09-08-2011, 08:30 AM
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#1
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In the Sin Bin
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Bye bye Vipers?
http://www.calgarysun.com/2011/09/08...bat-for-vipers
Not good when the owner is battling health problems and the guy who was running and funding the team resigns.
Inevitably, the demise of the Vipers will take down the Edmonton team as well. Not sure how long the Capitals would want to go it alone.
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09-08-2011, 09:18 AM
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#2
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Franchise Player
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14
http://www.calgarysun.com/2011/09/08...bat-for-vipers
Not good when the owner is battling health problems and the guy who was running and funding the team resigns.
Inevitably, the demise of the Vipers will take down the Edmonton team as well. Not sure how long the Capitals would want to go it alone.
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Edmonton has other plans...
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09-08-2011, 09:47 AM
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#3
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Franchise Player
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The loss of the Vipers wouldn't affect me at all. We still have the Okotoks Dawgs, who are a much better run organization, with an amazing stadium.
Perhaps this means they can tear down Foothills Stadium and build a soccer field? 
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09-08-2011, 04:09 PM
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#4
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Franchise Player
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: in your blind spot.
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I went to a Vipers game this year and enjoyed it. Okotoks is a long ways away for folks in the north half of the city.
__________________
"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
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09-08-2011, 05:49 PM
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#5
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Not a casual user
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: A simple man leading a complicated life....
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobblehead
I went to a Vipers game this year and enjoyed it. Okotoks is a long ways away for folks in the north half of the city.
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Same could be said for someone living in the deep south of Calgary. Foothills stadium was always a poor choice for a ball team.
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09-08-2011, 06:09 PM
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#6
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In the Sin Bin
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat
Edmonton has other plans...
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Such as?
The only other realistic league is the PCL, and as nice as it would be to see AAA ball come back, it would be an understatement to say I would be shocked if that happened.
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09-08-2011, 06:10 PM
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#7
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Not a casual user
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: A simple man leading a complicated life....
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shermanator
The loss of the Vipers wouldn't affect me at all. We still have the Okotoks Dawgs, who are a much better run organization, with an amazing stadium.
Perhaps this means they can tear down Foothills Stadium and build a soccer field? |
Fuuny thing is the Okotoks Dawgs drew more fans per game than the Vipers. In fact the Dawgs were ranked #4 in attendace for collegiate ball in North America by Ballpark biz.
http://ballparkbiz.wordpress.com/201...ance-rankings/
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09-08-2011, 08:05 PM
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#8
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Powerplay Quarterback
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dion
Same could be said for someone living in the deep south of Calgary. Foothills stadium was always a poor choice for a ball team.
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At least Foothills is near transit. I live in the NW, how am I going to get to a Dawgs game? Sure, I can drive for about an hour. But then I know I can't have 3-4 beers and still get home without driving.
If the Vipers really do fold the tent, the Dawgs would be well served to start offering some sort of coach service between the end of the C-train line and their stadium. I'd love to go to their games, but it just isn't worth the drive for me.
Last edited by TopChed; 09-08-2011 at 08:09 PM.
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09-08-2011, 08:07 PM
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#9
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Lifetime Suspension
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Went to a game during the 2010 season with some friends and had a good time.
Hopefully they stay.
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09-08-2011, 09:46 PM
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#10
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Franchise Player
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dion
Same could be said for someone living in the deep south of Calgary. Foothills stadium was always a poor choice for a ball team.
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I would argue Foothills is a more convenient option for many more people than Seaman. Foothills is a dump, but it's still inner city and close to transit, two things Seaman is not.
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09-09-2011, 05:57 PM
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#11
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Franchise Player
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat
Edmonton has other plans...
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Curious to hear more about this...
__________________
But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
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09-09-2011, 06:00 PM
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#12
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Scoring Winger
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Thought I heard Fort Mac of all places was looking at getting a team.
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09-09-2011, 06:19 PM
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#13
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Franchise Player
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: (780)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FCAV
Thought I heard Fort Mac of all places was looking at getting a team.
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__________________
I PROMISED MESS I WOULDN'T DO THIS
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09-09-2011, 06:41 PM
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#14
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Not a casual user
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: A simple man leading a complicated life....
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shermanator
I would argue Foothills is a more convenient option for many more people than Seaman. Foothills is a dump, but it's still inner city and close to transit, two things Seaman is not.
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Yet the Dawgs are a very sucessful franchise dispite all the obsticles listed by people in this thread. They don't have anywhere near the population base to draw from nor transit and yet they draw an average of 2,300 fans to games.
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09-09-2011, 06:43 PM
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#15
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Not a casual user
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: A simple man leading a complicated life....
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TopChed
At least Foothills is near transit. I live in the NW, how am I going to get to a Dawgs game? Sure, I can drive for about an hour. But then I know I can't have 3-4 beers and still get home without driving.
If the Vipers really do fold the tent, the Dawgs would be well served to start offering some sort of coach service between the end of the C-train line and their stadium. I'd love to go to their games, but it just isn't worth the drive for me.
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The Dawgs don't need to offer anything. They survive quite well drawing fans from the Okotoks area.
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09-09-2011, 06:56 PM
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#16
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Retired
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Turn Foothills into a world class stadium and bring back AAA baseball.
Then I'd go.
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09-10-2011, 01:04 AM
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#17
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Franchise Player
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Probably stuck driving someone somewhere
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oilers_fan
Curious to hear more about this...
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Yes, spill the beans on the Capitals....
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09-10-2011, 11:13 AM
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#18
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First Line Centre
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Took my kids to game this summer at Foothills, baseball was decent but the park is a dump. Tough to make a go of it without a ballpark, I think Okotoks proves that if you have a jewel of a park, people will support it.
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09-10-2011, 03:52 PM
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#19
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First Line Centre
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Olympic Saddledome
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-Edmonton has publicly stated they want to bring AAA back...I just can't see the PCL going there. Much more likely to have the Jay's AAA affiliation move to Vancouver and play in an expanded Nat Bailey Stadium
-The Dawgs have indeed done great things out in Okotoks, and are probably better off having had the city give them the boot from Foothills 5 years ago. They do very well being the big fish in the small pond, both in terms of being the thing to do in Okotoks and in being a perennial power in their league. The weekend heavy schedule and short season work perfectly for our climate, and the business model of college summer league teams is one that has taken off all over North America.
-As for the Vipers, that's the ball I go to in the summer, both because it is closer to me and because I think it is a better brand of ball. The frustrating thing about the business situation with the club for me is twofold. First, they have never had local ownership/management. Now it seems like Jeff Gidney has been a pretty good hands off owner, but in Peter Young and John Conrad they have had two guys from Winnipeg who didn't have any contacts in the Calgary business community (as opposed to having a leading corporate lawyer as a managing director of the Dawgs). They haven't addressed this by having good local front office staff. The second thing is the condition of Foothills, some of which would be really expensive to change, such as completely redoing under the seats but some of which would not, such as not having pallets sitting out on the concourse, having broken seats not replaced, and other little things that can add up to a feel of neglect.
As far as the future for the Vipers, who knows? The Gidney's have put a fair bit of money into the park, esp with the two domes outside it, so hopefully they will want to continue with the team under new management.
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09-10-2011, 04:17 PM
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#20
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In the Sin Bin
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And Peter Young spent his time destroying contacts with the city. The Dawgs got their Okotoks ballpark because of how Young treated them. And it was the Seaman brothers who saw what was going on and built the park. So, yeah, set two of the city's biggest businessmen against you, and by extension, anyone associated with them, which is just about everyone.
Between Peter Young's idiocy and the Northern League's incompetence, the Vipers were in a great deal of trouble from day 1, and never recovered.
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