Something's gotta give

[kehatch]

Originally Posted by the_professsor

I'm not even convinced if we tank and stay in 15th that we'll sell assets at the deadline. It should be obvious by watching the Flames the last 3 years that that they aren't a playoff team and need to rebuild, yet we don't.

There are clearly some idiots in management, don't know enough to say who specifically, but I'm not convinced they will make the right decision at the deadline, regardless of our position in the standings

I don't think they are idiots. They just have different priorities. They want to get approval for an arena. They want to keep selling tickets. They want the perception of being competitive. And they want the credibility that having stars like Iginla and Kipper gets you.

There is noway that people as successful as King, Edwards, and even Feaster fail to recognize the situation that the Flames are in.

But you might be right. I have the same concern. Failing to rebuild might be a foregone conclusion regardless of how poorly we do this season.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by kehatch

I don't think they are idiots. They just have different priorities. They want to get approval for an arena. They want to keep selling tickets. They want the perception of being competitive. And they want the credibility that having stars like Iginla and Kipper gets you.

There is noway that people as successful as King, Edwards, and even Feaster fail to recognize the situation that the Flames are in.

But you might be right. I have the same concern. Failing to rebuild might be a foregone conclusion regardless of how poorly we do this season.

If true, what you're saying proves they are indeed idiots. Nothing sells tickets like a winning team. Are they really that delusional that they think the "perception of being competitive" is something the fans will buy into? Do they really think they can treat the fanbase like complete morons? So let me get this straight, having Iginla and Kipper on a near last place team somehow makes everything okay in the eyes of management?

I don't see how they could possibly give a bigger middle finger to the fans than expecting them to buy that garbage.

[vektor]

I've been the kind of fan saying we are going for to finish last for a few years because of our roster, and being right does not make me feel good about it. There's no I told you so's here, this is just a really crappy spot for an NHL team to be in. We can't trade the 2 stars because then we aren't marketable, but we also can't rebuild if we hold on to expiring assets.

This is a really bad spot for the team, a decade of mismanagement has backed us into a corner with seemingly no alternatives but to tank for a long period and land a Sydney Crosby type player in the draft a few years from now because as it is this team has little to no positives in regards to the future.

[$ven27]

Well.. I guess if we're to begin our true suckage, it's better to suck with chances at Jones, MacKinnon, Drouin, Ekblad, McDavid in the future, rather than RNH, Hall,Yakupov.

[The Professor]

Originally Posted by zamler

If true, what you're saying proves they are indeed idiots. Nothing sells tickets like a winning team. Are they really that delusional that they think the "perception of being competitive" is something the fans will buy into? Do they really think they can treat the fanbase like complete morons? So let me get this straight, having Iginla and Kipper on a near last place team somehow makes everything okay in the eyes of management?

I don't see how they could possibly give a bigger middle finger to the fans than expecting them to buy that garbage.

So, where are all these success stories of teams that blew it up and won the Stanley Cup? Pittsburgh is the only one, and clearly Crosby's don't come around every day. Edmonton has had three in a row and still suck, islanders suck, Tampa sucks

Not saying we should hold on to every aging asset, but dumping everyone is not a foolproof plan.

[Poe969]

Originally Posted by The Professor

So, where are all these success stories of teams that blew it up and won the Stanley Cup? Pittsburgh is the only one, and clearly Crosby's don't come around every day. Edmonton has had three in a row and still suck, islanders suck, Tampa sucks

Not saying we should hold on to every aging asset, but dumping everyone is not a foolproof plan.

Where are all the stories of a last place team keeping the team together and turning it around to win the cup?

If the Flames start to trade away players and build a team properly through the draft and with their own young tallent, they might get somewhere.

The way things have been done so far by the Flames is just dumb. They're trading away younger players and or picks for a quick fix that never really fixes anything. The Flames best players are arguably the free agent signings Hudler and Wideman (or at least were), now does that mean we have a great eye for free agents or that our team sucks so bad we have to bring in other support players to be our best players?

I agree the Flames shoudl "blow it up" but I don't think they'll be contenders any time soon. The main difference is if we keep the team together we still won't be a contender but people will think we are.

[drewtastic]

Originally Posted by zamler

I don't see how they could possibly give a bigger middle finger to the fans than expecting them to buy that garbage.

But this is precisely what the Flames have sold to its fans for the better part of the past decade. They have gone to great lengths to sell a hockey game as "entertainment"; that is, as just another way to spend a night out in Calgary. This makes winning and losing less important, as the focus becomes "the experience" rather than the team's performance. ("Sure, the Flames lost 4-0, but, how about that t-shirt cannon? Good stuff!!")

As a STH for over a decade now, I grew weary of the "feedback surveys" that asked us about our "in-house experience". I even had one Flames representative ask us "OTHER THAN the on-ice product, what would you like to see improved about your experience at Flames games?" I suppose I'm in the minority here, but I don't attend games for the "experience". I want to see the Flames win. At least, I expect to see a team that shows some degree of consistency in its play. The only consistency with this team is the ease with which it has allowed Herald beat writers to complete their post-game write-ups--all they have had to do is find the previous game's/week's/season's columns and photocopy them.

This season, I've stopped attending games. If, indeed, the Flames organization believes its existence to be primarily "entertainment" (which would explain the disinterest in trading Iggy or Kipper), then I'll spend my "entertainment" dollars on more satisfying returns. At least if I had season tickets to the movies, I'd probably be similarly disappointed most of the time, but for a lot less money.