Music: {allcanada} Bad timing for Bombers?

The return of the National Hockey League to Winnipeg will create competition for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, and one former player believes the team will be hit hard by the financial impact.

"I think the timing of this borders on catastrophic for the club," Troy Westwood, who was born in Dauphin, Man., and played 17 years for the Blue Bombers, told sportsnet.ca. "You've got a brand new (football) stadium coming up (in a year from now), you've got all kinds of increased needs as an organization to increase their season-ticket base. If you look at the private boxes that are going to be going up and need to be sold, this is a very interesting dynamic. It will be very interesting to watch how it all unfolds."

The impact of the new NHL team on the Bombers became a hot topic last week when it first surfaced that the Atlanta Thrashers could be moving to Winnipeg. It coincided with a media teleconference call in which the Bombers talked about the state of the franchise.

President Jim Bell indicated he did not believe the NHL team would have a direct impact on the team. He noted the team has already sold 18,000 season-ticket packages for the 29,000-seat Canad Inns Stadium, and noted the figure is above last year's total.

The fact the Bombers are giving season-ticket holders first crack at buying similar season-tickets packages in the new stadium has clearly been a selling point. Bell said he believed the two franchises can co-exist and added the Bombers have a working relationship with True North Sports & Entertainment, the co-owners of the new NHL franchise, for concerts at Canad Inns Stadium, where the football team plays.

Bob Irving, who has done radio play-by-play of Bombers' games for more than 30 years, said professional football and professional football co-existed in Winnipeg for 17 years from 1972 to 1996 and sees no reason why that should change. But he agreed the challenge will be felt on the corporate side.

"What it does (now) is it cuts into the sports/entertainment dollar and you've got to work a little harder to sell your tickets to corporate sponsors and all the rest of it, so it will have an impact for sure," Irving said. "But, the Bombers are moving into a new stadium next year and the novelty of that will carry them for two to three years, and if they do their work and put a good product on the field they'll be fine."

Defensive tackle Doug Brown, who is entering his 11th season with the Bombers and has his pulse on the city as a columnist for a local newspaper and host of a radio show, said the two franchises won't impact on one another because of the difference in the two sports and their respective fans.

"I'm sure some of them overlap but even the seasons aren't even that conflicting," Brown said. "When the NHL season gets going, CFL schedules are three-quarters completed. They're two very different and distinct games. Even the pricing and ticket points are vastly different.

"I'm not even sure that we're sharing that many of the same customers. It might be a bigger challenge from a corporate sponsorship or revenue angle, but that's as far as I can foresee right now."

Brown, who grew up in B.C. and is a huge hockey fan, is excited that the NHL has returned to Winnipeg.

"This is a part of the identity of this society and culture here that was torn away that's being restored now," he said. "It's going to be a different chapter with a different history, but it's kind of like the child returning home after a long departure.

"I've been here since 2001 and there's never been a cessation of interest, of demand, of hurt or anguish that the team left in the first place. It's been very consistent since I got there. It's been a general part of the fabric of the community and it's been restored. This place is pretty euphoric right now.

"The drive for 13,000 season-ticket holders begins tomorrow in earnest. Things are definitely hopping in Winnipeg. I'm definitely happy to see the return of the team that never should have left here in the first place."

Westwood is hoping the new team will not bear the Jets moniker of its predecessor.

"It's dead and buried," he said. "They were adored, but it was a different time frame, a different era. I hope it's an exciting new name that embodies the entire province. I look forward to a fresh new start."

Brown admitted that being a native of B.C. now living in Winnipeg he may have separate allegiances when the Canucks come to town.

"I'm just torn about that, but other than that I'm thrilled that there's an NHL hockey team back in Winnipeg where it belongs," Brown said.

Brown, a surefire Hall of Famer, is playing his final season, so it's interesting that his career is coming to a close at the same time the NHL is beginning a new chapter in Winnipeg.

"In Winnipeg I can't share my ego with the NHL," he joked. "It's purely coincidental."