Checking the Fan Damage

[WineShark]

January 19th the season starts. But after a second work stoppage, are you totally psyched to start the season, going to warm to it, are you going to wait and see, or are you on to other sports largely now? (I'm presuming you are a fan so there is no "I'll never watch again" option.)

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[likewall32]

January 19th the season starts. But after a second work stoppage, are you totally psyched to start the season, going to warm to it, are you going to wait and see, or are you on to other sports largely now? (I'm presuming you are a fan so there is no "I'll never watch again" option.)

I'm happy the NHL is back so I can have something to follow other than the NBA and the SF Bulls, but I won't be spending any money on the NHL any time soon. I'll watch the Sharks on TV when I can, and I'll go to the games if I am given tickets, but the money that has been argued about over the last three months is my hard earned money, and its hard to part with it seeing the character of to whom its going.

 

[RammsteinGT]

The term "shut up and take my money" comes to mind. I'm an addict and therefore the kind of fan the NHL knew they had in their corner.

Can't wait for game one, but I will admit that the lockout forced me to take a serious interest in my local WHL team, the Memorial Cup-hosting Blades.

 

[Dicdonya]

Should have some sort of option that is "excited to watch but will not be attending games or purchasing merch for this year and maybe next". I took the second option instead. I am so stoked to have hockey back though. Go sharks!

 

[Led Zappa]

This poll isn't really fair to STH's. While I'm still a little PO'd, I have tickets and I'm not gonna pretend that as soon as I get to the tank I'm not gonna be right back where I was as a fan at the game.

No, selling my tickets is not an option and they may not be as easy to sell as usual anyways because I am sure there are many who are gonna punish the league in one way or another even if they remain fans and then we'll have the ones we won't ever get back.

 

[TheDanceOfMaternity]

mmm I doubt I will get to a game this year or watch the sharks regularly, but during the playoffs I will come around.

 

[Chairman Mallard]

I'm disgusted by the situation but I can't quit hockey. It's like some woman you're madly in love with. Even if she pisses me off every day, I'm still gonna wanna crawl into bed with her at the end of the night.

 

[Nighthock]

still watching, but my expectations have lowered ... isn't half the team injured or something?

 

[sharksohnoes!]

I guess I'm glad that the NHL is back, but I'm not going to shout it from the rooftops. I've been extremely happy with the Bulls over the last few months. I've been to a ton of games and had a great time. It's 10 minutes away from my house at a fraction of the cost of going to a sharks game. I'm sure I'll get to HP once or twice this season, but the Bulls are my priority for now.

 

[HOOCH2173]

Just give me CI for free and I'll watch at home! (though our group of die hard So Cal Shark fans down here will be begging me to come along). AH conflicted!

Then again it is cheap to go to a Ducks game since no one goes anyway!

 

[SJSharksfan39]

I'm not sure how excited I am that Hockey is back. I've actually been enjoying watching the Warriors this year (Minus last night's cluster-F) but if there is a sharks game I might take a look-see. I'm probably not buying Gamecenter Live, even though this year and next it should be free.

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

Since I don't really follow MLB or NBA, and NFL is almost done, I am excited about the deal. The whole thing sucks but on the bright side, at least the season will start before the NFL playoffs are all done.

 

[68 Z-28]

I am happy that hockey is back. I don't watch the NBA and the NFL is usually day games that I can't watch due to work. I am a two sport guy Baseball and Hockey. The only time they overlap is a problem to me is when the playoffs come around for either sport.

I will be watching mostly from home this season and don't plan in going to games. Since we dropped our Season tickets 3 years ago I have gone to limited games, usually would get tickets for a game for Christmas and then a game or two on the Sharks Text Club Deal. Playoffs, I'be been to only 2 in the last 3 years. Hard for me to spend less money on the league than I have recently.

 

[Juxtaposer]

Should have some sort of option that is "excited to watch but will not be attending games or purchasing merch for this year and maybe next". I took the second option instead. I am so stoked to have hockey back though. Go sharks!

Same here. The NHL will not be getting my money. But I am stoked to have the Sharks back.

I'll say, the Lockout definitely forced me to get interested in other leagues. I've watched AHL games, FEL games, SEL games, Czech Extraliga games, Swiss games, and CHL games. I'm really happy to have been exposed to so many other leagues and players.

 

[NorCalJen]

I'm disgusted by the situation but I can't quit hockey. It's like some woman you're madly in love with. Even if she pisses me off every day, I'm still gonna wanna crawl into bed with her at the end of the night.

This is pretty much how I feel. Except for the woman part.

I keep telling myself that I'm just going to watch on tv for the rest of this season, but I also admit that's probably not going to last. I am pretty pissed off and disgusted though.

 

[drunksage]

I picked option 2, but I could transition toward option 1 after I watch a nice game or two. I've allocated any free time that I have into some computer games, so I'd have to adjust back and not screw up school or anything.

 

[Trl3789]

My love for hockey has grown pretty exponentially the past 4-5 years. So while i'm frustrated by the lockout, it isn't being piled on top of bad feelings from the last lockout. Even though i want to be pissed off, i missed hockey too much to stay mad.

So yeah, shut up and take my money. Bahhhhhhhh

 

[Kmshrkx]

I will be locking out the NHL this year. Go Bulls!

 

[WineShark]

This poll isn't really fair to STH's. While I'm still a little PO'd, I have tickets and I'm not gonna pretend that as soon as I get to the tank I'm not gonna be right back where I was as a fan at the game.

No, selling my tickets is not an option and they may not be as easy to sell as usual anyways because I am sure there are many who are gonna punish the league in one way or another even if they remain fans and then we'll have the ones we won't ever get back.

I was up at 3 AM and saw the announcement. I was like .... who cares? Then I wondered if anyone posted the news on HFB and found I was hours late in finding out. Then I wondered if the few that were ahead of me on the news were going to be representative of the masses ... drop the puck .... or if people were going to be ambivilent like I was feeling.

By 4 AM I'd watched all the Canadian video feeds and finally got back to bed. This morning, I'm combing through news articles to get up to speed. So .... by my actions, I guess ambivilent isnt the right term for me. I am clearly a hard-core fan and my actions are ahead of my emotions. I can predict that I will be watching every game on TV for sure. I might be mad, but I'll watch because its the best sport out there.

And ... if you want to sell some of the game tickets or need company for a game, I'll sit with you in that empty arena this year for a game or two of the 24 that will be played.

PS - pisses me off that the Kings don't have a Cup hangover .....

 

[Kitten Mittons]

I mean, I am glad that I now have an option to watch hockey. But I am not glad about wasting hours watching it.

 

[Church Hill]

It's exciting right now. It's not as exciting as a new season in October with all the freshness and circumstance going into the occasion, but it's still exciting and I'll be here watching most of the games.

 

[bluefunnel]

I'm excited, mad about the delay but still excited.

 

[Kitten Mittons]

It's like some woman you're madly in love with. Even if she pisses me off every day, I'm still gonna wanna crawl into bed with her at the end of the night.

It's like if you've been clean for 6 months and then suddenly you have your poison in front of you for the first time ... and you hate yourself for not being able to restrain yourself.

 

[slocal]

I'm one of Bettman's "best fans," so I'll be back after this abuse. Not happy about it, but I know I'll be cheering the same as before.

 

[ChompChomp]

I know this is about us, but I think the big question has been, and will be going foward, how does this affect the growth of the NHL fanbase/support/money in the United States?

I fear that the Casual American Sports Fan (read: doesn't follow the NHL, maybe casually watches if it is on, takes his family of 4 to a few games a year as an outing if they live in an NHL market) isn't coming back to even that "level" of support...at least not for a while. And that's a problem when the league should be growing and getting more fans.

Take for example, our buddies to the south, the LA Kings. No doubt their run helped gain more fans in SoCal...who promptly stopped being fans when the lockout dragged on. Those people are likely not going to care opening night, and for the league (owners and players), that's not only a problem, that is THE problem (not just for the Kings I mean, I mean the nationwide in the US).

The NHL has a lot of work to do to win back Causal American Sports Fans back to even their previous level of support (Which was not great), let alone growth. Hopefully the lockout is only a setback in that area for this half-season and does not have damaging effects for years to come.