Attendance

[ontariohockeyfan]

Bjinadaho have to disagree the O was going to go the Buffalo area as part of the move of Toronto St Mikes which went to Mississauga and the Mississauga team was moved to Niagara but had a Buffalo area team (Queenston area) to go to but the arena was not big enough.The O has made it known they want a team in N.Y. so Erie can have a team to play with as a rival team.And if that happens watch for more players to play in the O from the N.Y. state area.Example of players to come out of N.Y. state to play in the O ( Pat Kane-From Buffalo,Rob Schremp-Syracuse) both of these players were first round draft picks for pro hockey.Yourselves in the Q(Atlantic ) claim there is no place in the Atlantic area ( U.S ) for another Q team as you know I disagee with that as I think there is and the only people to make that decission is the owners of the Q.If they think there is a feesable team in the U.S. and want to shell out BIG dollars for one they (Q) members will gladly take their money. DO you or I have a say in this no only the league does.They did agree to take the money from St.Johns and as of today that team is losing a lot of money.Will they survive only time will tell but as costs to run a team get higher especially there with flying costs and arena rental costs ( Think highest in the Q) should be interesting to see what happens there.

[archer]

ontariohockeyfan said:

Archer, Chillywack their are American cities that would be have interest .They would both be in Maine (Bangor & Portland) both of these cities would support a Q (Junior team) reason being size of both cities and they are both hockey minded cities(NCAA ).Either one would be a rival team for Lewiston as they are the only American team in the Q.People that would say it would not work because of NCAA I would have to disagree as in the OHL their are 3 American teams in that league (Erie P.A.,Plymouth Michigan & Saginaw Michigan ) and each one of these teams are in big NCAA hockey areas (Michigan,Michigan State,Ohio State.Bowling Green Etc ) and they have no problem supporting junior hockey. Another reason watch for the Q put more teams in the U.S. .Reason being is that the OHL wants to expand to New York state and as you no north east New York state bounds on the Quebec border and one thing the Q does not want to happen is to have an OHL team in that part of the state. So a team move just does not mean Maine it could be Northern New York state.Remember this can happen so the best way to NOT let this happen is to support your team (Saint John ,ETC ) fill the arena and support them on and off the rink.This I think can happen there (Saint John ) support.If I was a betting man I could see the St. Johns Newfoundland team the one that moves to either Maine or New York state reason being cost to run a team there.Guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.So go out and support the Seadogs and good luck tomorrow in Halifax

Maine has the Univerisity of Maine Black Bears, die hard support for this team can't see them making inroads here. Portland has the AHL Pirates and Lewiston is close enough to watch the Q. You would have to have a team close to the NB or Quebec border to have Canadian hockey fans close by. Hockey is a non-entity with the exeception of the above listed teams in Maine. University of New Hampshire. Vermont Boston College, Havard, Boston Unversity and Northeastern are the only other non
NHL hockey teams fans follow, they have strong roots in fan bases Q would have a hard time in New England.

[bjindaho]

you forgot the Wolfpack.

[robkennedy]

ontariohockeyfan said:

hockey.Yourselves in the Q(Atlantic ) claim there is no place in the Atlantic area ( U.S ) for another Q team as you know I disagee with that as I think there is and the only people to make that decission is the owners of the Q.

As of now, there is nobody out there who has shown any serious interest in purchasing a franchise and moving it to New England, nor starting up an expansion QMJHL franchise in a New England city. In Maine, the idea of an additional QMJHL franchise has never even been seriously and realistically considered by ANYONE.

That's not opinion. That's fact.

The "people who make decisions" that you refer to, unlike you, actually take into account the realities of potential NE cities (no suitable rink, small-ish population base, established hockey teams in the area) and how they'd negatively effect an incoming QMJHL team. It's a much better mentality than simply believing "New England would be awesome for another QMJHL team" without considering all the realities that go into establishing a franchise.

You can stick to the latter mentality. Most of us prefer reality, and will stick to the former.

[juliansteed]

I haven't been on here in a while so I'm jumping in a bit late. First thing is that I hesitate to call anyone who doesn't goto games lazy or cheap. You can't fault people for having interests and priorities that differ from yours/ours. In some cases I'm sure being cheap and lazy might be part of, but I'm also sure that there are a lot of people who do attend games who are likely pretty cheap and lazy themselves in other aspects of their lives. They just happen to make getting to hockey games a high priority.

Similarly, I see a lot of Fog Devils fans want to blame their fellow citizens for low attendance but they were under no obligation to anyone to goto the games. Its not their job to spend time and pay money on something that is not high on their priority list. It is however the job of a team's marketing department to get as many of these people interested as possible and to have them make QMJHL hockey a top priority. I don't know what's been going on in St. John's, but I think the Sea Dogs marketing team could be doing a bit better, although they could be doing worse as well. The first 2 years I thought they did alright without much to work with but this year its seems like they are doing a poor job with tons to work with. They seem to be missing the boat in a lot of areas. I'd elaborate but this post is looking long enough as it is so for now I'll just leave it at that.

One thing I will say though is that no matter what the marketing team does and no matter how well the team performs on the ice, they can forget about selling out a game this season (playoffs included) if they dont do something about those line-ups on game night. People were turning around and leaving Saturday night once they saw the line and the rink was only 2/3 full! I know the team tries to encourage people to buy online but for whatever reason the people in this city just dont get it, and everyone wants to wait until the last minute before committing to a hockey game from 7-930 on a Saturday night. With a higher season ticket base this would be much less of a problem, which is why I dont think we'll see any sellouts this season.

Which brings me to my final point. I expect next season for there to be a much larger season ticket base on the strength of this year's performance and next year's high expectations. And that's when we'll start seeing a significant increase in attendance, and the sellouts will come, which will create the buzz and the sence of urgency to get tickets that the team needs. Hopefully by then Sea Dogs games will finally become the "in thing" to do. If I'm right and we don't see any sellouts (or close to it) by the end of the regular season, I'm not so sure I'd want any in the playoffs. If any of the guys were to get nervous, think too much, try too hard etc. I'd rather that stuff get worked out in the regular season.

[elementz]

That bugs the hell out of me why people wait until 10 minutes before opening faceoff to go buy tickets. I don't blame them for standing in line but you think they would make up their mind if they were going an hour before the game.

Does the mall still sell tickets?

[juliansteed]

I was wondering the same thing. I dont think so, if so they are doing a poor job advertising it. Didn't Irving Mainways and the Imperial use to sell them too?

[juliansteed]

For the Flames I mean.

[bjindaho]

yes, but that got cut off. sucks because it cut down box office lines, but it probably cost a bit too.

[archer]

bjindaho said:

you forgot the Wolfpack.

Sorry and the Bridgeport ùsound Tigers, Manchester Monarchs, Lowell Lock Monsters, Worcester Sharks and Springfield. Point is there are several teams in N.E. and there little interest in the Q or any more hockey.

[archer]

robkennedy said:

ontariohockeyfan said:

hockey.Yourselves in the Q(Atlantic ) claim there is no place in the Atlantic area ( U.S ) for another Q team as you know I disagee with that as I think there is and the only people to make that decission is the owners of the Q.

As of now, there is nobody out there who has shown any serious interest in purchasing a franchise and moving it to New England, nor starting up an expansion QMJHL franchise in a New England city. In Maine, the idea of an additional QMJHL franchise has never even been seriously and realistically considered by ANYONE.

That's not opinion. That's fact.

The "people who make decisions" that you refer to, unlike you, actually take into account the realities of potential NE cities (no suitable rink, small-ish population base, established hockey teams in the area) and how they'd negatively effect an incoming QMJHL team. It's a much better mentality than simply believing "New England would be awesome for another QMJHL team" without considering all the realities that go into establishing a franchise.

You can stick to the latter mentality. Most of us prefer reality, and will stick to the former.

Excellent points. Sure New England would be a nice spot in theory. Lewiston to my recollection is the only NE location to actively seek a team.

[archer]

John Chilibeck had an interesting commentary in City Watch this week. The Median income in Saint John is $21,900, which means that half of the population makes less than this amount per year and the other half makes more than this amount. This is according to Stats Can, makes me wonder if money or lack of it is a part of the reason coupled with the large numbers of people leaving for the West looking for work may be another part of the attendence drop. There are probably many reasons but these two reasons are ones I never thought of until I read the article.

[elementz]

That number seems awfully low.

[tostitos]

I take anything Chilibeck says with a grain of salt.

[ontariohockeyfan]

Reguarding attendence has anybody taken a look at ticket prices.
Top 4 teams for building attendence are
Quebec City holds 15,399 HIGH TICKET PRICE $12.00
Halifax Holds 10,595 High ticket price $14.50
Moncton holds 6297 High ticket price $15.50
Saint John hold 6297 High ticket price $17.00 Horseshoe
$15.00 Lower Bowl
$13.00Upper Bowl
These prices are all adult prices and taken out of the QMJHL site
Is there any reason from what I saw was that Saint John is the only one team that has 3 price structures for single games (Adult,Senior,Children for each section (Horseshoe,Lower Bowl, Upper Bowl) Saint John high ticket price $17.00 is the highest in the league.Has anybody ever thought of making just 3 prices(Adult,Seniors &students,children ) for all seats.Just for example London 9100 seats ticket prices are
Adult $15.50
Senior & student $14.00
Children $13.00
This is just a thought something like this may work for you out there