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 Adam
Messages: 6806
Registered: August 2005
Location: Edmonton, AB
6 Cups
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| Babaganoosh2.0 wrote on Fri, 28 January 2022 17:56 |
The issue with the attendance isnt the fans. The Arena is located 20 miles outside Phoenix, the traffic is horrendous and if you take public transportation it will take an hour and 45 minutes one way to get there. In addition, there is, quite literally, one way in and one way out of the stadium. This is mainly a problem due to the insanely difficult parking situation. It is one of the main complaints of the stadium. Coyotes fans have to deal with this and the high prices to park.
Another issue affecting attendance is the through-the-roof prices for food and beverages. One anonymous user on Google reviews mentions that “[you can buy] two margaritas for $45.” Going to an expensive margarita joint would be half of the price of that. It’s hard to get people to come to the stadium when you have to sell an entire hockey franchise to buy a burger and some fries.
This is the fault of mis-management, not the fans.
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I think this is why the league continues to have hockey in Arizona. There's a market there.
Before the NHL came, the Phoenix Roadrunners were the best draw in the IHL by a long long ways. They were selling out the downtown arena for minor hockey. It seemed like a slam dunk to put an NHL team there - but the management has been horrific. The team was used as bait by a developer who just wanted to build a mall in Glendale. He immediately flipped the team the second the mall was built. They also have sucked for almost the whole time they've been in Arizona. They made the playoffs in 5 of their first seasons (the Roenick/Khabibulin era) and then just 4 times out of the next 18 years - and of those, 3 were in a row in 2009-12. Other than that little blip, they've just been awful forever. They've only been past the Division Semi-Finals once in their entire history.
At some point people question whether they want to cheer for a loser, and it's even easier to ignore them if you can't get to the stadium.
"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
#FireLowe #FireBobbyNicks #FireKenHolland #FireKeithGretzky
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