Canadian NHL fans who dreamt of a return of the Winnipeg Jets have suffered a small setback, but the return of NHL hockey to Winnipeg will happen eventually.

Winnipeg was the heavy favourite to land the Phoenix Coyotes if the Coyotes were forced to move before the start of the 2010-11 season. But it appears that the Coyotes will remain in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale for another year, which means that Winnipeg’s return will have to wait.

It would have been ironic if Phoenix would have relocated to Winnipeg. After all, Winnipeg lost their NHL franchise in 1996 when the Jets moved to Phoenix.

Hockey in Phoenix has proven to be the flop that many thought it would be. They have a few thousand diehard fans, and they attract some snowbirds on their winter vacations. But Arizona sports fans have a hard time getting excited about a sport that is played on ice.

The Coyotes have never turned a profit. Their owner bailed on the team nearly two years ago, and the NHL had to step in and run the team. The league is still looking for an owner who will keep the team in Phoenix.

But everybody knows hockey won’t work in the desert. Arizona residents don’t have a passion for the sport, and there’s too much competition for the sports dollar in the Phoenix area.
Hockey was never going to survive in Winnipeg under the circumstances of the mid-1990s. The Winnipeg Arena was decrepit, the Canadian dollar was worth about two-thirds of its American counterpart, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wanted to grow the game in the non-traditional hockey markets.

Winnipeg now boasts the sparkling MTS Centre, which has the money-making amenities needed to survive in the NHL in 2010. Ever since the MTS Centre opened in 2004, there has been growing support to see the NHL return to Winnipeg.

The NHL has a salary cap, and the Canadian dollar is worth nearly the same as the U.S. dollar.

And Bettman seems resigned to the fact that the NHL will never be big in markets like Arizona. He might be opposed, in principle, to NHL hockey in markets like Winnipeg. But he knows that the league needs strong Canadian markets.

It’s in the best interests of the game to have the NHL in markets like Winnipeg, Hamilton, Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa, where the fans are passionate, the arenas are modern and hockey is a part of the culture.

I don’t know when the NHL will return to Winnipeg, but the betting here is that it will happen within the next five years. I’m confident it will be sustainable. I don’t know when the Coyotes will leave Phoenix, but it will happen eventually, since that organization isn’t sustainable.