Checking the Fan Damage

[royale]

I'm glad its going to start. Doubt ill make it to a game though. Just start already.

I think you are going to be the only Sharks fan in OR lol we are going to miss you down here this season!

 

[YouJustGotPavelskied]

Where's the "The lack of hockey has made me crazy bored and now I'm more excited than ever before" button?

 

[yada]

Th eres not an option that fits me. I want the nhl back amd will get center ice but will go tp zero games. I would make sure to make it to a stars/sharks game but I wont spend the money on tix. I really wish that I could do wo center ice to boycott giving the nhl revenue but id only be hurting myself

 

[WineShark]

I've been watching the poll numbers move. Its interesting to me to see the top response - "I'm psyched" progressively become the stronger answer. It would indicate people are already warming up. (I'm still in a self-loathing mode. I hate me and you too for letting the NHL treat me this way.)

It's also interesting to me that only 6 voters are really protesting the fan treatment. Last interesting tidbit is the number of those who said they had other interests that now compete with hockey. (including me who is a Niners fan again). After the last CBA Circus, I doubt the vote would have been as evenly split on the top two choices. More would have taken the top choice.

To me, its clear the real fans have "lost interest" but that doesn't mean they wont still pay to see the game or skip watching TV. From this result, my guess is arenas are still going to fill up about how they were last season ..... poor Ducks.

 

[slocal]

To me, its clear the real fans have "lost interest" but that doesn't mean they wont still pay to see the game or skip watching TV. From this result, my guess is arenas are still going to fill up about how they were last season ..... poor Ducks.

I would say some "real fans" have lost interest. There are still plenty that will keep the Sharks or NHL hockey as their clear choice for sports entertainment.

Not sure if that's how you intended for it to sound, but I just want clarify that the fans picking the first option are just as much SJS fans as the one picking the other ones. Then again, maybe my reading skills need work

 

[CrazedZooChimp]

I've been watching the poll numbers move. Its interesting to me to see the top response - "I'm psyched" progressively become the stronger answer. It would indicate people are already warming up. (I'm still in a self-loathing mode. I hate me and you too for letting the NHL treat me this way.)

It's also interesting to me that only 6 voters are really protesting the fan treatment. Last interesting tidbit is the number of those who said they had other interests that now compete with hockey. (including me who is a Niners fan again). After the last CBA Circus, I doubt the vote would have been as evenly split on the top two choices. More would have taken the top choice.

To me, its clear the real fans have "lost interest" but that doesn't mean they wont still pay to see the game or skip watching TV. From this result, my guess is arenas are still going to fill up about how they were last season ..... poor Ducks.

I definitely would have picked #1 after the last lockout, I was bored out of my mind. I will also admit that part of the reason I picked #2 this time is that both Stanford football and the Niners have gotten really good in the last few years. If the other sports teams I cared about were terrible, I would be longing for the Sharks more. It's also partly related that the end of last season was disappointing (at least to me), so I think there was less excitement to get this season started. I don't know if I'm actually any more angry than I was during the last lockout.

 

[SpaceCoastShark]

Unless there's a bus trip this season, I'm going to boycott and not put any money in their pockets.

I couldn't feel sorry for any of the whining, crying millionaires and billionaires. Cry me a freakin' river about your salaries. I'm trying to get my kid through college without having to live in a box, and you guys are worried about whether you can have platinum bathroom fixtures, or if you'll have to settle for gold. Bite me. </rant>

 

[Grave]

Hey at least Bettman said he was sorry

 

[yada]

I've been watching the poll numbers move. Its interesting to me to see the top response - "I'm psyched" progressively become the stronger answer. It would indicate people are already warming up. (I'm still in a self-loathing mode. I hate me and you too for letting the NHL treat me this way.)

It's also interesting to me that only 6 voters are really protesting the fan treatment. Last interesting tidbit is the number of those who said they had other interests that now compete with hockey. (including me who is a Niners fan again). After the last CBA Circus, I doubt the vote would have been as evenly split on the top two choices. More would have taken the top choice.

To me, its clear the real fans have "lost interest" but that doesn't mean they wont still pay to see the game or skip watching TV. From this result, my guess is arenas are still going to fill up about how they were last season ..... poor Ducks.

i love hockey too much to not watch it. nhl is easily my favorite sport but during this lockout i was watching nfl and nba but my passion isn't as high. ialso got into ufc but thats not necessarily due to the lockout as it is having fuel tv, a friend who was a huge fight fan.

reason im pissed this lockout is i feel the nhl and bettman in particular take nhl fans for granted after the surprising fam reaction after a full season was canceled. i feel that the owners figured hey we can miss as many games as we want cause our fans will be back. sad thing is this lockout has made me realize bud freaking selig of all people is a better commissioner then bettman

 

[WineShark]

I would say some "real fans" have lost interest. There are still plenty that will keep the Sharks or NHL hockey as their clear choice for sports entertainment.

Not sure if that's how you intended for it to sound, but I just want clarify that the fans picking the first option are just as much SJS fans as the one picking the other ones. Then again, maybe my reading skills need work

Overthinking. The implication is that even real fans lost some degree of interest this time. Or if you like, just because there is a loss in interest among the "real fans" - the only fans in the universe because they are HF Boarders and can vote on this poll - that shouldn't imply there will be fan dropoff when it comes to the binary decision when the game is in town, to go or not to go ..... that is the question

 

[slocal]

Overthinking. The implication is that even real fans lost some degree of interest this time. Or if you like, just because there is a loss in interest among the "real fans" - the only fans in the universe because they are HF Boarders and can vote on this poll - that shouldn't imply there will be fan dropoff when it comes to the binary decision when the game is in town, to go or not to go ..... that is the question

Roger that. Hmm, that's the first time I think anyone has ever said I was over-thinking...on any subject

 

[Brokencow]

Their reasoning: If they're selling out every night, the tickets are too cheap.

Is that reasoning wrong? Economics says it is correct.

 

[jwhitesj]

Is that reasoning wrong? Economics says it is correct.

Short term to maximize profits it's not wrong, but it is very important for sports orginizations to pay close attention to the demogrpahics they are excluding through high ticket prices. The most important customers from a sports business point of view are the 6-15 year olds that are brought to the games by their parents. If tickets are too expensive to have a large part of the attendance be those 6-15 year olds than they will hurt their long term survivability as a business. Kids going to games creates long term fans that buy merchandise or season tickets when they become adults and take their kids to the game that they loved going to with their parents.

 

[Hold the Pickles]

Since the end of last season, I've been hoping for any likely outcome except a dramatically shortened season with a craptastic division-centric schedule--no season at all would have been MUCH better for me. I haven't heard rumblings of what the schedule will be like, but I'd be surprised if my worst nightmare doesn't come true.

If the seemingly inevitable happens, I will be forced to abandon my seats that I've had since the tank opened. I simply cannot afford the digger that I will take due to a division-centric schedule. In past, I used most of my entertainment budget on Season Tix and simply sold the games I couldn't make. This year, I'll happen to be on the road for most of the season and seeing the same teams over and over is much less appetizing to the ticket buying market.

Times are tough and the fans that have felt most of the pressure of the lockout are the season ticket holders--Many of which are the hard-core loyal fans that were responsible for hockey being a success in San Jose. You'd be surprised how many long-term ticket holders I know that are ditching or have ditched their seats. It doesn't matter to the sharks org as they have many other suckers, that haven't been screwed over (yet), to fill the seats.

I simply cannot articulate how disappointed I am. I feel completely betrayed and cannot imagine ever considering season tickets again at this point. Foreseeing this exact scenario, I had contacted the sharks months ago to see if I could arrange something as I had no interest in a shortened season. I offered them to keep my 25% toward the next full season (even offered it be non-refundable) plus $500 ticket selling fee for any shorten season. They said no and that if there was any season the only way to keep my seats was to buy all the tickets--essentially putting all season ticket holders (on a budget) lives on hold, or simply kicking them to the curb.

I love hockey and time heals, but my feelings for the NHL, in its entirety, will never be the same.

 

[Chaotic8]

Hey at least Bettman said he was sorry

And according to Twitter writers, it was "sincere."

 

[Frosty415]

Boycott please, I need tickets.

 

[WineShark]

Roger that. Hmm, that's the first time I think anyone has ever said I was over-thinking...on any subject

It happens to the dumbest of us.

 

[Paka Ono]

I'll watch the games on TV, but I'm still locking out the NHL from my wallet until Buttman is gone.

 

[PlaywithGutz*]

I'll watch the games on TV, but I'm still locking out the NHL from my wallet until Buttman is gone.

I am with ya...the only real honorable thing to do is fire him ...there needs to be a new era...Butttman is leaving a very bad taste in the fans mouths..

That fat guy that verbally called him out in public as a press conference was taking place really made fans look like [MOD]...I would have kept rippin him a new one...

 

[Hab Shark]

I would beg to differ about Bettman. He is merely a mouthpiece for the Owners. He is steered by the Owners that have the ability to influence the majority of the group. Just like Donald Fehr, his job is to give the impression that there is unity amongst the Owners, when there is probably a lot of friction between the Haves and Have Nots. This is what I ultimately believe helps the Owners move more towards the middle, just like the Players had to.

I appreciate that Bettman has a talk show on XM every week during the season and takes the heat from the fans, when necessary. I suspect it will be heaped on heavy this year. Rather than blaming Bettman, I'll wait for the book to come out eventually that explains which teams were playing hardball and which ones just needed to get back to playin hockey?

 

[SJGoalie32]

I would beg to differ about Bettman. He is merely a mouthpiece for the Owners. He is steered by the Owners that have the ability to influence the majority of the group. Just like Donald Fehr, his job is to give the impression that there is unity amongst the Owners, when there is probably a lot of friction between the Haves and Have Nots. This is what I ultimately believe helps the Owners move more towards the middle, just like the Players had to.

I disagree about Bettman just being a mouthpiece.

True, like any lawyer, agent, or employee, he does the job assigned to him by those that employee him. But like any employee with a job to do, he also has some personal control over how he does his job.

A waiter is "mouthpiece" for a restaurant , too, to a certain extent. But there are still good waiters and bad waiters. There are waiters who will check in with customers and engage in friendly banter, and there are those waiters who do the bare minimum, bring your orders when they get around to it, and bring you the check only when you flag them down. There are waiters who will go out of their way to appease customers who complain that the order was wrong, perhaps even so far as offering a discount or a free dessert to make up for the mistake.....and then there are waiters who will sit there and argue with you about what you ordered and charge you full price for the meal anyway.

Likewise, yes, Bettman is hired to do certain jobs the owners ask of him. But still, even within that framework of his job as chief spokesman, promoter, negotiator, etc., Bettman can choose to be confrontational, or he can choose to be conciliatory. He can choose to do his job in a manner that he feels best benefits everyone he both serves for and works with, or he can choose to conduct himself in a manner that only seeks to curry the biggest favor from a select few at the expense of the majority or the rest. He can try to build a consensus through discussion and persuasion, or he can try to use intimidation tactics to coerce those with opposing views to bend to his will.

Yes, Bettman probably takes on more grief than he really deserves. Yes, this lockout would not have happened if there weren't at least some owners who were pushing hard for some of the components. But there's a fair amount of rumors coming out that a decent number of owners also DIDN'T want this lockout. Bettman supposedly serves them, too......yet he seemed to be more inclined to push for the interests of those owners who wanted the lockout rather than those who didn't. Why is that? Whose decision/fault is it that Bettman appears to have sided more with the hardliners than with the moderates of the ownership group?

Yes, Bettman acts at the behest of those who employ him. But Bettman also doesn't sound like a wilting powerless wallflower who totally wanted to just re-up the previous CBA, but whose poor hands were tied by those who employ him. He doesn't sound like the sort of man who really would have preferred to take a more measured and balanced approach to these labor negotiations but who was reluctantly forced by his employers into holding out for more than even he thought was reasonable. Bettman is not evil incarnate, but he's not an innocent bystander in this either.

 

[CrazedZooChimp]

Is that reasoning wrong? Economics says it is correct.

Most sports teams/leagues I believe make the bulk of their money from TV contracts (at least college football and I think the NFL do). The best way to get a bigger TV contract is to have more fans. For hockey, I think the best way to get more fans is to get people who don't normally go to games or have never been to a game to watch it live. Making prices higher makes it harder for "new" fans to experience the game live, which makes it harder to convert them to fans. Cheaper seats will likely increase the fan base overall which should increase non-ticket revenue. Hopefully non-ticket revenue becomes the main revenue source for teams, as that's how the league can really grow it's value.

I think, I might be completely wrong.

 

[LEN]

I think you are going to be the only Sharks fan in OR lol we are going to miss you down here this season!

I've run into a few. Not sure how serious they are but they are around.