Senators removing about 1500 seat from the Canadian Tire Centre

[Killion]

... having a downtown area would be a logical move if they can swing by the red tape of federal workers attending.

That would certainly be a game-changer, ya. Relax on the governmental restrictions somewhat.....
I wonder how they deal with it in DC, Washington. Be worth looking into, checking out...........................

 

[The Winter Soldier]

That would certainly be a game-changer, ya. Relax on the governmental restrictions somewhat.....
I wonder how they deal with it in DC, Washington. Be worth looking into, checking out...........................

Absolutely relax the Government restrictions and this could be a NHL gem destination. An arena near the Byward Market and the Parliament buildings would make Ottawa a desirable place to visit on the weekend for a game. I would be there.

 

[Montrealer]

That would certainly be a game-changer, ya. Relax on the governmental restrictions somewhat.....
I wonder how they deal with it in DC, Washington. Be worth looking into, checking out...........................

The rules IIRC are pretty strict for federal employees in DC as well for accepting gifts. I take a mandatory refresher every year because my company does work with governments in both US and Canada and the restrictions are very similar.

 

[ottawah]

Fact of the matter is that going to Kanata from ANYWHERE east (the entire city) sucks so bad. The fanbase is tired of this ****show circus that commuting there entails. Until you live in Ottawa and have sat in gridlock trying to get in or out, or pissed your pants on a bus because your bladder is full of beer and the bus takes 2 hours to get anywhere, you shouldn't comment. Team would sell out every game at Lebreton.

Last year opening night it was 35 minutes form downtown core to butt in seat. Its not that bad.

And yes they will sell out downtown at these prices. If they raise then 25% I think it will be much the same as they see now. Remember they could not sell out a downtown location in year 2, a honey moon period. Their attendance then was notably worse than even Pheonix in their worst years.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Bunch of people that don't live in Ottawa lecturing Ottawa residents about what it's like to commute to our desolate arena in this thread. It's good.

It's been mostly people from Ottawa disputing that it's a bad commute.

 

[Masked]

Fact of the matter is that going to Kanata from ANYWHERE east (the entire city) sucks so bad. The fanbase is tired of this ****show circus that commuting there entails. Until you live in Ottawa and have sat in gridlock trying to get in or out, or pissed your pants on a bus because your bladder is full of beer and the bus takes 2 hours to get anywhere, you shouldn't comment. Team would sell out every game at Lebreton.

There's this highway, it's called The Queensway, you should try it some time. Even has lanes exclusively for cars with multiple people in them. It's great.

 

[ottawah]

OK, google has the times. 7:30 start, lets say you leave from the far east end (place D-Orleans), leave at 6:28 its a 26-35 minute drive. The bus, the 405, is 45 minutes.

https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Plac....926823!2d45.2969151!2m3!6e1!7e2!8j1507230180

Parliment hill is 20 - 28 minutes.


I did opening night last year, left downtown core at 6:30, 35 minutes to drive, park and get in the rink through security. I get its a pain for a number of people, but its hardly insurmountable.

 

[ottawah]

That would certainly be a game-changer, ya. Relax on the governmental restrictions somewhat.....
I wonder how they deal with it in DC, Washington. Be worth looking into, checking out...........................

Washington is a different beast though. Population of the Washington metro area is 6.2M people vs Ottawa/Gatineau 1.4M. Washington has 173,000 civil servants, Ottawa 144,000. So despite being 1/4 the size, we have almost the same number of civil servants.


Washington does not need the civil servants to go to succeed. Ottawa does. That is why I always say Ottawa cannot be compared to any other market. 1/10 people in the whole region work for one company. for the NHL, Washington is probably next with 1 out of 40. You cannot evaluate the hockey market in Ottawa without taking into account the federal government, and the pay and restrictions ion accepting tickets shows it is not an easy sell.

 

[Oilers Propagandist]

The arena is 20 minutes by car or 1 hour by train away from Ottawa. That's the problem!

Rogers place is a 20 minute drive from my house. An an hour by train too. No excuses man.

 

[Killion]

Washington is a different beast though. Population of the Washington metro area is 6.2M people vs Ottawa/Gatineau 1.4M. Washington has 173,000 civil servants, Ottawa 144,000. So despite being 1/4 the size, we have almost the same number of civil servants.

Washington does not need the civil servants to go to succeed. Ottawa does. That is why I always say Ottawa cannot be compared to any other market. 1/10 people in the whole region work for one company. for the NHL, Washington is probably next with 1 out of 40. You cannot evaluate the hockey market in Ottawa without taking into account the federal government, and the pay and restrictions ion accepting tickets shows it is not an easy sell.

Thanks for those numbers. And yes, I was aware of the huge disparity in population but surprised that the civil servant numbers are that close, though in the US, Federal offices all over the country employing a lot more of course as is the case in Canada though overall, a lot more in the States. I also understand its kind of a tricky situation, allowing Federal Departments to buy ST's, lease suites & so on, but surely there's a way to do it given how Provincially & Municipally activities of a similar nature are done from time~time. Personally I wouldnt have a problem with it as agencies like the Business & Development Corporation & so on could use suites, blocks of tickets & so on to schmooze out foreign dignitaries & trade representatives, companies etc; perks, rewards for employee's & so on..... Regardless, may be a moot point altogether as with a much more convenient location downtown problems partially solved anyway.

 

[Fenway]

CTV Ottawa on Sens attendance

http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1226191

 

[Rustiphicles]

Last year opening night it was 35 minutes form downtown core to butt in seat. Its not that bad.

And yes they will sell out downtown at these prices. If they raise then 25% I think it will be much the same as they see now. Remember they could not sell out a downtown location in year 2, a honey moon period. Their attendance then was notably worse than even Pheonix in their worst years.

don't know how you managed to get to the arena in 35 mins... I left st laurent around 530 and only got to carling around 615. 45 minutes on the queensway for opening night and i wasn't even going to kanata.

 

[FuriousSenator]

Official attendance for the home opener was 17,009 per the Sens' website.

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20172018/GS020008.HTM

So this wasn't a sellout correct?

 

[tmg]

Official attendance for the home opener was 17,009 per the Sens' website.

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20172018/GS020008.HTM

So this wasn't a sellout correct?

Current stated capacity is 17,000. So that makes it technically qualify as a sellout.

edit: Hm, I see some resources say 17,000 even and some say 17,373.

 

[Mightygoose]

So this is not too much less than what they drew for last year's home opener and that was vs. the Leafs. Looking at ticketmaster for the next Leafs, visit. It's already sold out. Need to remove the resale filter.

So if they didn't reduce capacity this season, they would have would have very likely sold more physical tickets than last night. Let's see what happens tomorrow and their next mid week gauge to compare it better to last year.

 

[WadeRedden]

Fact of the matter is that going to Kanata from ANYWHERE east (the entire city) sucks so bad. The fanbase is tired of this ****show circus that commuting there entails. Until you live in Ottawa and have sat in gridlock trying to get in or out, or pissed your pants on a bus because your bladder is full of beer and the bus takes 2 hours to get anywhere, you shouldn't comment. Team would sell out every game at Lebreton.

Dude, you still piss your pants on the reg? How embarrassing.

 

[WadeRedden]

None as big as Spezza and Alifie. Yashin, Hossa, Heatley all pale in comparison.

I don't understand why this is such a big deal. Athletes come and go in every sport. That's the nature of the biz. Alfie had been contemplating retirement for several years before he bolted for Detroit and Spezza was never really embraced the way he should have been by the fanbase (massively under appreciated imo) so his departure wasn't all that traumatic (the return on the trade was, though).

Anyway, we can talk about commutes and uniforms and concessions till we're blue in the face. All of it is valid and part of the problem. The one issue that never seems to recognized is how difficult it is to grow a fanbase when the team is sandwiched in between two iconic, original six Canadian franchises. The Sens have iced exciting and competitive teams since I was a kid. They've made the playoffs 16 out of the last 20 seasons. They currently are captained by arguably the 3rd best player in all of hockey who performs spectacularly every night. Kids growing up in the area have every reason to latch on to this team but many have grown up Leafs or Habs fans because of the influence of their parents or grandparents. It's a family thing that connects older generations of people to younger generations, and it's really hard to subvert. I mean, prior to last year the Leafs had been an abomination for nearly a decade and yet you could still find little kids all over Ottawa decked out in Leafs gear. Why do you think that is? It's cause they watch Leafs games with their moms and dads from an early age.

 

[Fandlauer]

The tarps are interesting.

The sections that are now tarped off are the family sections that were almost always sold out. This now forces fans to pay for the more expensive seats along the sides that always had the big empty spots. We'll see how this plays out. I can just see this pissing more people off.

 

[Bjorn Le]

I don't understand why this is such a big deal. Athletes come and go in every sport. That's the nature of the biz. Alfie had been contemplating retirement for several years before he bolted for Detroit and Spezza was never really embraced the way he should have been by the fanbase (massively under appreciated imo) so his departure wasn't all that traumatic (the return on the trade was, though).

But it is a big deal. The list is endless of teams who suffered decreased fan attention after their marquee stars were gone. It took the Jays almost 15 years to recover after losing their World Series stars, despite gaining superstar talent in those 15 years (Delgado, Clemens and Halladay). For casual fans, when the people you've grown up around/had the most success with your team are gone, your connection isn't as strong. Karlsson is a better player than Alfredsson, but it'll take time for people to associate their fandom with another player.

 

[Golden_Jet]

The tarps are interesting.

The sections that are now tarped off are the family sections that were almost always sold out. This now forces fans to pay for the more expensive seats along the sides that always had the big empty spots. We'll see how this plays out. I can just see this pissing more people off.

Actually that’s totally false, those cheapest seats were the ones not sold, listen to Tom Anselmi interview where he specifically states that,

 

[WadeRedden]

But it is a big deal. The list is endless of teams who suffered decreased fan attention after their marquee stars were gone. It took the Jays almost 15 years to recover after losing their World Series stars, despite gaining superstar talent in those 15 years (Delgado, Clemens and Halladay). For casual fans, when the people you've grown up around/had the most success with your team are gone, your connection isn't as strong. Karlsson is a better player than Alfredsson, but it'll take time for people to associate their fandom with another player.

But marquee stars come and go in every sport--it's a young person's game. Everyone knows that athletes have short careers. You're lucky if your favourite team's star player plays for more than a decade. All you can hope for is that your team drafts well enough to replace your fav players once they're too old to perform. Ottawa replaced their legendary captain with a future legend who will be the the backbone of the team for another decade. The Sens managed that transition pretty well and haven't completely lost their way the way other franchises who've lost star players have in the past. They even brought Alfie back in to the organization for a few years to heal wounds and satisfy the 'old guard.'

I'm also not really sure how comparable the Jays example is. Yeah, they had some great talent at times but didn't they miss the playoffs for like 21 straight seasons after their last World Series win? That hasn't been the case with Ottawa.

 

[WadeRedden]

The tarps are interesting.

The sections that are now tarped off are the family sections that were almost always sold out. This now forces fans to pay for the more expensive seats along the sides that always had the big empty spots. We'll see how this plays out. I can just see this pissing more people off.

Yeah, just to echo what another poster said, this is false.

 

[Fandlauer]

Actually that’s totally false, those cheapest seats were the ones not sold, listen to Tom Anselmi interview where he specifically states that,

I don't buy that. As a previous season ticket holder in the Coca-Cola section, my section was always jammed. All the more expensive ones on the sides were half empty. Why would people pay 50 bucks a ticket for the nosebleeds when they could pay 30.

 

[Bjorn Le]

But marquee stars come and go in every sport--it's a young person's game. Everyone knows that athletes have short careers. You're lucky if your favourite team's star player plays for more than a decade. All you can hope for is that your team drafts well enough to replace your fav players once they're too old to perform. Ottawa replaced their legendary captain with a future legend who will be the the backbone of the team for another decade. The Sens managed that transition pretty well and haven't completely lost their way the way other franchises who've lost star players have in the past. They even brought Alfie back in to the organization for a few years to heal wounds and satisfy the 'old guard.'

I'm also not really sure how comparable the Jays example is. Yeah, they had some great talent at times but didn't they miss the playoffs for like 21 straight seasons after their last World Series win? That hasn't been the case with Ottawa.

Just because they come and go doesn't mean it doesn't have an effect. You're far overestimating the casual fan (i.e. your average fan) and the amount of attention they pay to their team.

Baseballs different because much fewer teams make the playoffs, but the comparison is that after one generation of players left, the team couldn't sustain the same fan support without being one of the best teams in the league anymore. Ottawa hasn't found the success they had in 2007 since (last year was such an outlier that the city didn't get on board).

 

[Blue And Orange]

It's disappointing to see Ottawa's continual underachievement. I truly hope that the terrible location plays a major role in it.

However, I'm concerned that Ottawa's poor showing may have an impact on Quebec's status as a viable expansion franchise seeing that "they're a Canadian city" excuse won't fly anymore.