Fan support going forward - where do you stand?

[Lanny_McDonald]

This thread will be for the vocal minority to chime in and share their feelings on the team and how their support will be going forward. What do you feel toward the team? Enthusiasm? Hope? Ambivalence? Antipathy? Will you continue to support the team with your ticket and merchandise money? Are there conditions on that support? What are your thoughts?

[Toonage]

Darryl Sutter was the best thing to happen to this franchise, and the worst. If he's back next season, I'm not putting myself through this again especially if he or one of his guys has more power over the roster.

Burning Beard had great advice yesterday. He checked out during the Gulutzan days because he hated what he saw. I can see myself doing the same for the remainder of Darryl's time here.

[Jbo]

I’ll always be a fan, but the days of me living and dying with the day to day is long over. When the team is playing well, I expect I will go to more games, spend more money and enjoy myself. When the team is bad, I expect the opposite.

There was a time in my life when a loss or missing the playoffs would devastate me. Now there are so many competing priorities for my time and money, it just does not impact me the same

[Yeah_Baby]

I'm more curious than anything right now. Curious about the details of the fire that were giving off all the smoke. I think the off season will be interesting because of a couple different vectors. Will I have the same excitement this fall as I did last fall? Not a chance.

[Geeoff]

I'm a little checked out but there's room for some optimism, since the salary cap will probably not allow the Flames to run a roster of only vets next season.

[Funkhouser]

I checked out on this team after how they treated Phillips. I watched about 1/3 of the games after that. I expect that will remain the case if Sutter remains in place.

If Sutter is gone and the team is having fun, I will be invested...albeit realistic. This team is not winning a cup anytime soon.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

There's always next season and you just never know how things are going to work out. Teams that are supposed to be terrible do pretty well. Teams expected to be great fizzle out. While some things can be predicted, I've learned that you should never assume anything about how a season will unfold.

It's why I come back again and again. I don't know how this story will end, so it's always worth checking out and investing my time.

[Madman]

[Muta]

We need to move on from Sutter; I think the game is evolving to a young, skilled environment and his style of play / preference of player type is becoming outdated. I don't think players like his type of system, but that's just a hunch.

I'll keep watching if he remains coach I guess, but if he gets promoted to GM for some reason, I'm definitely checking out from this team for a while. Hated his last run as GM, he's done nothing to prove he's gotten better since then. Even worse if it's because he's just Edwards' friend.

[Vinny01]

The older I get the less emotionally attached I get to the team which is a good thing. I felt extremely good about canceling my season tickets after last season and my run with spending thousands of dollars a year on this team is done. I went to 3 games this year which is the least I have attended in any season since 03/04 which was my first year living in Calgary. I still watch every game and spend more time on this site than any other online and that will continue.

I am excited for the offseason because I think change is coming. I think with the right moves this team will be fine. It was tough losing the 2 franchise players post Iginla (3 if you include Monahan) in the same summer and the new guys we brought in to replace them underwhelmed. This team needed to be better to keep the fans engaged. It was a frustrating season on many fronts and this was a tough team to get behind.

[EldrickOnIce]

Of all the #### seasons in the 40+ years I've been following the Flames, this was maybe the ####tiest

[Savvy27]

I'm honestly a bit relieved that the season is closing out. This has been the least enjoyable regular season in memory for me. Even during some of the mediocre years in the 2000s, at least there was Iginla and Kipper.

Watching a team with no stars, no ability to come back in games, that would give up early goals and be losing most of the the time, and finally a coach that seemed to actively opt for the opposite of what the fans wanted because he knew better (guess not) was just too much for me to actually enjoy it.

I'm not at the point of giving up my tickets yet but if Sutter is returning I'll definitely be investing less of my time in following the team and attending games myself. It just isn't that fun right now. I'm not even that down on the current state of the team as I feel it is a really close league and they could be competing for the division next season with the right tweaks and better goaltending.

[Bingo]

I'll always watch.

Hockey is entertainment. When it's good it's very very good, but when things go badly there's always some entertainment in that soap opera as well.

Should be an interesting summer.

Not sure I remember a time when I was so unsure about what would happen to the GM, the coach, some core players.

Personally I see the sport as pretty random. You assemble a team with talent, which gets you entry, but then every season is a bit of a crap shoot of things either working out or not. I'm pretty content as long as I like the guy in charge and the decisions being made.

My most hopeless time was the Feaster era as it seemed rudderless until Burke showed up.

[Hockey_Ninja]

At this point I’m mostly interested in the future of the franchise. I don’t care that much about the team “bouncing back” next year because I don’t see a contender with this group. And that’s even if they fired Sutter and got a coach that fits the team better. I’ll definitely take more entertaining hockey and a playoff spot next year over whatever the #### this season was. But it’s time to look forward. I think still trying to contend with the current team is a mistake. They need to start thinking long-term. It’s time

[chedder]

Sold more of my games than any other year. And got less per ticket than ever. Going to have to think hard about whether to renew.

Really, the only reason to have season tickets is for the playoffs as you can pay way less than season ticket prices online for every game save for a couple.

The team was just so frustrating and tough to watch. As a fan, I hope Sutter is retired to the ranch.

[Burning Beard]

It's going to be an interesting offseason this year. I'm not as down on the team as many here are but I understand it.

The way I see it Markstrom, Huberdeau, Kadri and Sutter all had off years to varying degrees. Going by the Flames track record of every second year being a down one next year they should be good.

Also, I have never in my life seen a season with such s### puck luck! It was honestly unbelievable. I always was someone who thought that would even out over a season but the puck off the ref to a Pred and into our net last game once again proved that wrong.

[Ozy_Flame]

Sutter is like DAP. It helps plug holes, smooths out the cracks, and get's the job done.

However, if you leave the lid off too long, it dries out.

Darryl's usefulness has dried out.

[Scornfire]

I stopped watching months ago, I don't intend to start back up until this team stops wasting cap and roster spots on bad vets while insulting their farmhands with comically bad deployment in the rare instances they do actually get called up

[Enoch Root]

hope springs eternal

[Puppet Guy]

Been a Flames fan since 1980, and will probably stay a Flames fan until I'm dead. But my interest in the NHL has been waning since the 2012-13 lockout. As long as the on-ice product is entertaining I'll be watching, but it isn't the be-all/end-all it used to be.