Nightsquad
Registered User
- Jan 25, 2014
- 834
- 100
There was an article a couple years ago in the Times Union about the poor attendance that gave the reasoning for the 5:00 pm Saturday game starts. The team felt like it had a positive impact on attendance because more people from locations of an hour + away (especially the Glens Falls area) would come to Devils games if the games ended before 8:00 pm. To me it sounded like they realized there wasn't enough interest in the Devils if the greater Albany, Troy, Schenectady area so they needed to market to a larger area.
That is not accurate whatsoever. The 5pm according to relatives and friends I have from up that way said there was plenty of backlash about the start times, many fans actually stated that is why they didn't go to games anymore, opting instead to attend college games. Its pretty well talked about how Albany fans for years made the less then hour drive north of Albany to attend games in Glens Falls, but is was pretty well known that fans from up north wouldn't make the drive down to Albany. That fan base (Adirondack) had openly discussed about not helping to sustain attendance in Albany, coupled with the 5pm starts that ticked off Albany fans. There was once a time when both Adirondack and Albany fed off of each other nicely. The ECHL Thunder's increase in attendance this season is being driven from fans south who attend weekend games. The Thunder might be drawing more fans had they not agreed to an affiliation with the Devils organization.
My own cousin said the Devils called him for flex tickets sales and he said 5pm starts interfere with many daytime events, and the 5pm starts disrupt dinner time out for his wife and him. He stated the Devils told him the 5pm starts are ideal for developmental purposes, and it helps drive dinner sales inside the arena. He told me the 5pm start times kept him from wanting to go to games down in Albany more so then the fact the team was the Devils (he is a Rangers fan who always had 10 or 20 game flex tickets with the River Rats). He said attendance really went on the decline in 2010 when the Devils returned, and the fact they played 4 games a season down in Atlantic City and one game in Newark the first few years turned him off completely. It really doesn't matter though at this point, the Devils are gone they broke contract further alienating area fans, not sure what that guy on television was talking about though, I don't know why he would throw that statement out there. The Devils weren't invested in Albany, it was obvious by how they operated. You cannot just throw a team on the ice and say here you guys go. A solid professional minor league team requires investment from the fans as much as it does from the organization, the Devils weren't vested in Albany.