We’re back, baby!

Fifteen years after the Winnipeg Jets were yanked from our clutches and moved to the Arizona desert, the National Hockey League is returning to Winnipeg.

True North Sports & Entertainment Ltd., owners of the American Hockey League’s Manitoba Moose for the past 15 years and the 15,000-seat MTS Centre, have righted a painful wrong.

Think we’re happy about it? When Mark Chipman, chairman of True North, broke the news at a press conference that his group — including David Thomson, Canada’s richest person — had purchased the Atlanta Thrashers, thousands of people who were gathered at The Forks to watch on big-screen TVs broke out in cheers, tears and spontaneous ball hockey games. People of all ages, sporting all sorts of Winnipeg Jets gear, hugged, jumped up and down, sang “Oh Canada” and yelled “Go Jets Go!” at the top of their lungs for hours on end.

Just to drive home the point that we’re an NHL city again, we gobbled up season tickets as if they were the last bottle of sunscreen at a Caribbean nudist resort. Manitoba Moose season ticketholders and mini-pack holders had first dibs, purchasing more than half of the 13,000-ticket goal — and the three- to five-year commitment that accompanies each ticket — in just a couple of days.

But that was an eternity compared to what happened when tickets went on sale to the general public. The remaining 6,000 tickets sold out in two minutes. (Officially, it was 17 minutes, but True North says 15 of those minutes were for processing.)

That means less than 1,000 seats will be available on a game-by-game basis. (The other 1,000 or so are in luxury suites.)

The only blemish on the whole ordeal is that thousands of Winnipeggers who wanted to get season tickets couldn’t. True North has compiled an 8,000-person waiting list, prompting some to joke that the best pickup line around town these days is “Hey, I’ve got season tickets.”

The hockey news also has business people around town jumping up and down. Economic Development Winnipeg says visitors spend between $167 and $337 per day when they come here, depending on the nature of their visit. (Convention delegates spend more than casual visitors.) So, hoteliers, retailers, restaurateurs and cab drivers are at the ready, as millions of dollars more per year are expected to be coming their way. EDW says the presence of NHL hockey will draw people to Winnipeg from up to 800 miles away. Cha-ching!

The Chipman family owns a sizable chunk of land across Portage Avenue from the MTS Centre and is looking to build a boutique hotel. They also are planning to develop other amenities in the vicinity.

But there also is a bit of a quasi-MasterCard commercial going on in Winnipeg: “New NHL hockey team: $170 million. Best seat in the house: $5,805. Boost to Winnipeggers’ self-esteem and the city’s international reputation? Priceless.”

Bob Chipman, patriarch of Winnipeg’s first family of hockey, certainly agrees with that sentiment. He has long maintained that the two things Winnipeg lacked were an NHL franchise and an IKEA store.

The furniture retailer expects to begin construction on a south Winnipeg location shortly. So, check and check. IE