Dark economy adds to Flames challenge (QC Times)

[Nitro]

As a Omaha hockey fan, I do have to chime in here:
1. I do hope the Flames succeed in the QC, it would stink to lose them and have no hockey at all since the Mallards left. The AHL is great, support your team.
2. I do make the trip to Des Moines to see the team-they didn't look so hot Saturday, too bad about all the injuries. But I will continue to go.
3. I've said it before....The Knight outdrew the junior team, they were second in attendance behind the college team that has been here many years, not my cup of tea, but they have an established fan base. Imagine the Mallards and the Flames playing in town at the same time.
4. It was a smart business move for Calgary to move, it remains to see how much of a smart move it was for the QC group. Your team is exhibiting all of the same things that happened in Omaha, changes in mangement, etc. It's all part of the process. In reality, there really aren't that many AHL teams that don't move around a bit.
5. Sorry about the bitter Omaha fans, it's really misplaced anger, the anger should be towards the way we were treated by Calgary management, not the QC.
6. The Chops? A nice arena...but man the announcers....Friday and Saturday the opposing coach was announced as "The Rivermen are coached by...." They also kept saying "Stars fans, are you ready?" The cheerleaders are called the BabyBacks-can you believe it? First, no cheerleaders at hockey games. Second, Babybacks? Pretty demeaning.
7. Omaha AHL? The only chance I ever see of this is if KC gets an NHL team. There is common ownership with the current Junior team and the future KC NHL ownership group. Omaha newspaper has recently had articles about the Junior team moving. They play across the river in Council Bluffs, Iowa in a newer arena very similar to the Mark.
8. Omaha, a dirt hole? I'm a recent transplant and I beg to differ. I find it to be clean, full of friendly folks and a city that is doing a lot of good things. Taxes are outrageous, but other than that that, it's very similar to the QC, just a bit bigger feeling...

Go Flames....QC, support your team, you have a good thing going....there may be other cities out there with the same business model as your ownership group...so support them they can't do it alone.....and Calgary's ears are always open-they are a business as well.

[SparkyOne]

Originally Posted by BringTheKnightsBack

oh come on you qc apologists. all we heard at the begining of last season is how the mallards drew such big crowds in the past and how the quad cities would do so much better in attendance. did not happen last year. now your numbers are way below last season. looking at the ahl website i see that the economy isnt hurting wb-scranton or manitoba. hershey hasnt played at home yet but you can bet theyll draw a helluva lot more than 2300 tonight. the knights attendance was going up before that idiot ken king moved to the quad cities.

Um, Manitoba is in Canada....different economy.

As for the move, business is business. Calgary was losing money in Omaha...that isn't happening in the Quad Cities. Omaha had two years to bring up attendance. I have no idea what the arena lease was like, but with the expenses that Calgary was shouldering, I don't believe that 3,271 (2005-06) at the gate would cut it. I've been to the arena there...it's old and I'm sure that Calgary wanted to upgrade it. They couldn't afford it, though, since you only added 272 to the average attendance in 2006-07.

Quad City gave them an option. New arena, great facilities, and less $$ invested, plus an area with a known hockey history and owners who were enthused to work with them. It's win-win for them, but unfortunately someone had to lose here, too. I know how I would feel if hockey were gone from the QC....it would suck. But I would realize then, as I do now, that we have a great ownership group who's doing their darnedest to make this work. It's up to the fans to accept or reject that...and if they did all they could in Omaha on the ownership end, then it's the fans who were ultimately responsible for the team leaving there as well. If the front office didn't do their job properly, then that group should bear part of the blame. The Quad Cities had nothing to do with any of that.

We already did better last year than Omaha did in its first year....with a 3523 average, we almost equalled Omaha's second year attendance already. This year the ownership has brought in AHL-experienced management, something we didn't have in the last-minute scramble last year. We can already see the differences. After football has ended and we have a healthy team, I expect that this season attendance will improve as the product does. Hopefully some day you can come to a game in Des Moines or the QC and see that we're not the evil interlopers you seem to think we are!

[BringTheKnightsBack]

so what is going to be the spin from all the qc people next wednesday when the flames attendance avg. drops below 3000? let me guess. youll say the flames are still doing better than lowell! omaha was warming up to the flames. we would draw more than 2300 for a fri nite game this season.

[PIMking]

Originally Posted by BringTheKnightsBack

so what is going to be the spin from all the qc people next wednesday when the flames attendance avg. drops below 3000? let me guess. youll say the flames are still doing better than lowell! omaha was warming up to the flames. we would draw more than 2300 for a fri nite game this season.

HAHAHA you dont have a team shut up allready. get over it see ya.

BTW with the economy you dont know how good or bad your attendance would be.

Heres a thought take a drive in two weeks and run your mouth in the qc infront of 4k fans....

[dobbles]

Originally Posted by BringTheKnightsBack

so what is going to be the spin from all the qc people next wednesday when the flames attendance avg. drops below 3000? let me guess. youll say the flames are still doing better than lowell! omaha was warming up to the flames. we would draw more than 2300 for a fri nite game this season.

dude, let it go. why do you troll these forums anyways? you didn't join until after the team had already left omaha!

they aren't coming back, so just be supportive of the guys that are here. sure we aren't quite where we want to be in terms of attendance after a few games. but fact remains, we still had better attendance last year than ohama had 2 years ago. and we have similar attendance numbers to the other teams in this area that have similar areas to draw from. (rockford, peoria, des moines)