2011-12 NHL Season

[FiddySicks]

Go cry me a river. It's true that there are some dedicated Atlanta fans. Not all people in Atlanta know nothing about hockey. But there were also dedicated Coyotes fans, Vancouver Grizzlies fans, Tampa Bay Rays fans, and Sacramento Gold Miners fans. Yes, the ownership sucked. But the look at the Leafs: they haven't had a legitimately good owner since Conn Smythe, yet thy still have the best fans in the game. Also, ask yourself: how many Jets players said "It's great to go to Winnipeg", and how many said "It's sad to leave Atlanta". Thought so.

Sacramento Gold Miners?

When the CFL stupidly ventured down south. The Gold Miners were one of the teams.

Oh I know about the CFL's venture into Sacramento, I actually own a Gold Miners Starter cap that I found in, of all places, Honolulu. It just seems like quite a random choice of teams. I mean you could've said the Kings and it would've been just as relevant

[TFoA]

We're planning a little road trip to Tampa and Miami to catch the Jets games at the end of the month.

I can't wait to see the faux-Thrashers play the likes of Mark St. Louis, Sammy Stamkos, and Bill Campbell!

Thinking of making a trip to Nashville, myself. I've heard a lot about this Jay Webber, John Suter, & Pecka Rinne trio that the Predators have, can't wait to actually see them at Bridgestone!

[IceCap]

You're right, you can't compare the amount of dedicated, passionate hockey fans in Toronto, or any other Canadian city, to Atlanta. Which tells me that maybe Atlanta shouldn't have had a team in the first place.

You can't compare the fans in any Canadian city to any of the "southern cities." Hockey is a religion in Canada, come on now. Yeah in some of these cities there are a large amount of knowledgeable, dedicated, and passionate hockey fans, but they will NEVER be the same in sheer amount as there are in Canada. There are a large amount in Anaheim, LA, San Jose, etc, but even then, they will never be the same amount as there are in Canada.

So since the Dodgers had some terrible attendance this year with terrible ownership and a terrible team, does LA not deserve a baseball team?

And at the end of the day the amount of knowledgeable, passionate hockey fans in Atlanta proved to be smaller then those in San Jose, LA, and Anaheim. While those locales don't have the scores of these fans that Canadian markets do, they have enough to carve out a stable, profitable niche. The numbers just were not there in Atlanta. They didn't even reach niche level. So yeah, in retrospect maybe giving Atlanta another kick at the can wasn't the best idea. As for the Dodgers, isn't LA notorious for its shaky support of teams not named the Lakers? I assumed that showing up late and leaving early to beat the traffic was the common LA sports fan sterotype.

Also, yeah, hockey is a religion here. And while it's not a religion in the northeastern and midwestern US, it's pretty close. Common sense tells you to put the product where the market is.

You're really blowing the comments out of proportion. At the end of the day they said "this team is now playing in a city with a large contingent of knowledgeable, passionate hockey fans, which they weren't while playing in Atlanta." And that's a true statement.

I'm not blowing it out of proportion, because that's what they said. At the end of the day, what they actually said, as transcribed by Don, was "You know theres alot of savvy fans here in Winnipeg, chanting Prices first name, and that would never happen in Atlanta, cause they probably dont even know his first name!" They didn't straight out call them idiots, but they basically said that they aren't hockey fans because they didn't know hockey players' first names. I know plenty of people that are hockey fans in Anaheim, Phoenix, and beyond into "passionate" hockey markets that don't know players' first names.

I'm sure you know passionate hockey fans in Phoenix, Atlanta, Anaheim, LA, and the like. In Atlanta (and Phoenix and Miami), though, that number proved to be small. To small to support a team at the NHL level. Again, the notion that Atlanta has less passionate and knowledgeable hockey fans then Winnipeg isn't the insulting statement you're making it out to be. It's simply true. Or to be clearer, I take those comments to be directed against the Atlanta sports fanbase as a whole, not the small minority who were actually diehard Thrashers fans.

Something you need to keep in mind is that deserving Canadian (and northern American for that matter) markets have been jerked around by the NHL in favour of unproven "potential" sunbelt market for close to two decades now. That many of these teams are starting prove that relocating and expanding to the south maybe wasn't the best business decision is simply proof to Canadian and northern American hockey fans that we were right. The Thrashers actually relocating to Winnipeg to become the Jets 2.0 is most visible symbol of that. Of course there's going to be a little bit of gloating on our end. We feel we've been taken for granted for a while now while the NHL dicked around in the sunbelt trying to fit square pegs into round holes and finally we have something tangible to celebrate, a reversal of the trend of the last 20 years.

And I've never disagreed with that throughout the Winnipeg and Phoenix threads. Some of the expansion markets have worked (Anaheim, LA, San Jose, Carolina, Tampa Bay, then Dallas/Colorado/Nashville/Columbus to different extents, although Columbus and Nashville have/are teetering on the edge), but there are the ones that aren't working (Phoenix and Florida) and need to be taken care of. Atlanta had its share of good hockey fans, but them alone were not ultimately enough on the whole to keep it working, along with the terrible, terrible ownership they had. As long as the NHL financial model remains viable for Winnipeg and it doesn't collapse on them again, then moving back to Winnipeg is the best thing for the league and Canada.

Then you should be able to tell why the comments were made in the first place. It's a sense of vindication on our end. Kind of like how I couldn't resist a few "told ya so"s after Brett Farve proved himself to be a washed up glory hound

As for the teams that haven't worked out, Phoenix and Florida need to be moved up north (and for the record, I'll say that Canada as a market will be fully served once Quebec City has a team). I'll add Dallas to that list too. Which is strange, I thought they were the one southern team I could count on to stay in place. Columbus as well, though they're not southern.

Everyone else seems to have carved out a stable niche though.

[BigBubba]

We're planning a little road trip to Tampa and Miami to catch the Jets games at the end of the month.

I can't wait to see the faux-Thrashers play the likes of Mark St. Louis, Sammy Stamkos, and Bill Campbell!

Thinking of making a trip to Nashville, myself. I've heard a lot about this Jay Webber, John Suter, & Pecka Rinne trio that the Predators have, can't wait to actually see them at Bridgestone!

I hate to be nitpicky, but it's Shea Weber, Ryan Suter and Pekka Rinne.

[The_Admiral]

That's the joke.

Reported paid attendance for Phoenix @ Dallas tonight is 6306. Paid, mind you.

[TFoA]

We're planning a little road trip to Tampa and Miami to catch the Jets games at the end of the month.

I can't wait to see the faux-Thrashers play the likes of Mark St. Louis, Sammy Stamkos, and Bill Campbell!

Thinking of making a trip to Nashville, myself. I've heard a lot about this Jay Webber, John Suter, & Pecka Rinne trio that the Predators have, can't wait to actually see them at Bridgestone!

I hate to be nitpicky, but it's Shea Weber, Ryan Suter and Pekka Rinne.

How about this Tampa/Washington game, though? Sloppy-as-hell early season hockey at its most entertaining!

[Still MIGHTY]

That's the joke.

Reported paid attendance for Phoenix @ Dallas tonight is 6306. Paid, mind you.

Which is why these Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving matinees should really only be played in Canada, and definitely not in Dallas against the Coyotes. Most people don't get Columbus Day off in the US anyways, and I'm not sure how much of a percentage of teams' fanbases are bank tellers or postal workers.

[BrySmalls]

Another sloppy win by the Caps tonight. The goaltending and defense will hopefully get better.

[Don]

Stupid hockey, Vokoun was crappy, only 2 complete lines came to play tonight. 2nd and 3rd, the rest played like ass, especially Ovechkin.

[The_Admiral]

That's the joke.

Reported paid attendance for Phoenix @ Dallas tonight is 6306. Paid, mind you.

Which is why these Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving matinees should really only be played in Canada, and definitely not in Dallas against the Coyotes. Most people don't get Columbus Day off in the US anyways, and I'm not sure how much of a percentage of teams' fanbases are bank tellers or postal workers.

5 pm is a weird start time. If you're not going to have a noon-ish start, start at 7. Dumb. Still, 6306.

[Lee.]

How was attendance affected by the Rangers-Tigers game? Just curious. 6306 is pretty bad. Like, Phoenix or New-Jersey-In-The-80s bad.

[rainmaker17]

How was attendance affected by the Rangers-Tigers game? Just curious. 6306 is pretty bad. Like, Phoenix or New-Jersey-In-The-80s bad.

That's what I was thinking. The Stars draw pretty well, usually.

[DrAwesomeberry]

How was attendance affected by the Rangers-Tigers game? Just curious. 6306 is pretty bad. Like, Phoenix or New-Jersey-In-The-80s bad.

That's what I was thinking. The Stars draw pretty well, usually.

Yeah, that was the worst attended game in the history of the AAC. Just kind of a perfect storm. A phantom rain postponement for the Rangers, a 5 pm start on a Monday, and the Phoenix Coyotes generating their regular level of interest.

[BLUELANDbeliever]

That's the joke.

Reported paid attendance for Phoenix @ Dallas tonight is 6306. Paid, mind you.

Which is why these Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving matinees should really only be played in Canada, and definitely not in Dallas against the Coyotes. Most people don't get Columbus Day off in the US anyways, and I'm not sure how much of a percentage of teams' fanbases are bank tellers or postal workers.

Or on a day where another team in that city is playing in a playoff game...

[The_Admiral]

But if it's 6306 paid, as all teams tend to report, there were likely numerous no-shows. Maybe it's getting bleak down there. After the last three years, why wouldn't it? Remember, the Stars' top-down success came from buying up lots of star--so to speak--players while the other three teams in town were in a collective lull. It's happening in Denver, too.

[BLUELANDbeliever]

But if it's 6306 paid, as all teams tend to report, there were likely numerous no-shows. Maybe it's getting bleak down there. After the last three years, why wouldn't it? Remember, the Stars' top-down success came from buying up lots of star--so to speak--players while the other three teams in town were in a collective lull. It's happening in Denver, too.

Colorado has been meh (from my perspective) the past few years but not too bad. Dallas get the benefit of the doubt for me today since the Rangers are in the playoffs the year after making it to the WS.

[NEW.ERA]

People in Colorado realized that Joe Sakic, Peter Foresberg, Patrick Roy and Adam Foote wouldn't be coming around anymore, so they stopped coming as well. Though Duchene, O'Reilly, Landeskog, Johnson and Varlamov would get me pretty excited if I was an Avs supporter.

[The_Admiral]

Pretty sure Denver's been dipping below five digits lately. Not good for a place where hockey is said to be well entrenched, culturally speaking. What gives?

[Still MIGHTY]

Eh, you can't plan for a different team in the city being in the playoffs, let alone playing the same day only because of a rainout the day before.

And while the 6306 is pretty damn low, they did get 15,285 on opening night against Chicago. Still not a sellout, and it was against a good road draw with the Hawks. The Stars have had some lower attendance over the last year or so, but it's only the second game of the season, on a Monday, at 5 pm, against the Coyotes, during a Rangers playoff game. Let's see how the attendance is on Thursday vs St. Louis at 7:30 and Saturday vs Columbus at 7 before we start jumping to conclusions about the continued viability of the Stars.

The couple times I've been to Dallas for Stars/Ducks games, they were well attended with a good crowd energy overall. And they have had the success and good attendance before, given a good team off the start or not, so I'm not as quick to start throwing Dallas under the bus.

[The_Admiral]

9187 announced at the Blue Jackets game, or just above 50% capacity. If this persists, I'll understand why they need that taxpayer bailout.