Heat averaging 3,445 fans, building base says president - Page 5 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

FlamesAddiction · 12-14-2009, 09:12 AM

I don't know about Thunder Bay.

When I lived there, they couldn't even support their UHL team. Maybe things have changed...

Muta · 12-14-2009, 12:17 PM

I'm just curious... given the Saskatchewan market's Flames / Oilers fanbase, and their already current support for their WHL teams, plus their economy that's one of the hottest in North America right now... why not put an AHL franchise there?

Surely Saskatoon or Regina would love to have a professional hockey franchise in the city. And I don't think it would cannibalize their respective WHL teams, alteast very much.

flambers · 12-14-2009, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Muta

I'm just curious... given the Saskatchewan market's Flames / Oilers fanbase, and their already current support for their WHL teams, plus their economy that's one of the hottest in North America right now... why not put an AHL franchise there?

Surely Saskatoon or Regina would love to have a professional hockey franchise in the city. And I don't think it would cannibalize their respective WHL teams, alteast very much.

I would think the Cities are to small to support an WHL and AHL team. It would be one or the other IMO.

Muta · 12-14-2009, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flambers

I would think the Cities are to small to support an WHL and AHL team. It would be one or the other IMO.

Definitely possible. However, seeing as how that province is starved for events, and the strong sports fanbases / affluent incomes now in that province, one could make a case that it could be feasible. For example, Regina is itching to build a domed-stadium for their CFL team. I was involved in a submission for this last month. Even Calgary, being five times the size of Regina, isn't that ambitious. We're talking about a population that loves sports and loves their teams. Who knows, really, I guess.

flambers · 12-21-2009, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Muta

Definitely possible. However, seeing as how that province is starved for events, and the strong sports fanbases / affluent incomes now in that province, one could make a case that it could be feasible. For example, Regina is itching to build a domed-stadium for their CFL team. I was involved in a submission for this last month. Even Calgary, being five times the size of Regina, isn't that ambitious. We're talking about a population that loves sports and loves their teams. Who knows, really, I guess.

Sorry but I bet it would never happen, if Regina bought an AHL team that would be the end of their WHL team. The Pat's would be sold and relocated to another city.

As for the Rider's that is totally different they have a whole province to support them.

QCHockeyFan · 12-22-2009, 12:03 PM

Looks like Dobbles is bringing a bunch of you over to the dark side.

Why is this thread still going? We need more game by game news from the folks in Abbotsford, so this thing can die already.

c.t.ner · 12-22-2009, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Svartsengi

I went and looked up the ticket prices at both Lakehead and Abbotsford. Lakehead single game adult ticket is $12, students $6. In Abbotsford a single game ticket varies between $15.50 and $38.50. Not sure if Thunder Bay would be willing to pay for the increase.

Thunder Bay would be a pretty suitable location for an AHL team. There would be an instant rivalry between the Moose and Thunder bay, due to some small proximity. I'd venture to also say that the price difference wouldn't be a problem and would easily covered by the general population.

The biggest problem I see would be transportation for other AHL teams and for an affiliate team. Abbotsford makes sense for Calgary/Vancouver/Edmonton. Transportation is reasonable once you cross to one of those major centres. But Thunder Bay is a fairly isolated location for a team.

QuadCityImages · 12-22-2009, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QCHockeyFan

Why is this thread still going? We need more game by game news from the folks in Abbotsford, so this thing can die already.

They do have their average attendance up to 3520, so that is some progress. Still not "4000+ STHs"... but growing at least.

RandomDad · 01-05-2010, 04:47 PM

So I got tickets to a Heat game for Christmas against the Wolves, but the tickets are no where to be found now.

FlamesAddiction · 01-05-2010, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by c.t.ner

Thunder Bay would be a pretty suitable location for an AHL team. There would be an instant rivalry between the Moose and Thunder bay, due to some small proximity. I'd venture to also say that the price difference wouldn't be a problem and would easily covered by the general population.

The biggest problem I see would be transportation for other AHL teams and for an affiliate team. Abbotsford makes sense for Calgary/Vancouver/Edmonton. Transportation is reasonable once you cross to one of those major centres. But Thunder Bay is a fairly isolated location for a team.

Thunder Bay just isn't a good sports town. I lived there for several years and it has a long list of failed minor/semi-pro/senior league teams. Do the university teams do well... yeah. Thunder Bay is a pretty big college/university town... almost in the mould of U.S. college towns. It's also somewhat of an artsie/hippy town, more than a sports town. Not to mention, the economy of the city has been pretty much stagnant since the 1980s and they lack a large corporate presense.

dobbles · 01-06-2010, 09:32 AM

to get this back on topic, the heat are still near the bottom of the league, but are about to start an 8 game homestand. in a good news/bad news situation, they finally get 2 home games against the moose which i am sure will draw very well, but unfortunately both games are in the middle of the week. my general assumption would be that if they played the moose on a weekend they would pack the place. so hopefully for them they can still get a good crowd during the weeknight games.

its kinda sad there's not more activity from heat fans on here. i would love to hear more about the team!

604flames · 01-06-2010, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dobbles

its kinda sad there's not more activity from heat fans on here. i would love to hear more about the team!

It surely can't help that the team gets NO play in the local papers and that their games are stuck on an Abby country station while the local sports radio in town feeds the Moose games in live.

dobbles · 01-06-2010, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 604flames

It surely can't help that the team gets NO play in the local papers and that their games are stuck on an Abby country station while the local sports radio in town feeds the Moose games in live.

sucks to hear. qc had plenty of problems as well. i can't hypothesize about abbottsford at all as then i get attacked as a jaded qc fan that hates the flames.

PIMking · 01-06-2010, 09:19 PM

Yeah right dobbles, Lay off the CDC paste you flame hating troll.

Hemi-Cuda · 01-07-2010, 03:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 604flames

It surely can't help that the team gets NO play in the local papers and that their games are stuck on an Abby country station while the local sports radio in town feeds the Moose games in live.

that has to be the most damning evidence of why a Flames affiliate should have never been put into Canucks territory. i just don't understand what Ken King was thinking when he figured Abbotsford would be the perfect place

icarus · 01-07-2010, 06:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

that has to be the most damning evidence of why a Flames affiliate should have never been put into Canucks territory. i just don't understand what Ken King was thinking when he figured Abbotsford would be the perfect place

Not sure what the Heat owners were/are thinking by letting the team go unnoticed/get slapped in the face by the local media. Clearly there is a disconnect there.

QuadCityImages · 01-07-2010, 06:35 AM

We had similar radio problems (the station they chose barely reached most of the metro) but our local media seemed to cover the Flames adequately. They certainly didn't talk about any other hockey team more.

shermanator · 01-10-2010, 02:11 AM

First 2 games of the homestand had 3842 and 4038 as attendance, bringing the average up to 3566. Not great numbers, but slowly creeping up. Both games were wins which help...

SparkyOne · 01-11-2010, 11:34 AM

Wow. As I read this thread, it's like deja vu all over again!

There are so many similarities between the situations in QC and Abbotsford that it's almost scary in some ways. Abbotsford got their franchise almost two years to the day after the Quad Cities did! We probably had better tools media-wise to get the word out, but QC didn't have the advantage of getting the word in December or January that a team was coming like Abbotsford did. Had both Sweeting and Calgary done their jobs properly, the lack of prep time should have been a non-issue for Abbotsford.

I've seen the Heat play (more than once) when they were in the Midwest. They're essentially the same team we had though, according to some of the players, the coaching is better! We won 38 games our first year and 36 our second....now more than halfway through the season, it looks like the Heat are on about the same track. QC played in the West Division, which is extremely competitive and close. Abbotsford is on track to make the playoffs in the North Division....if they were in the West with the same record, they'd be in 6th place and struggling to make the playoffs.

But nobody's even touched the two things (other than being WAY too close to Vancouver!) that I think are going to be the biggest detriment for the Heat's success in the community. And both relate directly to location.

First, because of the location, there really aren't any rivalries. It's difficult, if not impossible, for fans to travel to Abbotsford for a weekend game. And Abbotsford fans are very removed from the league as a whole. There's no way for fans to build up that "hatred" that a rivalry brings, where you want to go to another arena to watch a game, or go to your home arena and banter back and forth with visiting fans. And rivalries bring fans--home and visitors--to the arena for those hyped games. The Heat just don't have that. Even the players notice. When they played in the QC, there were five teams within 200 miles. And there were rivalries, on and off the ice!!

Second, and more importantly, the scheduling. Because of the travel situation, every team that comes into Abbotsford has to play back-to-back games. Other than Manitoba, which is the only kind of "sorta rivalry" that the Heat has, how many fans want to watch the same two teams play twice in a row? Once in a while, that's fine. But week after week?

I really don't care whether the Heat succeed or fail in Abbotsford. I loved the AHL, and would absolutely love to have another AHL team in the QC. But I didn't like all of the Calgary drama. I didn't like how they treated an assistant coach who's done a lot for the organization. I didn't like some of their comments along the way. I loved watching the hockey, and continue to do so based on the relationships that developed during our two years with the Flames. Most of all, I don't like the Flames' track record. That said, I will wear a grin of satisfaction if Abbotsford is two and done.....

Oh, yeah. I came out here to see how the team was doing. It's very sad that there are so few Heat fans contributing. This was one of my favorite places when we had the Flames!

slickrick2369 · 01-12-2010, 05:00 PM

look for the averages to be going up with 2 sold out back-2-back games this week vs Manitoba. Also, the reason why the average is so low is because attendance was horrible after the first 2 games of the season as people still didn't know there was a team in the city. The profile has gotten better and they are consistently drawing around 4000 fans on any given night (weeknight games only draw about 500 less fans than weekend games)