Speculation: Senators Attendance This Season So Far

[SilverSeven]

This is why I cancelled my half seasons. Salaries in Ottawa have stayed relatively static while other expenses in my life have added up. You combine that with the fact that there was very little benefit in being a STH and the decision to cancel was easy. Their "Senator Rewards" program was a crock of poop and I was tired of paying more for my tickets than the guy sitting next to me who bought his on StubHub for half of what I paid.

Exact reason I cancelled.

I'm pretty sure season tickets were always a luxury for rich people...

I got my season tickets when I was 19 and making minumum wage. I kept them through university and after at my crap paying job. FAR from rich.

You sound like you don't live or drive in Ottawa.. LOL

This is a car city, pure and simple. The OC goes from CTC straight to downtown, it's way easier than taking a car, why is it so empty majority of the time?

Most people don't worry about drinking and driving from the game, especially during the week. The majority that go to the game don't go there to get drunk.

I love your exaggerating though. Makes you seem very knowledgeable on the matter.

Huh? The 400 busses are PACCCCKKKKEEEEDDDD. Standing up for 45 minutes sucks ass.

Montreal and Toronto are not car cities. They may have more cars on the road, but they aren't built the way Ottawa is either.

Ottawa is a car city? Funny....we are 4th in North America for transit usage.

36$ got me a fine seat and two slices of pizza

People complaining about ticket prices are either very poor (which blows, I don't mean to offend) or super cheap

More to do with value. Go to a Redblacks game for half that price and see how much better the gameday experience is. As a kid who grew up with STHs, then get his own at 19 for nearly a decade, the value has gone down down down down down down.

And my HDTV isnt a 45 minute drive away in February to a place where I can only have one crappy $11 beer because I have to drive back.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

Exact reason I cancelled.



I got my season tickets when I was 19 and making minumum wage. I kept them through university and after at my crap paying job. FAR from rich.



Huh? The 400 busses are PACCCCKKKKEEEEDDDD. Standing up for 45 minutes sucks ass.



Ottawa is a car city? Funny....we are 4th in North America for transit usage.



More to do with value. Go to a Redblacks game for half that price and see how much better the gameday experience is. As a kid who grew up with STHs, then get his own at 19 for nearly a decade, the value has gone down down down down down down.

And my HDTV isnt a 45 minute drive away in February to a place where I can only have one crappy $11 beer because I have to drive back.

Unless you're coming from Orleans, the 400 series busses don't take 45 minutes. Half hour tops coming from downtown.

 

[thinkwild]

It's funny that in Ottawa i hardly ever bus to games, other than school buses from a bar, but i hate doing it. Even with the parking lot woes, i just hang around awhile before attempting the exit.

In Montreal i never drive to games. I hate doing it, the traffic and their drivers. It is way easier, especially in winter just to take the fabulous metro.

 

[Super Cake]

The attendance is low for a couple of reasons:

1. The arena is in the middle of nowhere.
2. The team has been pretty mediocre so far. Literally starting the season the same way they have been for the past two years. After awhile, it starts to get annoying. I mean it is not really entertaining to watch the team win one lose one win two lose one win one lose two. Watching these games have been a emotional roller coaster for me.

 

[Smash88]

Exact reason I cancelled.



I got my season tickets when I was 19 and making minumum wage. I kept them through university and after at my crap paying job. FAR from rich.



Huh? The 400 busses are PACCCCKKKKEEEEDDDD. Standing up for 45 minutes sucks ass.



Ottawa is a car city? Funny....we are 4th in North America for transit usage.



More to do with value. Go to a Redblacks game for half that price and see how much better the gameday experience is. As a kid who grew up with STHs, then get his own at 19 for nearly a decade, the value has gone down down down down down down.

And my HDTV isnt a 45 minute drive away in February to a place where I can only have one crappy $11 beer because I have to drive back.

400 buses are packed? I've seen them leaving half filled for a few seasons now. If they are packed, it's because they cut the number of buses that are there to begin with, not because of increased riders.

Also, I'd need proof that we are 4th in North America. There's no way we are ahead of all of Montreal, Toronto, New York, Vancouver, Boston, Chicago and many more.

Ottawa is basically the definition of a car city. A huge majority of the population do not use public transit.

I can't find it broken down just for Ottawa, but as a whole country, we definitely use our cars way more than public transit.

http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/99-012-x/99-012-x2011003_1-eng.cfm

 

[topshelf15]

They need a big move ,to tell the fans they are in it to win.And it,s not just about the bottom line

 

[topshelf15]

400 buses are packed? I've seen them leaving half filled for a few seasons now. If they are packed, it's because they cut the number of buses that are there to begin with, not because of increased riders.

Also, I'd need proof that we are 4th in North America. There's no way we are ahead of all of Montreal, Toronto, New York, Vancouver, Boston, Chicago and many more.

Ottawa is basically the definition of a car city. A huge majority of the population do not use public transit.

I can't find it broken down just for Ottawa, but as a whole country, we definitely use our cars way more than public transit.

http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/99-012-x/99-012-x2011003_1-eng.cfm

Well would you rather sit in traffic on a bus ,or in your own car ??This has to be part of the issue ,they built the arena before the developed a transit system that is worth riding

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

Also, I'd need proof that we are 4th in North America. There's no way we are ahead of all of Montreal, Toronto, New York, Vancouver, Boston, Chicago and many more.

Got it. We are indeed fourth by metro area (behind New York, Toronto, and Montreal), but looking at city proper, we're #10. Charts can be found by clicking here.

 

[Smash88]

Got it. We are indeed fourth by metro area (behind New York, Toronto, and Montreal), but looking at city proper, we're #10. Charts can be found by clicking here.

That is from 10 years ago. Ridership levels have only been dropping since that time.

Either way, looking at those stats, that just reinforces the notion that North America as a whole is very car-centric.

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

That is from 10 years ago. Ridership levels have only been dropping since that time.

I wanted to use this data from the 2011 census, which tells pretty much the exact same story, but they left out Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Montreal, so I don't know how that affects the rankings.

Either way, looking at those stats, that just reinforces the notion that North America as a whole is very car-centric.

Of course we are. We did a piss-poor job of building our cities in North America.

 

[topshelf15]

I wanted to use this data from the 2011 census, which tells pretty much the exact same story, but they left out Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Montreal, so I don't know how that affects the rankings.



Of course we are. We did a piss-poor job of building our cities in North America.

Yep pretty much ,driven through most of them .The US cities are blessed with a terrific interstate system to support them ,ours not so much .The 401 is a gongshow ,especially in winter

 

[Boud]

According to this study in 2014 Ottawa is 5th among Canadian cities with more than 500,000 in population in public transportation behind Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Winnipeg but they are actually 12h if you include cities with less than 500k population.

http://blog.walkscore.com/2014/03/best-canadian-cities-for-public-transit/

I assume Ottawa will go up these rankings in the next few years with the new rail system being implemented. By the time an arena would be done, the rail service will be finished and running.

 

[dpw]

The new security rules also have an effect. Not being able to go for a smoke will keep a lot of people from going to the game.

 

[topshelf15]

According to this study in 2014 Ottawa is 5th among Canadian cities with more than 500,000 in population in public transportation behind Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Winnipeg.

http://blog.walkscore.com/2014/03/best-canadian-cities-for-public-transit/

I assume Ottawa will go up these rankings in the next few years with the new rail system being implemented. By the time an arena would be done, the rail service will be finished and running.

Montreal ,s Metro is quite good ,but then again their road,s have to be some of the worse in NA .So i can see why more people in MTL would use mass transit .

Paper mache bridges there

 

[MainDotC]

The attendance is low for a couple of reasons:

1. The arena is in the middle of nowhere.
2. The team has been pretty mediocre so far. Literally starting the season the same way they have been for the past two years. After awhile, it starts to get annoying. I mean it is not really entertaining to watch the team win one lose one win two lose one win one lose two. Watching these games have been a emotional roller coaster for me.

I agree, and I'd like to add that if I saw the team lose constantly but they went there and competed hard every night I'd have no problem buying tickets. Right now I see a bunch of guys goofing off, going for a skate, not backchecking, taking shots from the point with no one in front of the net, passes in the skates, skating by someone when they have a legal chance to lay a shoulder on the opposition...basically things that you should not see at the NHL level. Maybe 3 - 4 guys actually working hard (ZJ, Hoffman, Boro, Prince). This team would be a lot more respected if they'd just go out and try.

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

The new security rules also have an effect. Not being able to go for a smoke will keep a lot of people from going to the game.

I have a hard time believing that smokers who can't go 2-3 hours without a smoke are anywhere near the majority. It certainly won't be fun for them, but I doubt it'll affect attendance in any meaningful way.

 

[dpw]

I have a hard time believing that smokers who can't go 2-3 hours without a smoke are anywhere near the majority. It certainly won't be fun for them, but I doubt it'll affect attendance in any meaningful way.

It would be a large number for sure. Not a majority. I know someone with 12 game pack selling all his tickets and not renewing. I spoke with others that said they aren't going because they can't smoke. As stupid as that is, its a fact that a lot of smokers feel the same way.

I don't know if you been out in the smoking area during games in the past but were thousands.

 

[Smash88]

I wanted to use this data from the 2011 census, which tells pretty much the exact same story, but they left out Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Montreal, so I don't know how that affects the rankings.



Of course we are. We did a piss-poor job of building our cities in North America.

Which is why I don't think it will make any difference in terms of attendance because of the light rail. My argument went a little off course with the rankings.

It doesn't matter if light rail goes to the arena, if no one will take it because it's more of a hassle than taking a car.

 

[cage]

I think the years of mediocrity have taken a toll. Since the cup run we've either been out of the playoffs or made them as a 7/8 seed (2010 we were 5th but no one expected us to win that series) and have won one series. And when we failed to make the playoffs we weren't bad enough to get a top pick. Besides EK we don't have the elite talent/coaching that Ottawa fans were used to watching from 1999 - 2007, and I think that has spoiled us a little bit. We need to start building towards actually contending again

 

[ColinM]

36$ got me a fine seat and two slices of pizza

People complaining about ticket prices are either very poor (which blows, I don't mean to offend) or super cheap

Agreed. The Sens aren't the 67s. We shouldn't complain about paying NHL prices for NHL hockey. In fact according to forbes, the Sens have the average cheapest ticket price amongst the 7 NHL teams:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessela...m-in-2014-15-nhl-tickets-on-secondary-market/

If you rely solely on performance on the ice, they definitely should have average higher ticket prices than Calgary or Edmonton.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Of course we are. We did a piss-poor job of building our cities in North America.

Not to wander too far off topic, but how could we have built our cities different?

No criticizing here...genuinely curious. It really does seem the culture and lifestyle pace in Europe and all over is completely different than North America....I genuinely want to know where exactly we went wrong with our cities (because we obviously went wrong somewhere).

 

[Do Make Say Think]

North American cities are, for the most part, extremely spread out and thus represent a huge waste of land

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

Not to wander too far off topic, but how could we have built our cities different?

No criticizing here...genuinely curious. It really does seem the culture and lifestyle pace in Europe and all over is completely different than North America....I genuinely want to know where exactly we went wrong with our cities (because we obviously went wrong somewhere).

Click here and here for my favourite videos on the subject

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Click here and here for my favourite videos on the subject

That's some good stuff.

Basically drop the cookie-cutter, make interesting, multi-functional buildings with variety that are worth being around, and integrate some real & useful greenery, small community-oriented (and walkable) neighborhoods with everything a person needs on a daily basis...and be more localized.

I like it.