[News] THE ATHLETIC Thread—Articles & Discussion

[ComixZone]

Yeah I just cancelled my subscription, although there's a good amount of time remaining on it.

Who is even left covering the Flames at this stage? A shame that the business model isn't working out during times like this, but not shocking. There was barely enough Flames content during the good times, but it is what it is.

[calumniate]

Agreed Comix - my subscription experience was filled with oilers garbage, and for that reason, I was out

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

YThere was barely enough Flames content during the good times, but it is what it is.

When it first started, I thought it was quite impressive and worth the price. I thought it was high quality content as well.

[tvp2003]

Were people paying monthly? I've subscribed for the past two years using a promo code each time (for something like $24-28 per year). Was well worth it.

My subscription expires in a few days so I was planning on jumping on the current $12 deal but the loss of Cruickshank really makes me not want to bother.

[Erick Estrada]

Bummer for Cruickshank but I really don't read much of the Flames coverage as listening to 960 all day at work kind of gives me Flames fatigue. I read the more of their league oriented stories and analytics when it comes to NHL. Their NFL coverage is excellent and well worth the price of admission for me.

[CliffFletcher]

I still find it worthwhile. But then I read lots of stories about other teams and the NHL in general.

Is this a hockey thing that fans are only interested in their hometown team? Because my sense is most people who are NFL fans follow the league. They watch a lot of games their team isn’t in, follow NFL insiders, and subscribe to sites like the Athletic to read stories about players and coaches on other teams.

I wonder what the breakdown is of a hardcore Denver sports fan reading/watching Broncos content vs other NFL teams. Safe to say the other NFL teams side of the equation would be higher than the other NHL teams side of the equation for an Avs fan?

[D as in David]

I renewed earlier this Fall at $1/month. Glad that it's that low because 95% of the reason I have it is for Flames' articles.

As mentioned above, Duha doesn't much writing about the Flames so there won't be much reason for me to continue once my subscription runs out.

[Sainters7]

I meant to cancel in October when my subscription was up and I missed it, got renewed another year. Annoyed about that.

Even though I have all my settings to "no notifications" for every category, I still receive nightly notifications for final scores. I'm a PVR sports watcher and it literally blows every game for me lately (my constant forgetting and instinctively checking the alert is a whole other issue ha-ha, I know..). Ironically I got the app to enhance my sports experience, and its doing the complete opposite.

Anybody know how to fix that?? I even contacted their support team and they never answered it.

[dino7c]

When you guys cancel are you telling them why? hope so

[MikkaVernon]

Flames coverage has definitely dropped off. It is a great source for the casual football fan to stay competitive in fantasy pools. Would 100% not invest in a subscription for flames coverage, some league wide stories are pretty interesting though..1-2 stories/month.

[dobbles]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I still find it worthwhile. But then I read lots of stories about other teams and the NHL in general.

Is this a hockey thing that fans are only interested in their hometown team? Because my sense is most people who are NFL fans follow the league. They watch a lot of games their team isn’t in, follow NFL insiders, and subscribe to sites like the Athletic to read stories about players and coaches on other teams.

I wonder what the breakdown is of a hardcore Denver sports fan reading/watching Broncos content vs other NFL teams. Safe to say the other NFL teams side of the equation would be higher than the other NHL teams side of the equation for an Avs fan?

My experience down in the states is that historically football fans were no different in obsessing over their own team and their rivals and not caring much about the rest of the league. However, that all changed with fantasy football. Just about any serious fan I know is in multiple FF leagues. So that means they have players from just about every team on at least one of their rosters and can have an interest in just about any game for that reason.


As someone that has never lived in a pro sports city, I have never been as invested in a specific team and so I do find interest in a lot of the league wide articles that the Athletic was putting out. I subscribed for a year but found myself just not having the time to keep up interest in sports due to having young children. It had nothing to do with the quality of the product though; I don't even bother to watch live sports much so I am not their prime demographic at this point in my life.

[Misterpants]

Originally Posted by dino7c

When you guys cancel are you telling them why? hope so

Absolutely. I don't know if these same issues are occurring in all sports, where writers are being let go, but I don't see good things for them. Soon for hockey, all we will be stuck with is Down Goes Brown musings about the hapless leafs every 3 days.

[Jetfire]

Cancelled my subscription a few months ago. Just better places to use the money right now, especially with the reduced Flames coverage. I hope they rebound from the pandemic well, I do like the site's idea as a whole.

[transplant99]

Lebrun article that has him asking/interviewing 15 US based team coaches/GM's to predict the order of finish for an all-Canadian division.

Toronto
Calgary
Edmonton
Montreal
Vancouver
Winnipeg
Ottawa

Toronto
Montreal
Vancouver
Calgary
Edmonton
Winnipeg
Ottawa

Toronto
Vancouver
Calgary
Montreal
Edmonton
Winnipeg
Ottawa

Toronto
Calgary
Edmonton
Montreal
Winnipeg
Vancouver
Ottawa

Calgary
Toronto
Edmonton
Montreal
Vancouver
Winnipeg
Ottawa

Calgary
Edmonton
Toronto
Winnipeg
Vancouver
Montreal
Ottawa

Calgary
Montreal
Toronto
Edmonton
Winnipeg
Vancouver
Ottawa

Calgary
Toronto
Montreal
Winnipeg
Vancouver
Edmonton
Ottawa

Montreal
Toronto
Vancouver
Edmonton
Winnipeg
Calgary
Ottawa

Toronto
Montreal
Calgary
Vancouver
Edmonton
Winnipeg
Ottawa

Toronto — “So much skill and talent. Young players are not so young anymore.”
Montreal — “Like their offseason moves. Gained a lot of confidence and played well in bubble and No. 31.”
Edmonton — “97 will win the Hart Trophy this year.”
Winnipeg — “Window is closing but goalie is just getting going.”
Vancouver — “Took a step forward last year, will see what they are made of this year.”
Calgary — “Not consistent enough.”
Ottawa — “Could see them moving up. Good offseason moves and play a hard-nosed game but not enough (wins) to move them up the list.”

Montreal
Edmonton
Vancouver
Winnipeg
Toronto
Calgary
Ottawa

Some of the comments

“Not an easy one at all,” said one Eastern Conference team executive. “In my mind, little separates the top 4/5 teams.”

But he chose the Leafs tops.

“Just based (on) overall skill set throughout the top nine and believe Andersen can still play,” he said

.

A member of a Western Conference coaching staff, who is clearly penalizing the Canucks for losing Jacob Markstrom to Calgary in free agency: “Yes, huge loss,” he said. “Plus 3-4 guys off to free agency.”

Again, Markstrom looms large when it came to placing the Flames tops for a member of an Eastern Conference coaching staff: “Think the goalie will make a big difference,” he said.

Eastern Conference team executive, who picked the Flames as his No. 1 team and cited Markstrom, head coach Geoff Ward as being underrated and that he felt the D would be better.

From Pierre himself:

For a division that many people view as very competitive, the Leafs ended up getting nine first-place votes out of the 15 respondents. The Flames got four first-place votes and the Habs got two first-place nods. The Canucks seem to have paid the price, perception-wise from their peers around the league, after losing Markstrom.

When it comes to offseason moves changing a team’s perception, no doubt the Habs and Flames got high marks for their moves

The Oilers didn’t get much mention in these responses. They lost to Chicago in the play-in last summer and I think hockey people still see goaltending and lack of roster depth as a problem.

https://theathletic.com/2230862/2020...ce=weeklyemail

[AC]

Baffling that some have us 2nd last after only improving the team almost universally across the board. Better goalie tandem (or 3 with Domingue), much stronger depth on F (able to roll 4 lines), and while losing Brodie for Tanev might be a wash, adding a healthy Valimaki is huge.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by AC

Baffling that some have us 2nd last after only improving the team almost universally across the board. Better goalie tandem (or 3 with Domingue), much stronger depth on F (able to roll 4 lines), and while losing Brodie for Tanev might be a wash, adding a healthy Valimaki is huge.

Yeah, I look at that as a simple high level of ignorance - likely from the East.

To read that the Flames are "not consistent enough" while the Leafs are filled with "so much talent"...yeah, okay.

[SportsJunky]

The Oilers had 5 articles written about them in the last week. Calgary Flames had zero. This is fairly normal for the Atheletic's coverage of the Alberta NHL teams. Now, with Cruikshank gone I wouldn't blame any subscribers that are looking for Flames content if they cancelled.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

The Oilers had 5 articles written about them in the last week. Calgary Flames had zero. This is fairly normal for the Atheletic's coverage of the Alberta NHL teams. Now, with Cruikshank gone I wouldn't blame any subscribers that are looking for Flames content if they cancelled.

Well it's one of those things that you reap what you sow. Flames fans bailing on the site left and right so really why would they employ Flames writers? They can tell how many fans are clicking and apparently Flames fans just don't care in enough numbers. Say what you want about Oilers fans but they are loyal and passionate and are willing to pay for Oilers content.

[Caboose]

I'm actually a little surprised at these lines of thinking. I love reading the Athletic every day and generally read every story on my feed. NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA - I like learning about what's going on in sports!

It's interesting to me that many people on this board only follow the Flames and that's their sports fix. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, it's just a different perspective! I personally can't get enough and in my opinion, 4 trade deadlines and free agencies are better than 1!

For what I get out of it, the Athletic is a screamin' deal and I hope it can continue. Less Flames content is absolutely disappointing, but they're hit by hard times as well and I'm sure they aren't happy they have to make decisions on who to let go. If we continue to support it, I'd hope that when/if they recover they'll bring back all the content they've been forced to cut.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[SportsJunky]

I'm still subscribed. I follow every team's feed, not just Calgary.

For those that are there mainly for Flames content? I'd be gone in a heartbeat. The Athletic continues to underserve this market.