Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
I can't see the fans of Calgary getting behind a rebuild. The fans can't stand a single losing season, how are they going to take a decade of futility before the team (hopefully) exits the rebuild and enters the ranks of a contender? The fans' interest would go elsewhere quickly and season ticket sales would dry up. Rebuilds are no guarantee for success, and years of losing - and I mean serious losing where 25-30 wins during a season is a high point - is likely to destroy support amongst the fanbase. It's easy to say you would accept it until you have to live through it. It's kind of like having money. You tell yourself you could do without it until you have to face that reality. Then you realize how hard it is and how much you never want to experience that discomfort again. Losing sucks and all you have to do is look at the inactivity on the board after a losing season. The fans would drift away and many of them may never come back. The team can't afford that.
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I think there is a lot of truth in this. I think the Flames organization understands their market and voluntarily entering a rebuild is not a palatable business proposition, otherwise it probably would have happened by now. I’m also willing to suggest that the only time it has happened in the past 10-20 years the Flames preemptively got out of as soon as the possibly could with the first Hamilton trade.
It is no coincidence that this team has never drafted in the top 3 and only once in the top 5.