[Locke]

Its definitely tough. For me the Flames used to be an opportunity to unite and be with friends, after work everyone would meet at the pub and watch the game.

Look at all the commercials you see with people getting together, having beer and wings on the couch and watching the game.

I guess my life just turned out differently. Wife, kids, work, friends have lives or have moved, etc. I have to fight to clear an evening to watch a hockey game and even if I manage it, its almost impossible to get everyone together.

So I started PVRing the games and outside of tax season I'd watch them when my family went to sleep.

But when they're playing terrible its just too easy to pull up TheScore app, check the score and save a couple hours of my life to do something else.

There is definitely something coming to change how Sports operate. All sports. In the advent of streaming TV, unbundling cable, Sports is the glue holding a lot of things together and that glue isnt all that strong. The real question is whether whats coming is a correction, or a reckoning.

Leagues are pricing, angering and inconveniencing fans out of the games, they're diluting their own product and not providing incentives to attend.

Ten years ago I'd have told you that one of my dreams was to become a Flames Season Ticket holder.

Today? I can afford it, but the thought of going to even ~10 games a year live fills me with dread. Its a chore. And an expensive one at that, I have more fun with my friends at my local pub at a ridiculous fraction of the cost. Especially when one of those considerations is 'how could this money be better spent?' On my house? A Car? Kid's educations? A vacation?

But even then, when the team is playing like this...I dont need this.

I echo the sentiment of some other long-time fans, I went through the Young Guns era and in comparison this is child's play, but regardless of that I dont want to have to do it again.

I remember wearing my Flames jersey to school on game days and being ridiculed. I dont need that anymore.

It sucks putting all the effort in, even just to go to your neighbourhood bar with your friends and then the Flames get blown out.

So, I dont know if that terms me a fair-weather fan, I'll echo the sentiment of many others here the concept of 'changing teams' isnt even an option. Not even on the table. And in Oilers' terms I'm a Tier 2 fan at the best of times because I'm not what drives Revenue for the Calgary Flames.

I never had a lot of money and when I do I have other, more important things to do with it (see: Wife, kids, house, car) so its not like my fandom can be measured by my purchases.

But when I'm in, I'm in! I flew to Anaheim for Game 5 with some other CPers, I know the contract status of our players, I know how much cap space we have, who is on IR, who we've drafted and the status of our prospects. I think I'm up there in terms of fans and I dont like the 'fair-weather' title, but at the same time I feel that I've done my time in the trenches.