Quote:
Originally Posted by photon
I chose fear of losing season ticket base, but I agree it can be a combination of many factors, but ultimately I think it's a business level decision rather than a hockey decision.
The only question I have is can they trust the fans?
When the team was going through its rough patch in the 90's and the team's viability in Calgary was at least discussed as being at risk, wasn't attendance and support evaporating?
Wouldn't that suggest to the owners that they can't trust the fan base?
I don't know because I don't recall enough from the 90's to know if the situation is comparable to trusting the fans now to be supportive through a rebuild.
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The Flames ownership can trust the most die-hard of the fan base. We have been through worse and will be around till the bitter end. I remember attendance being around 15,000 - 16,000 during the bad times. Whether or not that was the actual attendance I don't know, but those are not bad numbers for a team that was an absolute joke from the mid 90's to the early 2000's. Plus almost everything about the game has changed now. Calgary is a big market team and the game itself is focused around skill.
Ownership should be weary of isolating their fan base. If they start losing fans left right and center it won't be because Iginla and others are gone, it'll be because the team has once again returned to the joke they were from the mid 90's to early 2000's.
With that said, and I won't speak for anyone else, while I still follow this team and watch every game that I can, I find it incredibly hard to spend any sort of money on them these days. New third jersey next year? That's nice. Tickets to a game? I'll pass. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't care. It is in fact quite the opposite. I care enough that I want to see a new direction, and they won't get a single penny from me until i see that. If I keep giving and giving then they are more likely to just sit around collecting dollars and putting a mediocre team together.
They might make changes and fail miserably but that's kind of the beauty of it all. You won't make it to the top without risking what you have. Ownership, as successful business men, should have a better understanding of that than any of us.