Loewen helped create the Manitoba Entertainment Complex group (MEC) in 1994, in an effort to purchase controlling shares in the Winnipeg Jets hockey franchise and keep the team in the city. Loewen chaired the MEC, and participated in plans to build a new arena for the team. Despite his efforts, the Jets were forced to leave the city in 1996. Loewen argued that the National Hockey League and commissioner Gary Bettman undermined his efforts, by presenting unreasonable demands shortly before an official deadline. In 2006, he indicated that the major-level investors necessary for maintaining a National Hockey League franchise simply did not exist in Winnipeg in the mid-1990s.