Heat vs. Milwaukee Roughriders, er, Admirals

[Reggie Dunlop]

Kind of a wild and wooly affair. Caught the late second and third periods.

Baldwin has really picked up his game. Johnny Armstrong was very good. Kris Chucko is really rounding out and I'm optimistic he'll be a player.

Oh, and how could Dave Sheldon interview Nashville's scout Martin Gelinas and not once mention his Flames exploits.

[West Karma]

nm

[Scooter]

Thought they had 4-5000 season tix sold?

[bubbsy]

how did backlund look?

[PIMking]

Originally Posted by bubbsy

how did backlund look?

From the score sheet Backlund got his first pro goal and point last night! Good for him hopefully he can turn things on from here.

[604flames]

Originally Posted by West Karma

Anyways - the crowd was brutal - I never heard the annouced attendance but there were no more than 1700 people there...

Announced attendance was 2,907.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Brett "The Golden Brett" Sutter paces the Heat with a two point night as Abbotsford edges Milwaukee 2-1 in exciting AHL action Saturday night!

[PIMking]

J armstrong and baldwin look to be having good years by stat sheets. So is chucko

[604flames]

3,099 tonight. Giants drew ~6,300.

[West Karma]

nm

[jeremywilhelm]

It is a new team, affiliated with the Flames. If you didnt think that they were gonna have to win over the fans to get a good attendance, then you were deluding yourself. This team makes the playoffs this year and Abby will come around. People will have pride in the team and will no longer give a crap where the players are going.

[BruinsFan19]

Gotta say, I don't think the poor attendance has anything to do with this being a "Flames" team. I don't think people really see them that way at all, except for maybe a few die-hards Canucks fans. The problem is that this supposedly "rich hockey market" already has teams with loyal fans. Chilliwack has the Bruins, Langley has the Chiefs, Vancouver has the Canucks and the Giants. The Heat brass act like they have this huge area to draw from but in reality they really only have Abbotsford. Abbotsford has never been a hockey town. They barely supported their Junior B team, rejected the Chiefs BCHL team when they wanted to move there. They have never proven that they are a hockey town.

This theory about "giving them time to build a fanbase"... that's not how it works. Brand new teams should be sold out or close to sold out every night. It should be a novelty right now and then they should be trying to keep those fans next season. If they're only getting 3000/night right now what will happen next season when the novelty wears off?

[hansonbros]

I think Chilliwack is concerned that Abby will slowly start to take fans from the Bruins. I noticed numerous Chilliwack residents last nite including some fans that used to be Bruin season ticket holders but now would rather travel to enjoy the Heat. I can foresee some Giant fans coming to Abby as well but not Vancouver Canuck fans unless the Moose are the opposition. Langley Chiefs won't lose that many fans because Jr A tickets are far cheaper that WHL or AHL. But because the price of an AHL ticket is virtually the same charged in Giant and Bruin Territory more fans will take the trec to Abby. And let's face it, it is the AHL afterall, one step down from the NHL and way more exciting than WHL games.

The best scenario would have been for the Heat to play out of Manitoba and the Moose to move to Abbotsford. Fan support would at least double but that is just a pipedream.

[BruinsFan19]

I don't think the Bruins are too worried. I know a few Chilliwack people who went to the game in Abby last night to watch Santorelli because the Bruins were out of town. The Bruins did lose a few hundred season ticket holders to Abbotsford (mostly Abbotsford residents who were driving out to Chilliwack for the games) but more than a few have already stated they will be switching back next year because they're not happy with the customer service in Abby.