Many efforts were made to keep the Jets in Winnipeg, but in the end they all fell short, here are some stories of the major efforts that were put together to try and save them.

Spring, 1995 - Knowing that if something isn't done quickly, the team will leave, the province of Manitoba and the city of Winnipeg team up to do something. What came out of this was a grassroots fundraising drive which saw everyone from every walk of life donating as much money as they could for the cause. Various rallies were held to gather support for the cause, the two biggest would have been at he forks that had about 35,000 people attend. The second biggest was the rally at Portage and Main where both Kevin and I attended. With so much support to try and save the Jets, plans were being made to try and build a new Arena somewhere in downtown Winnipeg by the Manitoba Entertainment Complex Inc. A group called the Spirit of Manitoba was formed to try and buy the team from the current owner Barry Shenkarow, head of the group Jets Hockey Ventures. This plan resulted in the public being offerd to purchase partnership units in the team. This plan did not work mainly due to the Winnipeg Free Press writing articles putting the plan down saying that a team could not exist with Barry Shenkarow not being the owner. The only thing the Sprit of Manitoba accomplised was they bought one more season for the Jets, keeping them here until the spring of 1996. Finally the fiasco was put to rest and it was officially announced the team would be moving to Phoenix, instead of Minneapolis were the team would have moved if the Jets had folded after the 1994-1995 season.

Gary Filmon, the Premier at the time, talking about the Jets in the spring of 1995, "It has been said many times that we never fully appreciate something until it is lost to us. And I believe that many of us didn't realize how much the Winnipeg Jets meant to us emotionally until the last short while. The loss of the Jets struck at the very heart of our community and our pride. When Manitobans were told that it was over ... to give it up ... they wouldn't let it go. Manitobans would not accept that this would be the end of an era.".