Next Season (COVID-19 Discussion Thread as it relates to the OHL) [Part 3]

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OMG67

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Sep 1, 2013
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And when the team moved they fell to last in the division for two straight years.. just as a CFL team was coming into the city ... poor product combined with new competition is what led to the attendance drop

I disagree. We are talking a fanbase that went from 6000+ to struggling to get 2000 in a new and renovated Lansdowne Park. The crossover from Football to Hockey in Ottawa isn’t a reason either. Their fan bases are very much different. The RedBlacks fanbase resembles more the NHL fan or Sens fan rather than the Junior hockey fan. On top of that, CFL has only 9 home games.

Where the CFL comes into play is the focus of OSEG on promoting CFL over OHL. That played a part but you would think the attendance wouldn’t have dropped less than what they were getting in Kanata which is what happened.

The reality is, if the OHL chooses to save money by not playing, be prepared for a long period of sagging attendance. Out of sight, out of mind. Pretty much a guarantee is the medium to large population markets. I wouldn’t imagine Owen Sound having any issues, they are the only show in town. But, I could see teams like London struggle to fill their rink. Teams like Oshawa, Kingston, Windsor, Hamilton, Ottawa, Kitchener, Guelph, Barrie etc will al struggle to regain their fanbase with a season off.
 
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OMG67

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OHLInsiders tweeting that from what he hears, the majority of owners don’t want to play without fans. The feeling clearly is without fans it will be hard to financially make it work.

From where I stand, this is the much bigger issue than the Covid Spread issue. It will come down to sacrifices and whether the financial sacrifices make sense to protect their asset.
 

windsor7

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Nov 29, 2015
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I disagree. We are talking a fanbase that went from 6000+ to struggling to get 2000 in a new and renovated Lansdowne Park. The crossover from Football to Hockey in Ottawa isn’t a reason either. Their fan bases are very much different. The RedBlacks fanbase resembles more the NHL fan or Sens fan rather than the Junior hockey fan. On top of that, CFL has only 9 home games.

Where the CFL comes into play is the focus of OSEG on promoting CFL over OHL. That played a part but you would think the attendance wouldn’t have dropped less than what they were getting in Kanata which is what happened.

The reality is, if the OHL chooses to save money by not playing, be prepared for a long period of sagging attendance. Out of sight, out of mind. Pretty much a guarantee is the medium to large population markets. I wouldn’t imagine Owen Sound having any issues, they are the only show in town. But, I could see teams like London struggle to fill their rink. Teams like Oshawa, Kingston, Windsor, Hamilton, Ottawa, Kitchener, Guelph, Barrie etc will al struggle to regain their fanbase with a season off.

I dont see London or Kitchener hsving issues with fans coming back
 

windsor7

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Nov 29, 2015
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OHLInsiders tweeting that from what he hears, the majority of owners don’t want to play without fans. The feeling clearly is without fans it will be hard to financially make it work.

From where I stand, this is the much bigger issue than the Covid Spread issue. It will come down to sacrifices and whether the financial sacrifices make sense to protect their asset.

Simple no season.
 
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OHLTG

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Nov 18, 2008
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If the OHL was the only thing that was shut down, I can see the "out of sight, out of mind" idea happening. In that situation, people would have found other ways to occupy their money/time. However, COVID has shut so much down that the OHL is similar to the movies, concerts, other shows, etc. Once the OHL returns, whether it's in Feb or Sept, and it's safe to bring fans back, they'll be back.
 

windsor7

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Nov 29, 2015
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If the OHL was the only thing that was shut down, I can see the "out of sight, out of mind" idea happening. In that situation, people would have found other ways to occupy their money/time. However, COVID has shut so much down that the OHL is similar to the movies, concerts, other shows, etc. Once the OHL returns, whether it's in Feb or Sept, and it's safe to bring fans back, they'll be back.

Branch better hope so.....
 

OMG67

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Sep 1, 2013
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If the OHL was the only thing that was shut down, I can see the "out of sight, out of mind" idea happening. In that situation, people would have found other ways to occupy their money/time. However, COVID has shut so much down that the OHL is similar to the movies, concerts, other shows, etc. Once the OHL returns, whether it's in Feb or Sept, and it's safe to bring fans back, they'll be back.

Yeah, very possible. I imagine it will be different in every town. All I can say is what happened in Ottawa as a result of a temporary move. Most EVERYONE thought attendance would be huge because of the opening of the new development but it was pretty much trash. It was worse the first year back at Lansdowne than it was the 2nd year in Kanata. Very odd.

All I can do is point to this as an example of out of sight, out of mind. Their fanbase didn’t travel out to Kanata in any significant numbers so the West Ottawa/Kanata population supported the 67’s when they were out there. Then when they came back, the West Ottawa/Kanata based population didn’t follow them and their original fanbase which tends to be more East/Central just stopped going for two years and most didn’t come back when the team came back. They resorted to giving free season tickets to Minor Hockey players to help boost attendance thinking that would spurn parent to come more. It worked to a certain degree but didn’t translate to revenue. They stopped that last year though.

I don’t know for sure but I think the average attendance in 2011-12 the last year they were at the Civic centre prior to the move is better than any year since they came back. Heck, they even redesigned the way they do the seating and chopped a tremendous amount of seats from being sold. I believe capacity was around 9500 when they left AND when they came back but now it is around 6000.
 
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RayzorIsDull

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Nov 16, 2007
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OHLInsiders tweeting that from what he hears, the majority of owners don’t want to play without fans. The feeling clearly is without fans it will be hard to financially make it work.

From where I stand, this is the much bigger issue than the Covid Spread issue. It will come down to sacrifices and whether the financial sacrifices make sense to protect their asset.

I'm not surprised to see that type of news but professional sports teams are willing to sacrifice hundreds of millions and these owners aren't willing to take any type of loss?? I am sure that will be great for business when the OHL ever came back...
 

AttackSound

Junior Hockey Fan Since Birth
Aug 25, 2016
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Owen Sound, Ontario
OHLInsiders tweeting that from what he hears, the majority of owners don’t want to play without fans. The feeling clearly is without fans it will be hard to financially make it work.

From where I stand, this is the much bigger issue than the Covid Spread issue. It will come down to sacrifices and whether the financial sacrifices make sense to protect their asset.

That is simply one area that will definitely be on the pile of issues teams will face. I can't speak for every team but in Owen Sound fan support is what is key to their success. Now that being said from what I have heard there is fans who are still undecided to renew STH renewals without guaranteed season which is and would be a tough sell to any team these days but for those fans who did renew their tickets are those who are the diehards of the OHL in the area. Even if buildings could be at half capacity would be a struggle for the league there are far larger facilities that were having a tough time before the pandemic hit with sales of seats.

Hamilton is a clear example of that, they have FOC which is bigger than the average size building capacity and they're getting numbers that and are significantly smaller that what they could.

Could they play with fans absolutely they could but the unfortunate things is there are very few buildings that could pull that off in this league.

If/when the OHL finally gets going don't be surprised to see STH only for at least the first little while under they find a safe middle ground, unfortunately there's zero exact timeline for that past the February start date. And if that is the case it will be a rough year until things get going more smoothly and normal than they are now.
 
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