Whiteout street party tickets for Thursday already sold out after capacity cut to 11,000

Fewer Winnipeg Jets fans will have the chance to take to the streets to party at the team's next home playoff game.

True North Sports and Entertainment is cutting capacity for the third Whiteout street party of the 2019 playoff season on Thursday downto 11,000, after consulting with the Winnipeg Police Service.

"Thursday is the night before Good Friday. It'stypically a verybusy night across the city for police and the demands on their services," said Kevin Donnelly, senior vice-president at True North.

At a joint press conference Tuesday morning, Insp. Dave Dalal said New Year's Eve and the Thursday before Good Friday are among the busiest nights of the year for police.

"We have a responsibility to all citizens of Winnipeg and to maintain safe operations throughout the city and provide a safe environment for all the fans," he said. "We've established a common number that works for both of us."

• More on the Winnipeg Jets 2019 NHL playoff run

For the street parties for games 1 and 2 of the playoff series against the St. Louis Blues, True Northopened up 15,000 tickets to the public.

The first street party of the playoffs on April 10 saw only 9,500 of the 15,000 tickets available scooped up by fans.

Game 2, which fell on a Friday night, was a different story, withall 15,000 tickets sold,despiteinclement weather.

Several people were detained because of intoxication at that street partyand were sentto the Main Street Project. As well, at least two people were detained after a fight broke out in front of Bell MTS Place, a Winnipeg Police Service spokesperson said.

Those incidents were nothing out of the ordinary for a large event, Dalal said.

"With the crowd and drinkingit's not unexpected, and we're planning for it," he said. "Planning for those things to happen [does] account for adjusting our operations."

He said a smaller crowd Thursday will allow police to provide the appropriate number of officers for the event to keep things under control.

Positive experience

Dayna Spiring, president and CEO of Economic Development Winnipeg, said the goal is to make sure everyone has a positive experience at the Whiteout parties.

"When the police or others tell us that they want to restrict the size or do certain things to keep everyone safe, we're going to respect that," she said.

Spiring said the organizations responsible for the celebrations will reconvene after Game 5 and, if the series is continuing,decide what to do going forward.

"We evaluate after every game to see how we can improve and what we can do better," she said. "If you look at what we've done so far, this has been a great experience for Winnipeg."

As of now, it's not certain when puck drop will be on Thursday.

"An earlier time would be great, but whatever we get told in terms of broadcast issues,we'll be ready," said Donnelly.

The Jets trail the Blues 2-1 in their best-of-seven series heading into Tuesday night's game in St. Louis.