OMG67
Registered User
- Sep 1, 2013
- 10,761
- 6,930
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.