I can't quote you Pepsi free, so manual quote it is:
Quote:
I think the ignores market size too much. Calgary fans have an inflated sense of their own relevance overall.
You look at the top sellers and they aren’t just the best players, but the best players playing in the most popular, most dedicated markets. Celebrini is probably selling some jerseys in San Jose, no doubt, but he’s not going to outsell Bedard and that comes down to the fact that he plays for San Jose and Bedard plays for Chicago.
Calgary is below Edmonton in terms of fan base size. And that’s ignoring factors like star power and team performance. I would certainly not bet your life someone like McKenna on Calgary would ever outsell McDavid, let alone McDavid and Draisatl combined. I would be surprised if McKenna in a Flames jersey even cracked the top 10.
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I don't about Calgary fans having an inflated sense of relevance... seems to me that every team's fan base has that in my opinion. Not sure you can quantify it being more or less than some other random team. However, market size isn't the point here at all.
My point exactly is about GROWING the market size. Yes, Edmonton's is larger. Calgary (and Southern Alberta as a whole) is more populated. Connect the dots, and the combination of star power + (fluke) winning = a whole new generation of fans.
Calgary has been the opposite of that. Sure, Calgary has done well in regular seasons, but it is absolutely no contest comparing Calgary with Edmonton in terms of fan creation and excitement. Edmonton is growing their fan base, while Calgary is shrinking. That's exactly the issue I am pointing at.
As for the hypothetical "Flames win the lottery and draft McKenna" situation - yes, I do think that for a year or two McKenna's jersey would drastically out-sell McDavid's and Draisaitl's. It isn't like people are buying a new McDavid jersey every year. Maybe over a 5 year period, of the Flames remain relatively unsuccessful and if the Oilers become more successful (which I doubt), but we can agree to disagree here.