The Athletic coming to Calgary

[bomber317]

Originally Posted by Insane_Flame

Just got an email saying that a subscription is 50% off today only

I think it is, but I enjoy reading about other teams as well. If you're looking solely for Flames content, read the comments above about the lack of consistent publishing of articles.

Also to add, if you don't like Kent Wilson's style of articles, then you're left with just Duha's articles which do not come out as often for the Flames.

[Gaskal]

Yes, I took a subscription for the perspectives of other teams, plus there's football coverage that is quite good that I wander into from time to time. I got it for 50% in Sept.

If you're buying it just for Flames content you will be disappointed. It's been a full week again since we've got Flames stuff other than Kent posting a Slack conversation about the value of "tough guys" between himself and Justin Bourne, which hardly counts as effort writing, it's like I'm reading some transcript to a 5 min long podcast segment, FFS.

If we had a regular postgame-related segment, much more video review from Bourne, some better prospect coverage, then it will get there. Even if you only follow hockey, if you like to read the stuff from other teams around the league it's worth it. But for pure Flames, it's not even on the level that FlamesNation is at right now, even though FN doesn't have a natural storyteller like Duhatschek, Odland or Johnson.

[The Boy Wonder]

I have to agree that the content is severely lacking. Quite often the articles, even ones for other teams / leagues tend to be similar to your newspaper articles, very little punchy to them and the writing isn't terribly engaging. For the price I was expecting a lot more content from guys who should be pumping out 1000 words a day on their given subject. Some of the statistical and analytics driven articles are good but for pure flames and NHL content may as well stick to the score app.

[greentree]

Originally Posted by The Boy Wonder

I have to agree that the content is severely lacking. Quite often the articles, even ones for other teams / leagues tend to be similar to your newspaper articles, very little punchy to them and the writing isn't terribly engaging. For the price I was expecting a lot more content from guys who should be pumping out 1000 words a day on their given subject. Some of the statistical and analytics driven articles are good but for pure flames and NHL content may as well stick to the score app.

You might as well read newspapers and amateur blogs if you’re looking for local boilerplate speed typing. From what I gather, The Athletic is more about polished features. And there’s just not a lot of available talent in Calgary at the moment to produce much of that.

[StrykerSteve]

Originally Posted by Insane_Flame

Is it worth it at half price?

IMO, no. Maybe down the road it will be.

[savemedrzaius]

At 50% it's totally worth it. I just read a breakdown of some event with Burke and Bettman. It was really interesting. Most of the times it's the articles about non-Leafs news that I enjoy the most. If you like reading about hockey it's worth it.

[Moderator]

Folks, after deleting some posts in this thread, some general guidance.
Since The Ahtletic is a paid side we have to be more sensitive about how much of that material we post here.
As a general rule, it is fine to post a link to an article and highlight what it is about. Perhaps using the summaries on their site
Where it goes problematic is when you start to copy and paste large chunks of text, data or other items from the articles itself.
Let us know if you have any questions.

[Tinordi]

The Hamonic articles were excellent but also very concerning.

[IrishSpring2013]

some of us.. drawn to concern.. like a moth to that sweet flame...

[Resolute 14]

Huh. Somehow I missed entirely that Scott Cruickshank is writing articles here and there for the Athletic. He's providing some Stampeders coverage heading into the Grey Cup. Good to see them giving the CFL some respect.

[Mazrim]

Leah Hextall's interview with Mark Chipman explains that Winnipeg was "minutes" away from getting the Coyotes in 2010. I do remember the rumour mill going strong on that back then but I didn't realize it was that close.

https://theathletic.com/164931/2017/...k-to-winnipeg/

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Leah Hextall's interview with Mark Chipman explains that Winnipeg was "minutes" away from getting the Coyotes in 2010. I do remember the rumour mill going strong on that back then but I didn't realize it was that close.

https://theathletic.com/164931/2017/...k-to-winnipeg/

Interesting. At the very least Winnipeg franchise records would be intact.

[Resolute 14]

Hextall: It’s interesting to me you speak of Gary being open and transparent and positive about Winnipeg because there seems to be a narrative in Winnipeg there was resistance by the NHL to bring a team back. Is that a misconception?

Chipman: Very much so. From 2007 on, they were the ones that invited us to go make the presentation. They were serious about it. Gary frequently pointed out to me through the process he was hopeful it would materialize because he felt that they could right a wrong. It was unfortunate the team ever left here in the first place but it just didn’t work in 1996. They didn’t have a building; the economics of the league were dramatically different and in the wrong way.

I had a good look at it in 1996 and it was nobody’s fault. Everybody was looking for someone to pin this on but there was no blame to be had in 1996. It wasn’t Barry Shenkarow’s fault; it wasn’t the city of Winnipeg’s fault; it wasn’t the NHL’s fault. You just couldn’t bring those interests together in a way that worked back then. It was probably a good thing for our city that we sat it out awhile and let things correct themselves.

Not that this will make Bettman any less of a villain. He is fun to boo, after all.

[Anduril]

Pair of articles out. This one would probably garner the most interest since Duhatschek asks the questions which we've debated over and over (including Smith's workload, Brodie and mixing up the pairings, and lack of secondary scoring).


https://theathletic.com/170723/2017/...hnny-gaudreau/

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Interesting. At the very least Winnipeg franchise records would be intact.

U2 was playing in Winnipeg a few days before the Thrashers sale closed - Chipman was apparently hoping they'd be able to make this come together:

"I remember U2 played at the stadium a couple days before we announced the deal and we were thinking, “Wouldn’t it be cool if they made the announcement in front of 50,000 people?” We could have almost pulled that off...

The day we announced it the weather was crappy, and that night was beautiful and what if The Edge and Bono came out in Jets jerseys and said, “We got some news we want to share…”

Anyhow that didn’t work out but we knew by then it was almost a certainty."

That spectacle would've been something else.

[ZedMan]

The most interesting thing for me from that article is how close the Coyotes were (and still are?) to relocation. From the outside, it seemed like the NHL was much more hellbent on keeping them in Arizona.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by ZedMan

The most interesting thing for me from that article is how close the Coyotes were (and still are?) to relocation. From the outside, it seemed like the NHL was much more hellbent on keeping them in Arizona.

The league's US TV deal was signed with the Phoenix/Arizona TV market in mind - if memory serves, the Phoenix area is around 5 million people. They want that TV market.


Which makes me doubt the ability of the league to move a Canadian team over an arena, but what do I know?

[Resolute 14]

No, the US TV deal was not signed with Phoenix/Arizona in mind. However, from a TV market perspective, Phoenix is important. So was Atlanta - which is a bigger TV market than Phoenix. The only reason the Coyotes still exist is that someone's willing to own a team in that market. So long as that remains the case (and they have a place to play), the Coyotes will stay there. If nobody is willing to own a team there, they will follow the Thrashers into the dustbin of history.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

No, the US TV deal was not signed with Phoenix/Arizona in mind. However, from a TV market perspective, Phoenix is important. So was Atlanta - which is a bigger TV market than Phoenix. The only reason the Coyotes still exist is that someone's willing to own a team in that market. So long as that remains the case (and they have a place to play), the Coyotes will stay there. If nobody is willing to own a team there, they will follow the Thrashers into the dustbin of history.

Trading the Phoenix market for Houston seems like a reasonable solution.

[PeteMoss]

Top prospect ranking for the Flames

https://theathletic.com/196975/2018/...pects-ranking/

1. Fox
2. Valamaki
3. Kylington
4. Andersson