Seasons in Winnipeg, from 1972 to 1996.
Bobby Hull
The Jets began in the World Hockey Association, a competition set up to compete with the established league. In 1972 they signed Bobby Hull, one of the best players in the world, for a million dollars, which was more than anyone had been paid to play the sport.
The signing gave the new league credibility it would not otherwise have had. Winnipeg won three of its championships and, when the leagues merged in 1979, joined the older one.
The problem
The building held fewer than sixteen thousand. The Canadian dollar was worth about seventy cents against the American one, while salaries were paid in American dollars. Every year the gap grew.
By 1995 the owners said they could not continue without a new arena and public money.
The campaign
What followed was unusual. A public campaign, run partly by businesspeople and partly by supporters, tried to raise enough to buy the club and keep it. There were rallies at the intersection of Portage and Main. People pledged money in the street.
It raised a great deal and it was not enough. The gap between what a city can give and what a franchise costs had grown too wide.
The last night
The Jets lost their final match at home on 28 April 1996, in the play-offs, to Detroit. The crowd stayed in the building long after it finished.
The team became the Phoenix Coyotes.
The name came back
In 2011 the Atlanta Thrashers were sold and moved to Winnipeg. The new club took the old name.
It is the same name, in the same city, and a different franchise.