Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Question Regarding Farm Teams In Same City As NHL Team

moon · 05-31-2013, 07:44 AM

I can't imagine it working and certainly not with the WHL team still here.

I think the WHL can draw from a different fan base than the NHL (at least down in Lethbridge I know a ton of fans that are WHL fans not NHL fans). With the AHL I think you would almost exclusively being dealing with NHL fans as the large majority of fans. I doubt there would be much (if any corporate incentive to buy tickets) hard to imagine many Flames STH's wanting both and to the average fan the AHL doesn't really have much of a draw in a big city like Calgary.

There likely would be a great sense of support on here from hardcore fans but even as a hardcore fan myself I would have no desire to have season ticket and would maybe go to a handful of games a year depending on my schedule.

The draw of the "prospects" is nice but in reality most of the exciting prospects are rookies in the NHL or playing in CHL/NCAA. The guys in the AHL are the future 3rd/4th liners or never will be guys and for most people the AHL just ends up being a very watered down second tier league.

I also think as we see with Abbotsford the cost of running the team with travel costs makes it a much more expensive business than the WHL and with no City of Abbotsford paying the difference no real reason for the Flames to kill their WHL team to pay a couple of million to prop up their AHL team.

05-31-2013, 07:44 AM	#13
moon Lifetime Suspension Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Lethbridge Exp:	I can't imagine it working and certainly not with the WHL team still here. I think the WHL can draw from a different fan base than the NHL (at least down in Lethbridge I know a ton of fans that are WHL fans not NHL fans). With the AHL I think you would almost exclusively being dealing with NHL fans as the large majority of fans. I doubt there would be much (if any corporate incentive to buy tickets) hard to imagine many Flames STH's wanting both and to the average fan the AHL doesn't really have much of a draw in a big city like Calgary. There likely would be a great sense of support on here from hardcore fans but even as a hardcore fan myself I would have no desire to have season ticket and would maybe go to a handful of games a year depending on my schedule. The draw of the "prospects" is nice but in reality most of the exciting prospects are rookies in the NHL or playing in CHL/NCAA. The guys in the AHL are the future 3rd/4th liners or never will be guys and for most people the AHL just ends up being a very watered down second tier league. I also think as we see with Abbotsford the cost of running the team with travel costs makes it a much more expensive business than the WHL and with no City of Abbotsford paying the difference no real reason for the Flames to kill their WHL team to pay a couple of million to prop up their AHL team.