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Oilers » Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)

Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52) [message #829992 is a reply to message #829984 ]	Wed, 21 February 2024 09:07

RDOilerfan
Messages: 3908
Registered: January 2016

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oilfan94 wrote on Tue, 20 February 2024 15:16

Adam wrote on Tue, 20 February 2024 16:39

As someone who doesn't care about the success of the Arizona Coyotes and who has no stake in whether they're dragging down the hockey-related revenues of the NHL, I don't care if their building is small or large, empty or full.

I think in part because Winnipeg moved there, people have long cheered for failure in Phoenix, but that team supported the IHL Roadrunners like no other minor league market. There is a good base there, and there's a ton of Canadians in that area too - but between locating the team in stupid places, and 20+ years of terrible management, there's not much reason for anyone to get excited.

And the constant drama about potential move can't be good for the fanbase either. Who wants to get attached to a team that's forever rumoured to be moving away. Especially when your management does crap like illegal extra meetings/fitness testing with prospects - the stupidest crime possible because there's a bunch of people involved who have no reason to keep the secret, and it doesn't change their draft position so the minimal extra intel on the players gives very limited gain. Basically the highest risk, lowest reward infraction they could have chosen to do. Then after losing their top three picks for that, they draft an absolute monster of a kid with a brutal backstory, knowing full well that it would be a controversial pick. They could have bet on someone else with that pick, or they could have figured that was the best chance for their success and just weathered the bad PR storm, but instead they chose the worst course of action for their team and rescinded their pick, meaning that in 2020 they only had a 5th, 6th, and two 7th round picks with zero benefit from the first four picks that they lost.

They're currently 27th in the league once again. In the last 11 seasons, the only time they made the playoffs was 2020 when they were 11th in the West, way back of the playoff cut line when COVID cut short the season. If not for an upset in the play-in round, they wouldn't have been in that year either. Since 1996, there's been only two real playoff series won. JUST TWO IN 27 years! And they both came in 2011-12 when they went to the Conference Finals before losing to the Kings. The team is a disgrace, but it's not the market or the fanbase that should be blamed. And I don't care if they're in Winnipeg, Quebec City, Salt Lake City or Houston. If you suck that hard for that long, you're going to fail to inspire a lot of people to drive an hour late on a Wednesday night in February to watch you play.

I have a friend that is a Coyotes fan (but he just bought an Oilers hat, so he is coming around) and he said that at the price point it is tough to go to the games just to watch them play badly. That's why when the Oilers are there is sounds like like an Oilers home game in the crowd. Not many people are willing to shell out money to see their team lose and play terrible hockey, but there are a lot that will pay once or twice a season to see their favourite team kick the crap out of the local team that no one cares about. So the incentive is for away team fans to show up, not home team fans. All that does is continue the spiral for the team to the point where even if the market could work (and I think it could) it could never work for this team. The best thing that the NHL could do is move them to a market like Quebec that will support a bad team and let that team recover, and save expansion teams for markets like Houston, Kansas City, or Salt Lake that will not do well if a team with a bad history shows up. Maybe in 10-15 years the NHL could try and revisit Phoenix, but the stink is going to need a while to wear off so that the people and the municipalities will want a team there again.

Did you ask your friend what an acceptable price point would be for the average person from that area to go to a game?

I was in Scottsdale just after Christmas and we went to a game. It was Florida vs the Yotes, Florida is a good team so the hockey was good. We opted to get more expensive tickets. Ours were $90 a ticket but I could have gotten seats from the team for $55 US to sit in the endzone. They were bench seats but oh well. It's such a small rink, the view would still have been great. The prices were pretty much the same for most games, except premier games like the Oilers where they jack them up because they know Oilers fans will come. Since I bought those tickets, I get emails all the time from the Yotes offering me game packages for way less than what I paid for that 1 game.

In comparison, we also went to a Suns game and our second deck in that giant stadium on the end, the seats by the time they tacked on all their fees were over $100 per seat. The lower you went, the more expensive they got. To buy the same tickets we had in the Yotes arena, it would easily have cost me close too $300 per ticket. The Suns arena was pretty much sold out. Depending on the game, the prices would fluctuate a little but not a ton.

So I do kind of call BS on the price point as being an excuse. The NHL is the best hockey league in the world and you can get a ticket for under $60 to watch it. But people there won't bat an eye drop 100's on an NBA game. It's Ok for your friend to just admit that the people in Arizona just aren't interested in hockey. I have no way of knowing but I bet if they dropped the prices people probably still wouldn't come.

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Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: OilFans on Mon, 19 February 2024 16:30
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: Kr55 on Mon, 19 February 2024 16:34
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: tardigrade81 on Mon, 19 February 2024 16:35
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: watchman on Mon, 19 February 2024 16:41
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: watchman on Mon, 19 February 2024 16:42
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: Kr55 on Mon, 19 February 2024 16:55
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: watchman on Mon, 19 February 2024 17:03
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: NetBOG on Mon, 19 February 2024 17:10
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: Adam on Mon, 19 February 2024 21:53
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: Adam on Mon, 19 February 2024 21:48
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: inverno76 on Mon, 19 February 2024 16:50
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: NetBOG on Mon, 19 February 2024 16:53
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: RDOilerfan on Tue, 20 February 2024 08:33
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: RDOilerfan on Tue, 20 February 2024 08:39
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: Dragon_Matt on Tue, 20 February 2024 11:23
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: Adam on Tue, 20 February 2024 14:39
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: oilfan94 on Tue, 20 February 2024 15:16
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: Dragon_Matt on Tue, 20 February 2024 15:40
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: Adam on Tue, 20 February 2024 22:21
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: Mike on Wed, 21 February 2024 06:44
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: smyth260 on Wed, 21 February 2024 10:21
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: RDOilerfan on Wed, 21 February 2024 09:07
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: oilfan94 on Wed, 21 February 2024 12:00
Re: Review: Edmonton @ Arizona (Game #52)	By: RDOilerfan on Wed, 21 February 2024 12:14

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