Ottawa has fickle sports fans. Unsold tickets for the playoffs was indicated early, when they had 11,000 for an Arizona game in October.
People in Ottawa always have an excuse why to not go to the game. I lived there for 30 years and I heard them all. The location of the arena isn't that bad, especially if people live in the west or south end, or in Kanata, and a lot of people do.
For fata's sake, the team is in the second round of the playoffs and they still make excuses to not go to the games.
When I lived there I bought partial season tickets (12 games) for five years until the lockout when I gave up on the NHL. It was the same story then, either waiting to see if the team does anything in the playoffs (uh, maybe like making it to the second round?) or the arena wasn't convenient, or the tickets were too expensive. Or whatever their other excuses are. It was and still is hard to be a Sens fan with fickle "supporters" like they have.
After this press I'm sure they'll sell out the remaining home games of the playoffs.
Yeah it's way more like Calgary to High River than to Airdrie. It's the arena and some car dealerships. Zero to do close by. Have to drive back home so not good.
Ottawa does not specifically cater to francophone fans. I think this hurts them as well.
When the cheapest seats are $100, i don't really think you can blanket blame "fickle fans", it's on those who set the prices. Teams are becoming experts at maximising revenue, and that means a "sell-out" is not necessarily the end goal.
That is a terrible location for an arena too, was there 10 years or so ago and couldn't believe how far out it was, and not connected to some kind of train either.
Google DT Ottawa to the arena - about 26km by road. That is equivalent to being between Cross Iron Mills and Airdrie if you go north, or the South Hospital if you are going south from Calgary.
Still a terrible location for an arena and should be a lesson to anyone who thinks a new Flames rink should be in a suburban location.
Well, I am sure that a downtown location would be that much better. Ottawa is smaller then Calgary and a lot of the population cheer for Montreal and Toronto. Its only 2 hours from Montreal. So if you live in an eastern suburb, your maybe an hour to hour an half from Montreal. Also francophones in Ontario are more likely to cheer for the Habs then either of the two Toronto teams.
There are also more small towns outside the Metro area than Calgary would have - ex. Arnprior, Carleton Place, Renfrew, Pembrooke. On the other hand, some of the Metro Area is in Quebec, and maybe do not travel that much to Ottawa for entertainment.
While they’ve caught playoff fever in Edmonton, it appears as though the fans in Ottawa are suffering through a condition known as Senators malaise.
But there is an important distinction to be made between the two markets. With Edmonton, fans are enjoying a Stanley Cup playoff experience for the first time in 11 years. Mix in a new, state-of-the-art arena and the most exciting player in the NHL and you have a recipe for a scalper’s dream.
In our nation’s capital, the Senators have been one of the most consistent teams over the past two decades, qualifying for the playoffs 16 times in the last 20 seasons. At no point has Ottawa missed the playoffs in consecutive years during that span, meaning the Senators’ longest playoff drought lasted exactly one season.
It’s a situation reminiscent of the Atlanta Braves, who strung together an impressive run of 14 straight playoff appearances starting in 1991. But in the latter half of that streak, empty seats for playoff games at Turner Field became commonplace.
Ottawa has fickle sports fans. Unsold tickets for the playoffs was indicated early, when they had 11,000 for an Arizona game in October.
People in Ottawa always have an excuse why to not go to the game. I lived there for 30 years and I heard them all. The location of the arena isn't that bad, especially if people live in the west or south end, or in Kanata, and a lot of people do.
Yes, it is!
For people who want to have a good time and have a few "beverages" they would need a designated driver because there's no real public transit from Ottawa to Kanata. stupid,stupid place for an arena.
I remember when I was a teenager my Dad and I went to a game at Corel Centre and it was a pain. We wanted to get something to eat nearby and drove around forever...I think we ended up eating at some shopping mall.
Getting out of the parking lot took a long time too. So for playoffs I could see it being brutal.
Still no excuse though...they are in the 2nd round of the playoffs with the best defenseman in the league playing for them. Any other city in Canada would be sold out.
It should be pointed out that game one was actually over 2000 short of what they call a sellout (19 something), which is generous. Their actual hockey capacity with standing room is 20,500. So game one was nearly 4000 people short of a sellout.
Game two last night was still just under 2000 short. Unbelievable.
Jordon's just trolling with the way he framed his question ("was hockey in Canada a fad" like are you ****ing serious with that?), but there is some perspective there on how much Coyotes fans have been kicked in the face by Canadians for years when they've had
a) An arena that's really far away from their core fan base, which we see will keep even Canadians away, and
b) Ownership that simply doesn't go far enough above the cap floor to ever be a threat in the west outside of a miracle season, which they had incredible fans for when it happened.
Also cool to watch at 4:30, Smith almost scores a goalie goal on the empty net and actually takes away from the excitement of the clock running out as fans went nuts watching it miss by inches, lol.
Ottawa definitely has fickle fans, but anyone that thinks the location of the arena isn't an issue is fooling themselves. To say the location "isn't that bad" is plain wrong. The city thought it would be more developed west by now, it has developed, but not nearly to the rate it thought it would. Poor planning, south (near the airport) would have been smarter than west. Obviously downtown would be ideal.
I live in the eastern side of Orleans (Ottawa) it probably takes me half an hour longer to come home from a Canadians game than a Sens game, because of the setup leaving palladium drive. (Without traffic, I'm an hour longer to Habs games according to mapquest) Doesn't make a lot of sense.
Where did the nickname "Rags" come from? Is there a reason behind it? I hear it everywhere, but it doesn't really seem to have anything to do with their actual name, other than all the letters are in there.
It's always seemed weird, and almost sounds like a diss, except you hear lots of Rangers fans use it, too.
Where did the nickname "Rags" come from? Is there a reason behind it? I hear it everywhere, but it doesn't really seem to have anything to do with their actual name, other than all the letters are in there.
It's always seemed weird, and almost sounds like a diss, except you hear lots of Rangers fans use it, too.
I just assumed it was a play on the blueshirts nickname that also sounded like a short form for rangers. Apparenlty most Ranger fans take offense so Ill stop using it, but I honestly thought it was a nickname like habs or buds.
It should be pointed out that game one was actually over 2000 short of what they call a sellout (19 something), which is generous. Their actual hockey capacity with standing room is 20,500. So game one was nearly 4000 people short of a sellout.
Game two last night was still just under 2000 short. Unbelievable.
I find this hard to believe, unless they closed off areas...I checked available seats on Ticketmaster and there were maybe 200 available, maybe I'm really bad at estimating and it was 500...but weird to then end up 2000 short?
5 at 
6 in double overtime
