I've been to several games this season, both weekday and weekend, and the attendance has been dismal. It's a bit baffling because the quality of hockey is fantastic and certainly the population is large enough to get a better draw, but for some reason people aren't going.
I'm sure there are a lot of explanations. There have been complaints about parking and accessibility issues. Many believed that Abbotsford is just not a hockey town which I originally thought was not true but it might just be so...
The Heat are in a pretty big market and the location of the AESC is right beside a freeway exit so it is not an inconvenient place to get to. With a season under the belt it seems to me that the only way for the AHL to be viable is for the Heat to be able to tap into the hockey fans from Langley, Surrey and other points west. (I leave Chilliwack out because with WHL Bruins in town there is no reason for locals to go elsewhere for great hockey)
I think, at the end of the day, that this really is a Canucks only market and any attempt at AHL hockey is doomed to fail here in its current form. The most the hated rival the Canuck's face is Calgary and their farm team in this backyard just doesn't get people fired up... The AHL experiment in this market needs to draw from outside Abbotsford to be successful and has to draw fans from the Greater Vancouver area; despite the great hockey being put on the ice the fan commitment just isn't showing itself to be there.... There just isn't an emotional attachment to this team.
I really like the Heat being here but I don't have a good feeling for this team going forward...
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