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Post by Jack Bauer on Oct 31, 2022 9:21:39 GMT -4
I've never bothered to criticize the business side of the team when the hockey side is at peak awful. That job is literally impossible when the on-ice product is unsellable and the job is pretty damn easy when the on-ice product sells itself. I disagree what we should give the business side a free pass. It's there job to get people invested in the team. The team is invisible in the community, they don't do a good job telling people when games are either home or away. We have a team of young players who are going to be good. Will they be good here? If you're a local hockey fan would you be going out of your way to spend $20+ per ticket to watch this group because they are going to be good? The business people can only sell what the product is. If that's a bad team with terrible management and fans who have tuned out how do you think the business side can ever be successful? Imagine if Wal Mart starting selling spoiled food all after its best before date and clothes with unexpected holes in them....do you think they keep doing good business? The commercials wouldn't stop but people would find somewhere else to shop. The team was also invisible in the community when they were drawing 3000 per. There was just a more organic emotion about the team because early on it was new and there was a lot of things to draw people in based on emotion...either regional rivalries or events on the ice that kept people engaged. There has been none of that for a solid 15 years or so. There was a tiny bit of hope when Svechnikov and Dubois were here but bad coaching couldn't even get that team to a point where it was considered a real contender. Take aa kid like Lavoie. He is a big defenceman with a good first pass. Probably has a long pro career. What about that potential should bring me out while he's 16 to watch his team lose every game? All the clever marketing in the world can't sell the worst fan experience in the country. That's what we're looking at needing to rebuild here and nothing can happen without at least a .500 team on the ice to start.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Oct 31, 2022 9:29:46 GMT -4
1-8-2 for 4 points after 11 games is what Simon must look at ..........keeping in mind what he said about This Season . If Shaw goes after The Media to Scorch the Community in regards to Poor Attendance .....all the response needed is to refer to these Numbers if they continue on this trajectory . They can't blister the public for not living up to their end of the deal .................when you didn't live up to yours . And they're not losing 3-2 hard fought battles. They just gave up 20 goals on a 3 game road trip. This is the 3rd year of year 1 of a rebuild. In an era where people financially need a good reason to spend their money for you to entertain them. Partly due to inflation. And partly due to this being a time when everyone has a 50 inch flat screen they watch their entertainment on. $20 tickets and $8 beers and over priced concessions and a terrible product when I can watch whatever I want in the north american sporting landscape at home is just a bad setup. They can go to the public all they want. They're just the old man yelling at a cloud meme at this point. The younger people they desperately need don't read the newspaper they will bitch to. The older people they still want to attract see a big young defenceman like Lavoie who doesn't hit or fight and this style of hockey doesn't interest them AND the home team is getting walked all over. When he's 18 and a 2 way beast on a good team? Suddenly there's reasons to come out and watch a good game or 2. But I don't see why anyone would want to spend the money to go home frustrated every night.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Oct 31, 2022 9:33:45 GMT -4
And just for the record: I see Lavoie as a future stud on our blueline. But right now he's still a project in terms of what his ceiling is and when he hits it.
If watching him develop while the organization around him is mediocre excites you...by all means go watch the solid young NHL prospect.
But I think people want more than that. They want to see a future contender being built but also need to be entertained along the way.
Unfortunately in this league there's now very little entertainment to be had if you're not a top 1/3 team in the overall standings.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Oct 31, 2022 9:41:07 GMT -4
You Sir are Right and yet Gerard Shaw will twist it around so it is a Lack of Fan Support ......if we are Lucky ....this time around they will say the results on the ice are not what we expected but you must get behind them anyway ........or he may just put it all on the Community not getting behind the Product . He needs to be constantly reminded about what Simon said ....Simon Says ...."we will put a Winning Product on the Ice" . I remember an article from this summer where he was basically begging for community support and all I got from the article was that they were totally out of their depth. They have no idea how to change the culture around a sports organization, I'm not even sure if they recognize they need a culture change. Maybe they thought taking out the "Screaming" = job done? There's 0 good faith left in the community, if your entire plan is based on good faith, you're fucking dreaming. I think he also mentioned 2024-25 being their "go-for-it year" and mentioned needing renovations to host events... I don't think any fans even want to hear about hosting the Memorial Cup again after the last shit show. If they think buying a ticket to the Memorial Cup by hosting it is going to change the culture, again, they're dreaming. Even if it's new ownership, a new president, a new GM, a new coach, new players, a new bus... none of that really changes the perception of the average fan. So if you can't own the shitty history and lay out exactly how you intend to make changes top to bottom to win fans back and earn a bit of good faith from the community, nobody is going to care and the team will end up in Maine in a couple years. Small part of me thinks they're actually reading this forum and getting angry at takes like this... which is funny because most of the community doesn't even care enough to have a take. They'll go to a Riverview hockey game instead and when the Eagles come up they say "Oh they suck." and the convo ends. Lots of CB politics involved too. We had a lot of great sponsors in the first ~12-15 years or so who due to being disrespected or pushed out due to ownership changes have completely stopped supporting the team. Some of that you can't help but in a small place the word of mouth spreads quick within the business community. The perception at this point can't be changed. This group could win the 2025 memorial cup and if they suck in 2027 the 30 years will still matter more over any 1 year. Just look at Bathurst...why would those fans return to watch the rebuild? They didn't want to watch the rebuild for the Memorial Cup winning team they just wanted to enjoy a good playoff run. I think they're arrogant to a point where they read this stuff and mock us. They think we want to be them. We just want competent people running our team and the focus to not be on Gerard creating a management committee of his local drinking buddies. We all know the laundry list of laughable or insulting shit thats happened here under his watch and he hasn't even been here that long. At this point I find it impossible to spend money to support his vision. And i'm not alone. But problem becomes the product is so bad that regular support isn't happening even if a real President showed up to run the organization.
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Post by jamesnorris on Oct 31, 2022 16:23:56 GMT -4
I remember an article from this summer where he was basically begging for community support and all I got from the article was that they were totally out of their depth. They have no idea how to change the culture around a sports organization, I'm not even sure if they recognize they need a culture change. Maybe they thought taking out the "Screaming" = job done? There's 0 good faith left in the community, if your entire plan is based on good faith, you're fucking dreaming. I think he also mentioned 2024-25 being their "go-for-it year" and mentioned needing renovations to host events... I don't think any fans even want to hear about hosting the Memorial Cup again after the last shit show. If they think buying a ticket to the Memorial Cup by hosting it is going to change the culture, again, they're dreaming. Even if it's new ownership, a new president, a new GM, a new coach, new players, a new bus... none of that really changes the perception of the average fan. So if you can't own the shitty history and lay out exactly how you intend to make changes top to bottom to win fans back and earn a bit of good faith from the community, nobody is going to care and the team will end up in Maine in a couple years. Small part of me thinks they're actually reading this forum and getting angry at takes like this... which is funny because most of the community doesn't even care enough to have a take. They'll go to a Riverview hockey game instead and when the Eagles come up they say "Oh they suck." and the convo ends. Lots of CB politics involved too. We had a lot of great sponsors in the first ~12-15 years or so who due to being disrespected or pushed out due to ownership changes have completely stopped supporting the team. Some of that you can't help but in a small place the word of mouth spreads quick within the business community. The perception at this point can't be changed. This group could win the 2025 memorial cup and if they suck in 2027 the 30 years will still matter more over any 1 year. Just look at Bathurst...why would those fans return to watch the rebuild? They didn't want to watch the rebuild for the Memorial Cup winning team they just wanted to enjoy a good playoff run. I think they're arrogant to a point where they read this stuff and mock us. They think we want to be them. We just want competent people running our team and the focus to not be on Gerard creating a management committee of his local drinking buddies. We all know the laundry list of laughable or insulting shit thats happened here under his watch and he hasn't even been here that long. At this point I find it impossible to spend money to support his vision. And i'm not alone. But problem becomes the product is so bad that regular support isn't happening even if a real President showed up to run the organization. They were the guys whining about the previous ownership/management, they wanted the jobs, they're fumbling hard. They mock us while being a laughing stock Sounds about right LOL
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Post by Jack Bauer on Nov 1, 2022 13:15:12 GMT -4
Lots of CB politics involved too. We had a lot of great sponsors in the first ~12-15 years or so who due to being disrespected or pushed out due to ownership changes have completely stopped supporting the team. Some of that you can't help but in a small place the word of mouth spreads quick within the business community. The perception at this point can't be changed. This group could win the 2025 memorial cup and if they suck in 2027 the 30 years will still matter more over any 1 year. Just look at Bathurst...why would those fans return to watch the rebuild? They didn't want to watch the rebuild for the Memorial Cup winning team they just wanted to enjoy a good playoff run. I think they're arrogant to a point where they read this stuff and mock us. They think we want to be them. We just want competent people running our team and the focus to not be on Gerard creating a management committee of his local drinking buddies. We all know the laundry list of laughable or insulting shit thats happened here under his watch and he hasn't even been here that long. At this point I find it impossible to spend money to support his vision. And i'm not alone. But problem becomes the product is so bad that regular support isn't happening even if a real President showed up to run the organization. They were the guys whining about the previous ownership/management, they wanted the jobs, they're fumbling hard. They mock us while being a laughing stock Sounds about right LOL These folks fail upwards in our local business community. Just look at Paul MacDonald and how he managed to even be a bigger laughing stock then Shaw when trying to run this team yet they hired him to run C200. So while C200 sits mostly empty and the Eagles draw 1600 per night Paul MacDonald and Gerard Shaw are collecting laughable salaries to be locals who can't get a job done but because they're from here they fail forwards into even better positions.
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Post by hal on Nov 1, 2022 14:50:54 GMT -4
Paul MacDonald being hired to Run C200 was orchestrated by The CBRM Council that was in place at the Time . If any of the people who worked under the Former Manager had any guts , he wouldn't have just walked into that Position . That whole thing was a Farce ........and for the Record he was a worse President than Gerard Shaw as crazy as any New Posters will find that hard to believe ....Shaw is 2nd Tier but he was Bottom Tier .
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Post by Jack Bauer on Nov 1, 2022 15:03:20 GMT -4
Paul MacDonald being hired to Run C200 was orchestrated by The CBRM Council that was in place at the Time . If any of the people who worked under the Former Manager had any guts , he wouldn't have just walked into that Position . That whole thing was a Farce ........and for the Record he was a worse President than Gerard Shaw as crazy as any New Posters will find that hard to believe ....Shaw is 2nd Tier but he was Bottom Tier . Much worse. I'll never forget he and Durocher's Memorial Cup bid centered on 4th round prospects and a fresh coat of paint. We basically had an entire draft class bail on the team under his watch.
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Post by hal on Nov 1, 2022 15:23:49 GMT -4
Everybody that even heard of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles at that time knew it was a Season to be a Seller except for Dumb ( MacDonald) and Dumber ( Durocher ) or Vice Versa...... but No .....they brought in those Costly Players and well everybody knows the Rest of the Story . What needs to happen is for Shaw to come out and say ............"Paul" ......Irwin wants to host the Calder ....err...I mean the Memorial Cup "..........but your Building is not Good Enough ...do something about it" . Then these two Rocket Scientists can go at it in the Media .
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Post by jamesnorris on Nov 1, 2022 19:14:23 GMT -4
I remember when I started posting on this forum, I got in heated debates with many people on here about a variety of topics.
But there hasn't really been much to even debate in the last 5 years, everyone seems resigned to the fact that we're doomed under this group and we'll likely see this team move pretty soon
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Post by Jack Bauer on Nov 2, 2022 8:49:01 GMT -4
$7 tickets for Saturday.
They finally realized they were retiring a jersey and basically no tickets were being sold.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Nov 2, 2022 8:52:32 GMT -4
Everybody that even heard of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles at that time knew it was a Season to be a Seller except for Dumb ( MacDonald) and Dumber ( Durocher ) or Vice Versa...... but No .....they brought in those Costly Players and well everybody knows the Rest of the Story . What needs to happen is for Shaw to come out and say ............"Paul" ......Irwin wants to host the Calder ....err...I mean the Memorial Cup "..........but your Building is not Good Enough ...do something about it" . Then these two Rocket Scientists can go at it in the Media . The building is perfect for what is needed though. The Memorial Cup is always a pipe dream with moving goal posts that involves a perfect storm of money poured into the rink and a team capable of hosting. We haven't had that in a long time. But a 4600 seat rink in a downtown core thats very accessible should be an ideal CHL building size. But the key is you need to keep fans engaged where our management have been turning fans off the product for a decade now.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Nov 2, 2022 8:56:04 GMT -4
I remember when I started posting on this forum, I got in heated debates with many people on here about a variety of topics. But there hasn't really been much to even debate in the last 5 years, everyone seems resigned to the fact that we're doomed under this group and we'll likely see this team move pretty soon Hard to not see it as inevitable if nothing changes the momentum here. Its crazy to me that nobody around the league recognizes what is going on in some markets and how there's almost no entertainment factor to be had in most of these games. If I had missed the last 4 seasons of Eagles games is there 3 memories I've missed out on that I should regret? Anything that would have brought me back for the next game or next game between the same teams? They're selling a chance to watch paint dry most nights and wonder why people are coming out less.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2022 9:15:57 GMT -4
No entertainment to be had in most of these games?
Please, elaborate and tell me what you would like to see? I have seen several comments on here about fighting and the entertainment it used to provide, I guess it's ok for a 17 year old to get his head smashed into the ice as long as it's entertaining for some old guy who paid $18 for a ticket.
Maybe the intermission entertainment should somehow involve the old guy, while the 17 and 18 year olds cheer from the sidelines.
Nothing pisses me off more then someone who has never taken 10 punches to the face talk about entertainment.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2022 9:26:42 GMT -4
Here's a challenge , let's get all the ex-hockey players , guys who played in the 70's, 80's and get them on the ice with the atheletes we see today, it would be a joke to watch. The game has changed, it's fast , very fast, you can't afford to throw crushing hits, the moment you do, the transition game is gone the other way and you are -1 and on the bench for the next 4 shifts. 30 years ago you had 5 studs on a team and 14 others that couldn't keep up, now everyone is fast, your 4th liner can fly, kids train year round and sacrifice everything they have to try and get to the next level. If you can't appreciate the new game, the speed and skill , the entertainment, maybe the game has passed you by.
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