Quad City Fan Support and Team Performance Discussion

[pioneer98]

Originally Posted by Canada 02

I think this is the article and quote in question:

http://qctimes.com/articles/2008/11/...c662813588.txt



Clearly he's dissapointed with the attendance, but I don't see how those words could be taken as criticizing the fans. Saying that it is part of player development suggests to me that he is putting the onus on the players to be more fan friendly and marketable; get out in the community and be a presence for the team

I agree with your take on it, and I wasn't one of the fans that took offense. But some fans did take it the wrong way. I don't think they should have, but they did nonetheless.

Then when you combine the above comment with the Abbottsford junk, it becomes more damaging.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by dobbles

related to the bad home play is the PP issue. last year the team was 24th at home in PP but 14th on the road. whether it was bad luck or something else, it made watching the PP at home very painful. this year, they are ranked 21st at home and 20th on the road. once again, not too great. all too often they get 0 scoring chances and only 1 or 2 shots on a PP. though i am often critical of the undeducated fans that seem to shout shoot it any time a guy gets the puck on the point, the team seems to cycle in the corner way too much on the PP and need someone to just shoot it.

I feel your pain. The big club does same thing. The only reasons our PP ever does remotely well are that the players are good enough to score in spite of how bad our system is, and because of broken plays.

[dobbles]

so i was just talking about this with a friend, and wanted to see how other feel about it...

at the games, myself and pimking have a good time creating our own entertainment. we make stupid signs with people photoshopped onto things, we razz/talk to the backup goalies, and just have an all around good time.

so i was talking to my friend about how exciting things never happen at flames games. in our discussion we came to the conclusion that all our good memories are of the things we do at games. about how funny our signs were, or how al montoya freaked out on us, or how other players tried to attack us. but never do we have memories of really great fights, really sweet goals, or any other on ice things.

so for regular fans that don't get in on pimking and i's stupid inside jokes, what are they taking away from the game? while i realize something spectacular isn't going to happen every night, we don't seem to have anything that builds a good buzz. we don't have a guy like mirasty that brings fans in just to see him destroy people. we don't have a top level scorer or dangler that can make sweet looking offensive plays. keetley is a bit flashey in goal, but thats mostly because he overcommits and is out of position and trying to save his butt. irving is a much more traditional goaltender that isn't flashey.

so on most nights, whether we win or lose, fans see a hard fought but uninspiring game. they see lots of defensive play and goals that are a result of hardwork, not necessarily skill.

maybe its bad luck we don't see big plays. maybe its just the current crop of grinder type players we have. maybe i am way off base. i would love to hear qc fans opinions and whether this makes any sense to calgary folks!

[PIMking]

our western canadian kids will beat up your american and frenchies though!

[dobbles]

Originally Posted by PIMking

our western canadian kids will beat up your american and frenchies though!

lol.

like i said though. we don't even have good fights to get the casual fan interested. we have a tough guy like vandermeer that no one will go against. we had a guy in tremblay that couldnt stay cause we already had a fighter. watt fights all the time but they aren't very good. though i am not big on fighting, i would be supportive of it if it helped build fans and grow the game. but we can't even get that going!

[Locke]

I guess that the onus rests upon fans like yourselves to really bring the atmosphere.

That kind of game day fun is something that requires an initial work investment in order to be maintained indefinitely without effort.

Kind of like Facepaint here in Calgary, he should go out East for a month or something.

[dobbles]

yeah i see what you're saying. and i will never argue that the fans/atmosphere here is darn near a funeral.

with that said though, look at the personalities you have in calgary. you have iginla, your goal scoring mr. clutch, who provides fans with all kinds of sweet plays in the offensive zone; you have phaneuf who lays down hits that people talk about for months; you have kipper who makes saves that get shown on highlight reels for years. those kind of players give casual fans someone to follow easily and be excited about. its a bit tougher to drum up interest in cam cunning and his ability to cycle the puck in the corner. (just an example)

and thats where i was trying to go with it. right now we have a team that is very 'working class.' not as easy to drum up interest compared to a flashy team. and i do realize any really good players would be called up, but hopefully the point is getting through.