availability on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the Jets’ game against the St. Louis Blues at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.

The 15,321-seat hockey arena has hosted the Jets since they initially relocated from Atlanta, GA in 2011. But through their first 29 home games of the 2023–24 regular season, the Jets have averaged just 13,140 tickets sold, with large swaths of empty seats in what is already one of the league’s smaller arenas.

Jets chairman and governor Mark Chipman recently made headlines with his comments about the team’s languishing attendance, but Bettman smoothed over some of those concerns in his press conference on Tuesday.

“Obviously, the attendance needs to improve, but it will. I have confidence in the organization and, as importantly, I have confidence in this community,” Bettman said. “This is a place, Winnipeg, where hockey matters. I believe this is a strong NHL market.

“I believe that ownership has made extraordinary commitments to the Jets, to this arena, to the downtown area,” Bettman added. “I’m not sure why people are now speculating that, somehow, they’re not going to be here.”