Heat averaging 3,445 fans, building base says president

[FlamesAddiction]

I was watching Global news last night and they covered the Heat after talking about the Canucks.

[seattleflamer]

I haven't read the whole thread so someone may have suggested it, but wouldn't the best option in the long run for the Canucks and Flames be to switch affiliates?

I wonder if that is the long term ploy for the Heat ownership. Nothing scientific mind you, but it sure seems when I'm in Winnipeg there seems to be more Flames fans and jerseys around than Canucks. Sportnet West obviously follow the Flames/Oilers...

[icarus]

Originally Posted by seattleflamer

I haven't read the whole thread so someone may have suggested it, but wouldn't the best option in the long run for the Canucks and Flames be to switch affiliates?

I wonder if that is the long term ploy for the Heat ownership. Nothing scientific mind you, but it sure seems when I'm in Winnipeg there seems to be more Flames fans and jerseys around than Canucks. Sportnet West obviously follow the Flames/Oilers...

I smell a 46-player trade in the works...

[dobbles]

a crowd of 7,046 last night! that bumped their season average up i think 200-300 right there. assuming they do that again tonight, that gets them close to the 4,000 range and more in the middle of the pack for the league.

it will still be interesting to see how their finances work out since their travel budget has to be huge, but at least this is getting them closer to long term sustainable numbers.

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Yes, it was a capacity crowd last night. I tried to get tickets yesterday morning, but she said they were totally sold out.

I'm assuming they're sold out tonight too.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by seattleflamer

I haven't read the whole thread so someone may have suggested it, but wouldn't the best option in the long run for the Canucks and Flames be to switch affiliates?

I wonder if that is the long term ploy for the Heat ownership. Nothing scientific mind you, but it sure seems when I'm in Winnipeg there seems to be more Flames fans and jerseys around than Canucks. Sportnet West obviously follow the Flames/Oilers...

Do the Canucks actually own the Moose though? I thought the Moose were independently owned and just have an agreement with the Canucks.

[Homer_J]

I was listening to the Moose radio broadcast last night and they were discussing the attendance problems in Abbotsford. There were a couple of main points they touched on.

1)As it's been talked about here, Abbotsford is in Canucks country. It's tough to sell the Canucks main rival to Canucks fans. The team probably could have disassociated itself more from the Flames. Changed the team colours and look of the uniforms, more so than they did.

2)This is a new team. The community doesn't associate with them yet. They need a winning season and a playoff run. Something to bring the local fans together and get the media talking about the team.

3)The Moose had the same problems when they moved to Winnipeg the season after the Jets left. People had a hard time accepting an inferior product to the NHL. Especially since it was the farm club of one of the Jets most hated rivals, the Canucks.

I've lived in Winnipeg for nearly 8 years now. When I first attended Moose games I always thought of them as the 'baby Canucks' (that term can be taken any way you want). Now when I go to a game I think of them as the local hockey team and sometimes forget who they're associated with. I think Abbotsford fans will experience the same shift, if they're given enough time.

[Starfishy]

You don't buy anything until you know for sure.

[shermanator]

I've been digging for numbers on Manitoba's attendance in their inaugural season, and while I couldn't find them, I did find numbers from their second season on. In 1997-98, their second season in the IHL, Manitoba averaged 6418 fans.

Is this the number we should hold Abbotsford too next year?

http://www.mib.org/~lennier/hockey/leagueatt.cgi?year=2008&league=2&sort=avg

[PIMking]

Originally Posted by Homer_J

I was listening to the Moose radio broadcast last night and they were discussing the attendance problems in Abbotsford. There were a couple of main points they touched on.

1)As it's been talked about here, Abbotsford is in Canucks country. It's tough to sell the Canucks main rival to Canucks fans. The team probably could have disassociated itself more from the Flames. Changed the team colours and look of the uniforms, more so than they did.

2)This is a new team. The community doesn't associate with them yet. They need a winning season and a playoff run. Something to bring the local fans together and get the media talking about the team.

3)The Moose had the same problems when they moved to Winnipeg the season after the Jets left. People had a hard time accepting an inferior product to the NHL. Especially since it was the farm club of one of the Jets most hated rivals, the Canucks.

I've lived in Winnipeg for nearly 8 years now. When I first attended Moose games I always thought of them as the 'baby Canucks' (that term can be taken any way you want). Now when I go to a game I think of them as the local hockey team and sometimes forget who they're associated with. I think Abbotsford fans will experience the same shift, if they're given enough time.

The only problem is if the owners in abby have enough money to float out the next couple 3 or 4 years to get to that point. Sutter and King (not me being pissed ex qc fan reason) have been known to find a new location at any point of the team folding or possible finance problems.

[dobbles]

with the other moose game last night, the heat had 7,000+ again and are now 19th in attendance with an average of 3914. however, they are less than 100 fans behind several teams. if they can get their average up just a bit then they can get as high as 15th.

[Azure]

Seems to me attendance just keeps on climbing. Slowly but surely.

Good sign all around as I think people were being WAY too optimistic with what they thought the Heat would draw from Day 1 one.

That being said I think they should be hitting 5,000+ next year sometime....no excuses.

[dobbles]

in all fairness average attendance had been relatively stagnant until the moose games. while they had been showing slight increases, they were not substantial enough to have moved the average attendance more than 100 fans or so.

as someone who thought they would draw much higher, i think the 2 main reasons that expectations are so high are travel costs and the hype. the reason i list travel costs is that the team knows it has a much higher break even point than most ahl teams, so a lot of people assumed that the team had a fairly good idea it would draw well even this first year. the other side of that coin is that all the hype actually made it sound as if they would draw extremely well. i recall sweeting talking many times about the thousands of season ticket holders they were going to have. not to mention anyone on here that was in the vancouver area continuously stated that the team would have no problem finding tons of fans that wouldnt care about the flames connection. all last spring while the qc still had the team, we got inundated with info about how great the fans would be in b.c.

with that said, i would like to reiterate (since no one ever seems to listen) that i don't want the heat to fail. i am not even one of the quasi bitter fans that would feel good deep inside my soul. i honestly wish the heat continued success. my interest in the team is to follow the players that i watched in the q.c. so when i see attendance is relatively low, it is more of a 'wtf' response wondering why.

however, i do think that the area is pretty apprehensive about the team. as the last 2 nights showed, fans have no problem going to the games when the moose are in town. that really indicates to me that the flames thing is going to hurt them. when you sell out during the week and have more than double the attendance of pretty much any other games, that is really saying something. while having 7,000 is great for the heat in an economical sense, can the team really survive off of those 4 home dates each year with manitoba? i wouldn't imagine it would be too great for the players when the closest thing to a rival you have comes to town and most all of the fans are rooting against you!

thats enough late night rambling from me! just some thoughts i had!

[tleve]

Living in Abbotsford, I thought I could add my thoughts to this thread. I am a huge Canucks fan and have a season's ticket package (only 11 games right now as I just got off the waitlist.) I view the Flames as our biggest rival by a long shot and really have a hate on for them. When the Heat came to Abbotsford, I didn't think they would have any support from the community. I could never see myself cheering for them. I bought tickets to a Moose game, but didn't think I'd go to any other games.

My son's school band played the anthem at a game (good marketing idea by the Heat), so we went to a game in November. I was the only one of my family and friends (who are all Canucks fans) who was cheering for the other team (The Islanders affilliate). Everybody said I was crazy because the team wasn't the Flames, and was an Abbotsford team and I should support them. I got 4 free tickets to a game in December and we went but my kids said I had to cheer for Abbotsford, so I did (although I felt kinda dirty.) The other night at the Moose game, the kids and I cheered for Manitoba, and my hubby cheered for Abbotsford. Lots of Canucks fans I know still cheered for Abby. So I don't think it's going to be as hard a sell as you think. The product was excellent the other night and it looked like people were having a blast. I think that the Heat will garner more community support with a little more time in the community. Almost everyone I know likes having them in town. For me though, they will always be the baby flames.

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

I too live in Abbotsford. I went to game one and wasn't impressed with the attendence.

Game two I wasn't impressed.

In November I went again, I was surprised to see alot more people coming out to the game, but still unimpressed.

I went to about 4 games between the end of November and the beginning of December. Very impressed, quite a few fans. AND the corners of the arena are starting to fill up.

I went to the two games just before Christmas and (while there were promotions and giveaways) I was extremely impressed with the size of the crowd! Not only was the middle of AESC packed, but the corners and ends were filling up quite considerably.

Then, I went to the Texas Stars game a couple of weeks ago and there seems to be no problem filling up the center of AESC now.

Then... the Heat/Moose games. Capacity crowd.

I just went to the Lake Erie game last night and the crowd seems to be growing. When I look back at the first game of the season, the attendance has grown substantially. Trust me, by the middle of next season, AESC will have no problem getting 5000 fans each game.

[krazycanuck]

For anyone who was at the games against Manitoba, what was the feeling of the crowd? Pro-moose, pro-heat?

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Originally Posted by krazycanuck

For anyone who was at the games against Manitoba, what was the feeling of the crowd? Pro-moose, pro-heat?

I wasn't there, but I had several friends go and I asked them the same thing.

They all said it was hard to tell. Same amount of cheers from the crowd both ways. 50/50 on Canucks/Flames jerseys in the crowd. I'd say, from the sounds of it, half and half.

[tleve]

Originally Posted by krazycanuck

For anyone who was at the games against Manitoba, what was the feeling of the crowd? Pro-moose, pro-heat?

It was definitely both. The guys behind me were heckling Cory Schneider - people were cheering equally loudly for both teams. It was strange but very cool!

[shermanator]

4311 for last night's game against Chicago. I think that's the highest the Heat have drawn except for the opener, and any Moose game.

[jeremywilhelm]

They would probably draw more if their team wasn't ass.