Article: Hockey's Back, but the Isles' Fans Aren't

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

Chicago Cubs fans have the same problem. They attend games win or lose; the team always makes a profit and does nothing to improve the team or win a championship.

If this was a southern team people would be blasting them, instead of saying they are smart enough to stay away.

The cubs payroll is pushing 90 million... they try to win, they simply can't.

 

[JR#9*]

Wang was on WFAN after the recent changes and basically said they missed out on quarterly advertising so they will likely lose about as much as they did before the lockout but hope to recover that in the next quarter. If the payroll is slashed it will be more for rebuilding to spend the money later.

It seems Wang also just leveled the landscape by announcing Milbury's resignation effective end of season, his absence will increase ticket sales.

Disappointing the Times dropped it's Islander beatwriter after thirty years but is still interested in cameo's to kick the team when it's struggling. Even the organization itself on it's website knocked the Times earlier this season for their sportsillustrated coverage of hockey. This article dealt with a lot of old peripheral items but Mr Caldwell stopped covering hockey on a regular basis a few years ago, he used to do the Islanders beat as recently as 2002-03, he did not seem up to date with some of this information.

Islanders have four basic problems that keep attendance down that also ties into Milbury and the team struggling on the ice:
1. Walk up prices are far too expensive for games, everything is geared toward those with plans or season tickets in terms of discounts.
2. Msg pays the Islanders 17m a year for televison rights and for that they make sure this team get's no television exposure beyond the game itself, they are off the air five minutes after games with no coaches press conference and no special programming.
3. Baseball media market, limited print media for all three local hockey teams.

http://www.teammarketing.com/fci.cfm

Islanders walk up ticket prices are very expensive and even though their avg prices have dropped here (they were in top five in 03-04 in this report) not that many folks are going to purchase season tickets or invest in plans that give them discounts. To This is what's held down the attendance along with Msg making no effort to promote them, even though they own the television rights.

http://www.teammarketing.com/fci.cfm

Does it always boil down to the big bad Rangers at fault for everything with you?

The Isles aren't some brand new exapnsion team, they've been around for quite awhile and I think it's safe to say that the NYR ownership really isn't overly concerned about losing ground in their fanbase to the Islander so the whole conspiricy to hold the Islanders down is just laughable.

Everybody knows hockey is the 4th sport in NYC and the Isles are the 3rd of the 3 area teams even in that sport so it's not a lack of coaches postgame interviews or an extra commercial or two that hurt the Isles.

The Isles are struggling to draw because after having been dreadful for a decade they put together a decent club that made the PO's 3 straight year of one and done's and now that it is basicly the same group of players who have shown little improvement from this pattern people just are down on the team and aren't spending their money as a result.

On top of that it is absolutely the worst arena I've ever been to in my life.Fun to watch a game when in your seat but other than that is is just a dump with no luxury boxes, too few bathrooms as well as beer lines 40 deep....all that being said I'm heading out there tonight for the game and it's always a great enviorment with it being something like 60-40% Isles/NYR's fans so there's a ton of heckling.

 

[ish]

I'm a Ranger fan and I'd love to bash the Isles for their low attendance, but their ticket prices are WAY too expensive. Especially for a crappy arena. I'm not paying $120 for a seat in the low 200's to see the Bruins on a weeknight if I'm an Isles fan. That said their season tickets offer a huge discount on single game seats (much more so than the Rangers plans do) and the arena is small so every seat except the top three or four rows offer a great view.

 

[Blueshirt Yankee]

Even though I grew on the Jersey side, I went to Nassau Coliseum a couple of times and it was the worst arena I had been to. It is even worse than CAA. I saw a concert there and the acoustics were awful. And my seats for a Blueshirts-Icelanders were painful! They should just tear down that building!

 

[NYIsles1*]

Does it always boil down to the big bad Rangers at fault for everything with you?

No it does not. Actually that was the second of three reasons I posted, but it is tough to notice a product when it's getting no television exposure to grow it's fanbase which was my point.

Of course Msg owns the Sabres tv rights and their television rating with the same weak coverage is ten times that of Ranger hockey on Msg (5.0) in the Buffalo area so the Isles have to also do a better job for themselves. Even the Predators television rating is three times larger than that of the Rangers.

Less people are watching the Rangers now as opposed to 03-04 down to 0.54 on Msg. (0.75 in 03-04) I almost feel sorry for the Rangers because this season has proven a winning Ranger team is just as invisible in NYC as a losing Ranger team and that's a very bad sign for hockey in baseball's largest market that is about to pick up the pace with spring training and the World Baseball tournament while NHL hockey goes on break.

Bob Raissman of the Daily News said it best:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/373217p-317295c.html

Hot stove has Giants in cold

And for anyone delusional enough remind us not to forget the NHL's Atlantic Division-leading New York Rangers, well, let's just say this: Over the past couple of weeks, the Texas Rangers - and the ultimate destination of Alfonso Soriano - have been getting more ink, and air time, locally than Cablevision's entry in Gary Bettman's version of Holiday On Ice.

See, in terms of media, hockey's Rangers are traditionally fringe players, a non-factor when it comes to readership and TV/radio ratings. The Giants are at the other end of the spectrum.
****************************************
Tickets at Msg like the Coliseum are always available for opposing teams fans and the pockets of empty/unsold seats at the garden reflect not much has changed, win or lose and as I pointed out a lot of it has to do with the prices. The media coverage has been just as poor (if not worse) for the Rangers now when they were losing even in a quiet baseball winter.

As for you attending we could use a sellout at the Coliseum so thank you for you showing up. I do the same to help the Garden. Consideing the stong fan support and Islander fans for games at the Garden and Meadowlands/CAA the heckling you refer to it works both ways with the Isles helping the Devils sellout the CAA recently, the first Islander-Ranger game at Msg, even Newsday's reporter noted the bypartasian crowds in both buildings for the home and home.

Why do you think the Flyers, Devils and Isles are coming to Msg four times to help a team that reportedly lost 40.9 million and now has a sponsored pp and promotions for individual tickets being available for home games? Only the Flyers (who unlike the Dolan's) always can post legitimate sellouts.

 

[Pizza]

No surprises here. Band-wagoners.

 

[Islanders4Life*]

The Islanders are in a horrible situation, there is Zero Public Transportation to get to the Coliseum, Islanders Box Office ticket prices are the second highest inthe league (the maple leafs have the highest and there tickets are impossible to get)
and the Nassau Coliseum is by far the worst arena in pro sports(Gary Bettman who is usually known for being Mr. happy everything is perfect in the NHL recently said that if Long Island didnt have a NHL team and was being considered, he would not have a team play there games at the Coliseum

With all that being said, it is very embaressing when I go to games and the place looks half full(like it did back in the mid-late 90s)

and to all you Ranger fans who say we have no fans , lets see the Rangers play in an arena that is located out of the heart of a 10 mile radius where 9 million people live and another 20 million people live within an hour train/ subway ride away and lets forget about the Corporations who account for about 50% of all Ranger season tickets.... the Devils and Islanders (who constantly take abuse from these annoying proud ****** bag ranger fans) have to rely on FANS going to games not tourists and corporations and anyone else who can just hop on a subway and get to the arena, to get to the Coliseum or the Meadowlands you hvae to get in your car and Drive regardless of weather or how poorly your team is playiing and there is a very small percentage of season tickets going to corporations looking to impress clients

The Knicks and Rangers are in a unique diserable situation and there fans have no right to look down on any local sports teams who dont get the attendance figures they do..

But like I said regardless of how poor the arena or the high ticket prices the attendance is definetly an area for concern.....

I think NY fans in general are bandwagon fans, when the Yankees are bad there attendance is horrible, the same with the Mets, when the Giants and the Jets stink, fans just dont go to games(and as I mentioned above the Knicks and Rangers are in a unique situation and given there arena location and the small capacity of the arena they will probably never have to see poor attendance regardless of there performance)

Sadly given the high cost of going to a game nowadays the lack of corporate dollars and the location of the Coliseum, I dont think there is really a bright future for the Islanders even if they get a new arena

 

[Kimota]

NHL should really get out of Long Island and New Jersey once and for all.