Confirmed with Link: All-Purpose Coyotes Arena Talk: Land Auction Date Set - 6/27

[GhostofTommyBolin]

I really hope he does win.


Did you ever ask yourself why there were so few of "those best fans?"

I have. It's because this isn't a hockey market.

 

[Jagged Ice]

Carne Asada Fries > Poutine

 

[The Feckless Puck]

Too few of those best fans in the NHL, it's really quite simple.

Yes, but that's not the fans' fault. That's the franchise's fault.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

Again, chicken or the egg..

How does an organization build a fanbase and goodwill? The fact that this team had ANY fans is a god damn miracle

Well over 4 million folks hereabouts, should be absolutely no problem with attendance for the greatest game on earth, even with a mediocre product.

The fans did sow a seed, but no one watered the seed.

What seed did you sow Jakey? I'm beginning to wonder if you ever attended a single game, the way you continually avoid my questions. And (for the record), I'm only picking on you and those like you, that can afford it.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

I have. It's because this isn't a hockey market.

It's nearly impossible for me to comprehend, given that this is the best game, particularly live, but I believe that is somewhat the case. However, I honestly feel it's not that it isn't a hockey market, it's the refusal to assimilate to the home team.

 

[Puckrobber]

I know it sucks and it's painful right now. At least Coyotes' fans might only have to wait 5 years or so, if everything goes as planned. I'm originally from Washington. Used to work for the Supersonics back in the early 90's. Team was well supported since 1967. Then one day, they got sold to an out-of-towner, who promised to keep them in Seattle. Little more than a year later, they're gone. Seattle, and their fans, are still waiting for a new team.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

Yes, but that's not the fans' fault. That's the franchise's fault.

Then they really aren't fans imo.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

I know it sucks and it's painful right now. At least Coyotes' fans might only have to wait 5 years or so, if everything goes as planned. I'm originally from Washington. Used to work for the Supersonics back in the early 90's. Team was well supported since 1967. Then one day, they got sold to an out-of-towner, who promised to keep them in Seattle. Little more than a year later, they're gone. Seattle, and their fans, are still waiting for a new team.

Our "as planned" depends on a crazed Cuban and a third (fourth if you count AVMC) arena to serve a population of under 5 million. Point being, we need another arena like another hole in Jakey's head and the crazed Cuban isn't building one w/o some form of subsidy.

 

[Dirty Old Man]

So, being the nerdy type that keeps such records, I don't know what else I could have done - in 12 years I attended 217 games, or about 48%, and took at one point or another about 2 dozen different people to games. And when I didn't go I tried to make sure *someone* was in my seats, whether by selling to friends or on the second hand market, vs. eating them.

Now I'm getting envious of the people in Sunrise, because I'm sure there are plenty of folks just like me there, that are now trudging out to the edge of the Everglades for a playoff series.

 

[Edenjung]

We are turning in circles people.
Blaming each other, blaming the fans, blaming emdia (ok that is fair). But in the long term that does not help at all. It does not help our mental health, nor does it help that dipshit AM build an Arena.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

We are turning in circles people.
Blaming each other, blaming the fans, blaming emdia (ok that is fair). But in the long term that does not help at all. It does not help our mental health, nor does it help that dipshit AM build an Arena.

Mental health? Over losing a hockey team?
Man, I hope none of you ever has to face a real challenge/loss, if this constitutes a mental health issue.

 

[Knights2017]

Mental health? Over losing a hockey team?
Man, I hope none of you ever has to face a real challenge/loss, if this constitutes a mental health issue.

I recommend you take a step back from this forum bud.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

It's nearly impossible for me to comprehend, given that this is the best game, particularly live, but I believe that is somewhat the case. However, I honestly feel it's not that it isn't a hockey market, it's the refusal to assimilate to the home team.

I think that this could be a hockey market, if this market was given a team that was run halfway competently, and didn't spend every year at the bottom of the standings. It's pretty hard to build a loyal customer base when your product is essentially rancid shit every year. Of course, there are people that love the taste of Colt 45 malt liquor, so there are always going to be diehards

 

[Jakey53]

I think that this could be a hockey market, if this market was given a team that was run halfway competently, and didn't spend every year at the bottom of the standings. It's pretty hard to build a loyal customer base when your product is essentially rancid shit every year. Of course, there are people that love the taste of Colt 45 malt liquor, so there are always going to be diehards

Hit the nail on the head.

 

[Nowotny]

I personally am really struggling with it. Just the thought of not being able to be excited about the draft/free agency/training camp etc. it’s been such a major part of my life since I was a kid and it’s just…gone. This is the first time in 15 years I just have 0 interest in the playoffs. Not even disinterest, but outright venom towards anything/everything NHL right now. I f***ing unfollowed Craig Morgan of all people because I just couldn’t even bear the thought of them doing a podcast for f***ing Utah fans and that’s their job.

I don’t know how some of us here are so quick and comfortable to just jump to the Utah board. It’s like some over there are acting like nothing even happened, I just can’t. I wish I could.

What was going to make the coyotes finally being successful and winning sweet wasn’t the winning itself, it wasn’t getting good players finally in itself. It was that it happened HERE. Because all these other fans saying we don’t deserve a team we’re going to have to watch it happen in AZ. They win in Utah and there’s none of that. It’s hollow, it’s just another team in the league. I can’t get behind that emotionally. It isn’t AZ. The players never mattered to me, AZ mattered. AZ fans mattered.

Maybe when it gets closer to the season my attitude towards the Utah team will change, but right now I ask myself. How will I feel when I see Conor geekie score his first goal with Utah, how will I feel when doan gets his first hat track? I’ll feel nothing but sadness and anger, which I what I’m feeling now. So I just can’t imagine feeling anything else.

"The players never mattered to me,AZ mattered.AZ fans mattered" I agree 100%. When I want to follow individual athletes I watch tennis or track and field.In hockey all that matter is a team.And we don't have one.I can still enjoy a good game but there is no passion.

 

[Nowotny]

I get that sense of your struggle, and believe me I feel it some as well; just yesterday someone in a sports car with a Utah plate zoomed past me leaving a red light and my first thought was "*sigh* what a great analogy *that* is..." I just wanted to say as the voice of old age and treachery - and with a history of depression in my 20s - it does get better, time wounds all heels and all that.

I have a strange history with the teams I've followed in my life - 3 completely different situations. As a small child in Florida I adopted the LA Rams due to my birthday being in April (Aries. Ram.) when all my little friends were Dolphin fans winning Super Bowls, and didn't switch to Tampa Bay in high school even after they (Bucs) got good. Rams went from LA, to Anaheim, to St Louis, and back to LA and I never really cared (it actually was good for me when they went back to LA because my sister lived next to LAX)

In my mid 20s my city got an NBA team, the Magic, and I was all in. Got cheap season tickets in the upper deck with my buddy, went to nearly every game for 5 years. Then I moved to Arizona. At first I was still really into the Magic, went to sports bars to watch their games when I could, got Directv to get NBA League Pass, even went back home for the 95 Finals, as I didn't know i was staying here permanently and my name was on the ticket account, still. But then Shaq left (and I couldn't say anything, because I'd done the same thing - head west - for the same reason - mo money), the team's window closed, and I sort of drifted toward my new city's new NHL team in a sport I'd never played and didn't know that much about.

But the lesson from that is - yeah, this sucks, but you'll find something else. Or maybe they'll return in some form. Who knows? Feel the feelings, but while you're here try to remember what other things are good about Arizona.

There is a lot to like about Arizona.Just compare it to Montreal.
We have sunshine 300+ days per year,3 major professional franchises,functioning economy,relatively low taxes,lots of polite English speaking Canadians.
Montreal has Canadiens

 

[Coyotedroppings]

I think that this could be a hockey market, if this market was given a team that was run halfway competently, and didn't spend every year at the bottom of the standings. It's pretty hard to build a loyal customer base when your product is essentially rancid shit every year. Of course, there are people that love the taste of Colt 45 malt liquor, so there are always going to be diehards

They were good when they got here. We did suffer after the lockout, but it’s not always going to be sunshine and roses. Instead of hanging in there, this fanbase stayed away. After Gretzky left we made the playoffs and the following year attendance was still poor, that went on for two additional years, including the year after our best season ever. Yeah, there were work stoppages etc., but a true fanbase (diehards) hangs in there. I don’t think that’s too much to ask in a metro this size.

Hit the nail on the head.

So how ‘bout it Jakey? Did you ever even attend one game?

 

[Dead Coyote]

Mental health? Over losing a hockey team?
Man, I hope none of you ever has to face a real challenge/loss, if this constitutes a mental health issue.

People who have invested in something over the last 10 years (or however long it's been) and have invested heavily in that thing will be emotional and processing things, what a shock. Maybe don't preach about things you don't understand- I've probably had a worse life than most people here, doesn't mean our feelings are any less valid about this loss. It's a f***ing loss. Like any other, people will deal with it differently. It's not your place or right to judge that.

 

[Cameron Poe Dameron]

I think that this could be a hockey market, if this market was given a team that was run halfway competently, and didn't spend every year at the bottom of the standings. It's pretty hard to build a loyal customer base when your product is essentially rancid shit every year. Of course, there are people that love the taste of Colt 45 malt liquor, so there are always going to be diehards

Factor in also how many years did the team have free of relocation rumors or often legit threats? I feel like this teams been "moving" the last 20 years. Hard to get new or even current fans to follow a lame duck team.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

People who have invested in something over the last 10 years (or however long it's been) and have invested heavily in that thing will be emotional and processing things, what a shock. Maybe don't preach about things you don't understand- I've probably had a worse life than most people here, doesn't mean our feelings are any less valid about this loss. It's a f***ing loss. Like any other, people will deal with it differently. It's not your place or right to judge that.

I’m not judging anyone, I’m putting a warning out there, because most will experience far worse than this.
I supported this team for 18 years as a sth, missing maybe a dozen games. This game, this team was what my son and I did for nearly two decades together, that same son died at 24.
Please note that I also warned that ownership were asshats. This end result should come as no surprise to anyone.

 

[ParisSaintGermain]

I supported this team for 18 years as a sth, missing maybe a dozen games. This game, this team was what my son and I did for nearly two decades together, that same son died at 24.

Oh Coyotedroppings...

I and we, as a loving collective, I am sure, cannot begin to imagine what you had to go/are going through. That's so rough.

I am so sorry for your loss. Really am.

 

[ParisSaintGermain]

We are turning in circles people.
Blaming each other, blaming the fans, blaming emdia (ok that is fair). But in the long term that does not help at all. It does not help our mental health, nor does it help that dipshit AM build an Arena.

Thank you for sharing this thought; this will read as a total cliché, but mental health is a complicated matter. The most important, yet the trickiest matter.

I thought I was level headed; never attended a Coyotes game, never been to Phoenix.

Never met any one of you personally, regrettably (at least for now!).

So it should be easy for me to be detached, and move on really.

But to my own surprise, I feel so f***ING angry about this.

It is weird.

I dared watch a couple of videos of the team arriving in Utah. "Let's see" I felt like. Open minded and all, hey.

Then I heard BA yelling to a wild crowd that "this team will pay that very crowd back".

WHAT? For what?

That crowd did not even know that an ice hockey puck was not oval 10 days ago

The hell, the pay back.

(I am exaggerating of course, but that's what my mind told me at the time).

It is 2am where I live right now; I have grown used to, from time to time, and when I could, join a dodgy illegal broadcast or virus filled stream to witness yet another too many men on the ice performance from our Coyotes.

Yes that team that many of you paid a lot of money and spent a lot of time to go watch has "left the building". Just like that, disappeared rather brutally in a matter of few days.

It is weird.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

Oh Coyotedroppings...

I and we, as a loving collective, I am sure, cannot begin to imagine what you had to go/are going through. That's so rough.

I am so sorry for your loss. Really am.

I sincerely appreciate that and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, if I had any enemies.
While I understand a persons level to adapt and accept, often parallel's their own experience, they can learn from the experience of others.
In the end, it’s just a hockey team.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

Hey all, please don’t let my recent comments keep you from venting, they say it’s healthy.
But, I do think all need to visit the mirror, should we actually get an arena built / expansion team and ask if you did enough to keep this team here. The answer is personal and maybe you can’t afford, have work, or other commitments and that’s fine, but it’s a big valley and I’m certain many fans could have / can do more, if they want to keep version 2 around anyway.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

Hey all, please don’t let my recent comments keep you from venting, they say it’s healthy.
But, I do think all need to visit the mirror, should we actually get an arena built / expansion team and ask if you did enough to keep this team here. The answer is personal and maybe you can’t afford, have work, or other commitments and that’s fine, but it’s a big valley and I’m certain many fans could have / can do more, if they want to keep version 2 around anyway.

I spent nearly two decades buying lower bowl season tix. Four seats, full season. But I shouldn't have to do that in order for Arizona to "earn" a franchise.

A franchise is a business with a product that needs to earn the business of consumers. It is not a religion that demands a purity test of its adherents and withholds its promises based on their worthiness.

You're right, it's just a hockey team. The entire burden of proof is on them, not the people whose money they want. Period.