Lack of Flames correspondent at the Athletic

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

I wouldn't say we're the smallest or worst but our lot is a fate worse than both: we're irrelevant.

At least a third of the teams in the league are irrelevant and they have correspondents. What makes us special?

[Bob Loblaw]

The most annoying thing about the article that prompted this thread is that there were three or four other prospect tournaments/games involving teams without beat writers that were covered. And in those other instances the beat writer present did a write up on prospects for each team. Except for the Oiler writer, who couldn’t be bothered to mention any Flame prospect.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by BigThief

The Twin Cities has a CSA of over four million people. Calgary region has about 1.7 million people. Why would you think Calgary is a bigger market?

Calgary is a bigger hockey market, and that is the point.

Hockey has about 60% penetration in Canadian cities, and 6-10% penetration in US cities. That implies Calgary's 1.7M (it's actually higher than that, I believe) would have the same fan audience as a city of 10M in the US. Of course, the twin cities would have a higher hockey density than most US cities, but the point stands.

[dino7c]

They could easily support a Flames writer...they do for teams with less interest. Beyond being a Flames fan IMO every team should have a writer if they are serious and want to cover the league.

[pokerNhockey]

Another consideration for the US Metro's, although hockey is smaller, saying you cover every team in Ohio probably has value, and the performance of the other teams justifies the NHL coverage expense.

This city largely cares about the Flames when they are good. Edmonton was able to raise their prices 40% while being a lottery team. I suspect Calgary, while aggressive, will not see as excessive of a increase.

[Erick Estrada]

I also think this forum is where most Flames fans go to for Flames related news (Flames fan activity at HF is less than the Kings for example because a large portion of Flames fans are here) and I feel less inclined to read a beat writer's take when I have already seen takes of hundreds of Flames fans and posted tweets. I don't think the US teams have such a large fan community like CP so they may look more to sites like the Athletic for their news and comments.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

Just because the population is X in another city (especially the U.S.) doesn't mean it is a bigger hockey market. I would say that in Minnesota, it very well could be. But most other places the percentage of hockey fans they are catering too that will subscribe and read a publication like the athletic for hockey purposes is likely far higher here.

I don’t know if this old Hockey Avidity chart has ever been updated:

https://jetshockeyforum.proboards.co...s-media-market

[CKPThunder]

Didn't know where to post this. If you are a student, staff or faculty or I guess if you have a child who is a student at the U of C, you can get a free NY Times subscription with a valid ucalgary.ca email account. I believe this will include the Athletic as well.

https://libguides.ucalgary.ca/c.php?g=460116&p=5070097

[FBI]

What about U of C alumni?

[YyjFlames]

Athletic might be listening… their Jets’ beat writer (I think) posted a story pretty quickly about Coronato leaving the game:Coronato injury.

I certainly appreciate it if they’ve asked their reporters to do these types of stories as that was a big miss by the Canuck’s writer.

[homestand]

Originally Posted by CKPThunder

Didn't know where to post this. If you are a student, staff or faculty or I guess if you have a child who is a student at the U of C, you can get a free NY Times subscription with a valid ucalgary.ca email account. I believe this will include the Athletic as well.

https://libguides.ucalgary.ca/c.php?g=460116&p=5070097

Also available for free if you have a library card at the Calgary Public Library,

https://www.calgarylibrary.ca/read-l...library?query=

[saillias]

From my experience the nyt digital access through the calgary public library won't extend to the athletic. But archive.is works for most paywalls.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

National SN radio show earlier was going through the teams. Host asked his colleague about the Flames. He struggled to come up with any talking points (you could hear he was racking his brain trying to find a name of interest and blanking) wound up just focusing on Andersson, probably because it's of relevance to other teams as a potential trade target. it was the saddest and vaguest bit of coverage that lasted about 5 minutes before they found a segue to talk about the Canucks, who they discussed at length.

Funny enough, the supposedly relevant and story-laden Canucks finished below the Flames in the standings.

Come on, boys. Wolf and Parekh were juicy low hanging fruit if you were looking for a story.

And covering this league is their job.. woof.