|
|
Post by Jack Bauer on May 17, 2023 23:28:06 GMT -4
The Fog Devils essentially ran out of money and were bought by a businessman from Quebec who moved them to Verdun who in turn sold them to a group led by Joel Bouchard who moved them to Blainville. St. John's currently has the ECHL Newfoundland Growlers and they are doing decent attendance wise - they attracted 3,800 in the regular season and are averaging just over 4,000 in the playoffs. I don't think that St. John's is a Junior hockey town. It's not as simple as "the owners ran out of money." There were two groups competing for the Q franchise after the Maple Leafs left. The league picked the Dobbin backed group over the group that was affiliated with Mile One Arena. Thus the lease agreements were horrible, there was no real way that the Fog Devils would make money...it was drama after drama with the Fog Devils and Mile One. So they couldn't make money, also St John's fans just expected the AHL to come right back so they looked at the Q as a lesser product. For the Q to succeed there, pro hockey has to disappear for a year or two where they don't get any hockey. But that won't happen with the Growlers there now. Fast forward and you saw the Growlers also have drama with the arena and it reached a boiling point this season. If i'm the QMJHL I want no part of that market after watching ALL the drama over the last 2 decades. It's the most dysfunctional hockey market in the country. They eat up the shittiest level of pro hockey they're fed yet will tell you the CHL is high school hockey. Pack small town arenas for senior league and desperately love to host a WJHC yet completely shit on the feeder league for that tourney. The Fog Devils were a joke from day 1. Did everything wrong in terms of team building where Saint John played the long game and didnt rush it to be competitive. But i'm not confident it would have worked even if things were done right. There's an attachment to "pro" hockey that I think most of us don't understand. |
|
|
|
Post by frogmorton2 on May 18, 2023 9:02:38 GMT -4
It's not as simple as "the owners ran out of money." There were two groups competing for the Q franchise after the Maple Leafs left. The league picked the Dobbin backed group over the group that was affiliated with Mile One Arena. Thus the lease agreements were horrible, there was no real way that the Fog Devils would make money...it was drama after drama with the Fog Devils and Mile One. So they couldn't make money, also St John's fans just expected the AHL to come right back so they looked at the Q as a lesser product. For the Q to succeed there, pro hockey has to disappear for a year or two where they don't get any hockey. But that won't happen with the Growlers there now. Fast forward and you saw the Growlers also have drama with the arena and it reached a boiling point this season. If i'm the QMJHL I want no part of that market after watching ALL the drama over the last 2 decades. It's the most dysfunctional hockey market in the country. They eat up the shittiest level of pro hockey they're fed yet will tell you the CHL is high school hockey. Pack small town arenas for senior league and desperately love to host a WJHC yet completely shit on the feeder league for that tourney. The Fog Devils were a joke from day 1. Did everything wrong in terms of team building where Saint John played the long game and didnt rush it to be competitive. But i'm not confident it would have worked even if things were done right. There's an attachment to "pro" hockey that I think most of us don't understand. Something something the AHL version of Maple Leaf fans something something center of the Maritimes universe |
|
|
|
Post by jordo999 on May 18, 2023 10:02:54 GMT -4
really disappointing for us overall...and we've all talked about this before but the issues of this team goes way back, unfortunately they tried to do the right things too late. A lot of the old fans/season ticket holders never came back. What's crazy is Bathurst is actually growing a bit in population so it could be possible to get more fans over time but I don't think there is enough time and commitment in order to get where they need to be over the next couple of seasons. At heart I hope they don't leave as Q hockey is one of the best things about Bathurst in general and a lot of people feel that way. we realistically could end up with a Jr. A team down the road but that isn't the same level of interest for myself personally. where on the map is a realistic place for this team to play that could be successful? If Bathurst is like the rest of the country the population growth isn't due to the great economy keeping people home and willing to have 3-4 kids to raise. It's immigration. Those folks aren't buying hockey tickets in any kind of measureable numbers. Great for our communities in many other ways...food, culture, educational, etc...but right now higher populations don't do a thing for local hockey teams. Whats going for Bathurst is the lack of real alternative markets that are slam dunk successes. There's a pile of comparables that won't survive QMJHL rebuilds. Ultimately the league has to decide if its going to put systems in place to support markets of this size or contract back to 14-16 teams. I see way more value in finding ways to provide some revenue sharing...especially if we're still going to cap what Quebec and Halifax can spend on Euro's and American's. fair points, that makes a lot of sense. |
|
|
|
Post by trueblue on May 19, 2023 13:43:49 GMT -4
|
|
|
|
Post by jordo999 on May 19, 2023 16:03:05 GMT -4
gives a bit of hope at least... |
|
|
|
Post by Steeler1 on May 19, 2023 19:21:51 GMT -4
I haven't seen that jersey in a long while.
|
|
|
|
Post by mikeb on Jun 8, 2023 22:21:54 GMT -4
Team is gone in 2 years. People aren't going to sit thru 3 season of bad teams..... again.
|
|
|
|
Post by patrick on Jun 9, 2023 12:12:58 GMT -4
To go where ?
Blainville will stay at Blainville for the same reason.. to go where ? Montreal Area seems not to be interested to Junior hockey
|
|
|
|
Post by Jack Bauer on Jun 9, 2023 12:39:48 GMT -4
To go where ? Blainville will stay at Blainville for the same reason.. to go where ? Montreal Area seems not to be interested to Junior hockey At some point the money losing stops. Whether it's from relocation or simply disbanding the operations like Lewiston did. There's a bubble that has to burst at some point with these small market teams that are literally going nowhere in terms of financial stability. |
|
|
|
Post by gritty506 on Jun 9, 2023 13:23:26 GMT -4
At some point the owners will let go the team in whatever way and I think it is safe to say in 3 years they will move. This is also what is being said around town.
The market in the Bathurst area is a hard one. I would personally LOVE to see the Titan stay a healthy organization, but I think every option has been tried and clearly wasn't successful. I think the 2018 president and mem cup runs helped the team survive a little longer in Bathurst.
The revenues from the Titan's play off run in 2022 wasn't the best with the format the league had in place and this past year and the next 2 won't be bringing much revenues again.
|
|
|
|
Post by Briwhel on Jun 9, 2023 13:34:50 GMT -4
Honestly, I think Bathurst folding makes more sense for the league than the team moving to South Montreal only to fail in a couple of years anyway.
Either the team works in Bathurst (which helps all of the Maritime teams) or it moves somewhere that hurts the majority of the league.
|
|
|
|
Post by patrick on Jun 9, 2023 13:42:10 GMT -4
Maybe there's to many teams.
Bathurst, Baie-Comeau and Blainville could be removed and let have 3 divisions of 5 teams..
|
|
|
|
Post by gritty506 on Jun 9, 2023 14:18:54 GMT -4
Crazy talk here, but do you guys think Fredericton would be more viable than Bathurst?
|
|
|
|
Post by Jack Bauer on Jun 9, 2023 14:22:25 GMT -4
Crazy talk here, but do you guys think Fredericton would be more viable than Bathurst? No. Rink situation isn't great so impossible to capitalize during the peak times of a rebuild. Already an established team in the market you're basically forced to compete with that is providing a higher caliber. |
|
|
|
Post by statsman18 on Jun 10, 2023 7:47:15 GMT -4
Crazy talk here, but do you guys think Fredericton would be more viable than Bathurst? I’m going to throw a place out there that I’m surprised has never been talked about. Truro. They have a fairly new arena that sits 5000ish (not sure on the exact number). It’s really close to Halifax I know but travel wise it makes sense when Quebec teams come to the maritimes. 1 hour from Halifax, 2 hours from Moncton, 2.5 hours from Charlottetown and is the obvious stop before any game to or from Cape Breton. I think they can draw crowds it just who would own it? |
|
