twinsdad
2nd Liner
Rocky Hockey
Posts: 165
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Post by twinsdad on Dec 1, 2015 23:48:19 GMT -5
Who cares what attendance is??? Are you serious? Unlike major sports who receive millions of dollars a year in TV contracts as a major source of revenue, junior hockey (as well as most minor league sports) live and die as the turnstile spins. Sure there are corporate sponsorships/advertising that are a big part of the equation but to think attendance isn't important is just plain crazy. How do you think we ended up with an OHL team in the first place? North Bay was struggling to get people in the building, Plymouth was struggling to get people in the building and are now in Flint. Do you honestly think owners are willing to lose money just to keep us entertained?? To be fair, the Plymouth Whalers did not leave because of attendance, at least not the way I remember it unfolding. They left because Karmanos was no longer working with Compuware. Karmonos stated that “If we could get attendance where we think it should be here, I think the future is great...if we could continue to draw a couple thousand people a game, we’re going to have to look at some options.” He proceeded to field a team that failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 20 years. To me, he was going to sell the team (and the arena later), because of his angry departure from Compuware (http://www.freep.com/story/money/2015/07/25/karmanos-compuware-saga-detroit/30464355/) and blame the fans and not his own ego. The truth is having the right combination of population, facilities, and lack of competing surrounding entertainment is key to attendance. Belleville lost its team due to facilities, despite good attendance. North Bay lost their team because of population (~65k = 6% of the population has to show up to sell out. In contrast, London has 366k and needs only 2.5% of the local population to sell out their 9000 seat area.) Saginaw, including Bay and Midland counties, has almost 400k and would just need a little more than 1% to fill the Dow Event Center. However, Saginaw suffers from football (whether live high school football on Friday or attending/watching college football on Saturdays) taking time and dollars from local fans and their families in the fall (myself included because my kids are in marching band). It is an unfortunate circumstance for both Flint and Saginaw and I don't have a solution. Attendance picks up after next week, which is why the schedule is usually weighed with road games in the first half. Unfortunately, I do not see Flint and Saginaw being able to keep their respective teams for very long. The American sports fan thrives on aggression (see defensive football highlights or MMA). Hockey is a great sport, but Saginaw and Flint hockey fans, at least the older ones, like to tell stories about the fights. And the OHL, and the NHL, are trying to make fighting a thing of the past. In doing so, they are not pandering to a large block of Michigan hockey ticket buyers. I am almost positive that if a good tilt was expected each home game, there would be at least 500 more tickets purchased.
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Post by eric8199 on Dec 2, 2015 10:57:57 GMT -5
I ask again, what indications has anyone seen anywhere that Spirit will be leaving? Show me where someone has said that attendance needs to increase or they can't keep this team. Show me somewhere, other than on this message board from people making assumptions, where there has been anything said that makes you question the future of this organization. Because I haven't seen it. Does the Spirit want better attendance? Yes. Of course they do. If they're not at capacity, they will always want to sell more tickets. Here are some facts: Prices went up for advertising this year for the Spirit. Not sure if you've noticed, but everything's still filled when it comes to advertising. So much that they still don't have room to show the game on the scoreboard. The Saginaw Spirit are not the primary income source for Richard Garber. He has lots of money coming in from other areas, and could likely continue to fund this team whether it makes money or not. There has been no indication from Richard Garber that he plans to sell this team. None. Quite the contrary, actually. The Saginaw Spirit have been the Saginaw Spirit for 13 years now. And every year of those 13 years there are a bunch of people saying this team won't survive. It's not surprising, based on the history of hockey in this city, that people are worried this team could eventually fail. If everyone's so worried, keep buying tickets. Keep filling seats. Keep inviting friends and talking about how great the games are. Suggest ways that the Spirit organization can better promote the product they have on the ice. Personally, I think they need to do a better job promoting the other teams. When you've got a Connor McDavid coming into your building, ADVERTISE THE CRAP OUT OF IT!!! It's not just about the talent on our team, it's the talent of all the kids that come play in our building. I've gotten off topic though. I don't think the Spirit will go anywhere for quite some time. I think they will be here for the long haul. Let's look at league attendance, because believe it or not, there's a site for that. www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph_season.php?lid=OHL1989&sid=2015For the 2014-15 season, the Spirit ranked 13th out of 20 teams in average attendance with 3,555. Yes, it seems this year is down, but as was stated earlier, our attendance picks up the second half, so it's too early to tell. Ranked below us in attendance last season were: North Bay Battalion (3,447), Owen Sound Attack (2,951), Mississauga Steelheads (2,906), Sarnia Sting (2,877), Belleville Bulls (2,545), Peterborough Petes (2,485), and Plymouth Whalers (2,388). Above us were the Ottawa 67s (3,604), Sudbury Wolves (3,729), Barrie Colts (3,741) and the Kingston Frontenacs (3,963), all of which were less than 500 people higher than us in attendance last season. There are four more teams that we are within a thousand of. We have a big building, so just because it's not full does NOT mean our attendance is bad. Again, attendance could improve — I hope it does. But I don't think it's as dire as some people seem to think it is. We need to start winning some games, because the negativity on this board right now is too much.
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