[Russic]

Ken King and Brian Burke bring it up at every season ticket holder event: we know you have many choices with how you spend your entertainment dollars, and we thank you for spending them here.

Every time I end up thinking "good point... I do have a lot of other options that I haven't explored yet."

It's unfortunate timing for the fan in me. I've gotten much busier as the quality of the product has decreased. I got married, had kids, got a grown-up job... now I'm left with a lot less free time than I had 16 years ago when I first bought season tickets. True, part of that is poor time management, but it doesn't change the fact that I have about 1 hour/night to do whatever I want. When I rank all the things I want to accomplish in that hour, watching the Flames is literally falling out of the top 10. Last week I started reorganizing folders of photos on my computer. Seriously. That is a thing that consciously chose to do. I didn't even turn the game on in the background. If that's not a fan that's lost interest in the game, I don't know what is.

I also find a few of the more exciting parts of the game are no longer enjoyable to me. A family member of mine is best friends with a former NHL player that has had concussion issues. Every now and then I get an update on him, and I can honestly say it sounds like his life totally sucks (I'd prefer to not use his name as I don't exactly hear these things with his permission). Now after every huge hit and every fight I can't stop thinking about a guy that can't even play with his kids anymore. Once you remove your enjoyment of hits and fights, there's a big piece of hockey appeal that's missing.