[esquire]

^ Goldeyes drew pretty consistent sellouts for their first few years at Shaw Park. Almost unthinkable now but back then you pretty well needed to buy tickets in advance, there weren't many available for gameday purchase. That's why they expanded it a couple of times within the first five or six years.

As for the Thunder, they were a pretty big draw the first year they were around. Katz owned the team and he was pretty good at generating hype. I'm sure a lot of the house was papered but at the same time the atmosphere at the old arena was decent when you'd have 7 or 8 thousand fans in the building. The problem with the Thunder was that the league sort of fell apart around the team. Then the death blow came when the Goldeyes were born in 1994. I remember going to a Thunder game that year, there couldn't have been much more than about 2,500 people at the Arena. Meanwhile there were close to 10,000 people watching the Goldeyes in the old Stadium at the same time.

The Cyclone attempted to build on the Thunder's success but it never went anywhere. I think the novelty of minor pro basketball had worn off a bit by then, and the Convention Centre was really just an atmosphere-destroying venue for basketball even if it was arguably no less comfortable than the old Arena. That team was around for about 5 or 6 years but hardly anyone even remembers them... it's like they never existed.

I guess in some respects the biggest challenge to minor pro basketball is lack of an appropriate venue. The MTS Centre is too big, and the university gyms aren't really set up for pro basketball, even at a minor league level. Plus I doubt the universities would be eager to share anyway.

I think if the Moose ever left Winnipeg, there would probably be a decent market opportunity for a second smaller arena in Winnipeg. Maybe a 5 or 6 thousand seat rink for a WHL team and a minor pro basketball team, plus smaller concerts and sports events that might not work in the bigger venue (stuff like World Curling Tour events, wrestling/boxing, etc.).