LOL
are you on crack?
JJ has been one of the worst dmen in the league. Tanev is far the superior Dman.
It's satire. Benning signed Sbisa to a ridiculous contract so he must covet all bad dmen.
Last edited:
LOL
are you on crack?
JJ has been one of the worst dmen in the league. Tanev is far the superior Dman.
I just don't agree with this assessment. It's the same thing I heard in Toronto when in fact the fans were calling the fan 590 day after day, year after year begging for a tear down for the better part of a decade. The team was tone deaf and scared.
Here's what can happen:
Fickle corporate buyers and wealthy fans will be replaced by the hard core hockey fan at the stadium. Seasons tickets will be downgraded for game packs. Kids get introduced to the game....and not just the over privileged types. It can't be dismissed as a minor marketing problem but I totally disagree that you will see an empty building. And besides we are there already. They could not sell playoff tickets in a 100 point season because the fans are way, way smarter than given credit for.
Some more Bartkowski Prust and Dorsett acquisitions will do a hell of a lot more damage than a handful of 19 and 20 year olds can do good. They need to stop trying to paper over the cracks and instead proudly display the patina. A rebuild is what you make of it. My 5 year old and 3 year old are going to get introduced to the NHL in a big way the next three years.....assuming they let it happen.
I sure as hell won't pay to see Lucic et al. I'm too smart for that.
You're to smart to pay to watch one of the best power forwards in the game in Lucic? that's smart alright.I just don't agree with this assessment. It's the same thing I heard in Toronto when in fact the fans were calling the fan 590 day after day, year after year begging for a tear down for the better part of a decade. The team was tone deaf and scared.
Here's what can happen:
Fickle corporate buyers and wealthy fans will be replaced by the hard core hockey fan at the stadium. Seasons tickets will be downgraded for game packs. Kids get introduced to the game....and not just the over privileged types. It can't be dismissed as a minor marketing problem but I totally disagree that you will see an empty building. And besides we are there already. They could not sell playoff tickets in a 100 point season because the fans are way, way smarter than given credit for.
Some more Bartkowski Prust and Dorsett acquisitions will do a hell of a lot more damage than a handful of 19 and 20 year olds can do good. They need to stop trying to paper over the cracks and instead proudly display the patina. A rebuild is what you make of it. My 5 year old and 3 year old are going to get introduced to the NHL in a big way the next three years.....assuming they let it happen.
I sure as hell won't pay to see Lucic et al. I'm too smart for that.
I should have specified the average fan at a Canuck game. I don't think that demographic represents the average Canuck fan.
Would you go to a restaurant and pay five star prices from a promising young chef serving two star meals that the owner assured you would be much better in a few years?
1.) This assumes that the restaurant couldn't just lower their prices or provide a better experience in other metrics (ambience, etc.) to help compensate.
2.) I'd do what you suggested 100 times before I'd pay 5 star prices for 1 star food prepared by a dumbass chef with no inclination to learn to make better food who kept telling me I just didn't understand why his slop was good.
I think management could sell the fanbase on a relatively short rebuild of two or three years.
The problem right now is that this is not what they're trying to sell. They're trying to sell a re-tool on the fly and Vancouver fans are smart enough to not buy that.
Sports is entertainment and you need to market your product properly.
Market the hell out of the young players and market the team as a rebuilding team
A top three pick in the upcoming draft would do wonders for getting a player who could really be sold to the fans. Add that prospect to Horvat, Virtanen and Hutton who are all highly marketable players and you could have a great ad campaign ready to go for the summer.
The Cactus Club model. If the girls are pretty enough nobody will notice how bad the food is. Maybe we'll get cheerleaders at the game soon?
Yeah, I'm not defending Benning and I have no problem with a rebuild myself but I'm not spending my money on going to games either way. The only tickets I bought during the Gillis era were to watch Sundin play once and game 7 of the Stanley cup final. I hate the crowd at Canuck games.
Vancouver doesn't have 20k or even 18k dedicated fan base with enough disposal income to go to home games in any professional sport. If you ever listen to sports talk radio you will hear many self-claimed season ticket holders threatening or thinking of cancelling their season tickets if the team doesn't do this or that
The problem with marketing your young players is, there really isn't anything to market. I consider fans who post on an online forum, serious fans. They see the potential in the Boesers, Virtanens, McCanns and Horvats. But to the casual fan in Vancouver who didn't follow the NCAA. Who's Boeser? Who's Demko? Are these guys on the same level as McDavid? Hall? Are they the next Ovechkin? Patrick Kane? I can assure you all the 2011 bandwagoners have no idea who our top prospect is, let alone name 5 prospects in Utica.
The problem is this:
Canucks don't have any household names. Horvat is going to be a stud, but he isn't flashy. Yes, he gets the job done, but he doesn't get the job done in Kane-style. Does it matter? No. But for marketing, it matters a lot. The casual fan will look at the stats and realize 18 points for McCann isn't impressive. Then they look at Patrick Kane rookie numbers and realize, that's one heck of a player.
Until the Canucks can get a flashy, Bure/Naslund type player, the fan interest will be down. People will still watch a losing team as long as there's an exciting player. We weren't a powerhouse in 1994, but Bure made the ticket of admission worth it.
Right, but I think the overall point I was making in this thread is that there's a difference between a team flubbing its way to being terrible and a team that actually plans to rebuild and states that goal/the objectives in a clear way. Everyone always says the Canucks fans won't support a rebuild, but the team hasn't had a rebuild that wasn't an embarrassing disaster since 1988.
The late 90's rebuild was heralded in by a complete garbage fire.
Canucks fans even got excited for a rebuild of sorts in 1996 that was led by future HOFers like Harold Druken.
It's a broken analogy-- It's more like would you continue to root for your country in the Olympics even if they sucked. Nobody watches the Canucks for the pupose of supporting the business, even when they're doing well.
I'm sure this board alone has 10,000 STH if you read long enough. I have a good friend who refers to himself as a STH because he shares an 11 game? pack with a friend.
I don't think the average person at a Canuck game would know the difference between a good rebuild and a poor retool. They don't even know when to cheer at the game.
1 hat on the ice for a future hall of Famers hat trick says it all.
People think the actual fans go to more than a handful of games at most per year? That's pretty sad judging by
1. how quiet the arena is
And
2. How lousy fan participation is
We must have some quiet die hard fans that really want to hold on to their prized hats!
They don't get on the refs, they don't cheer for hits, they don't cheer when the team ices the puck on the PK. They have no idea what they're watching. It's ****ing disgraceful.
It's satire. Benning signed Sbisa to a ridiculous contract so he must covet all bad dmen.
I'm trying to think of a polite way to put this, but... let's assume all of this consternation over the fan base is true. How little respect do you have for yourself as a fan to take the following rationalization and not only accept it but defend management on its basis: "all the fans at the games are idiots who have no idea what's happening and ownership is beholden to wringing every bit of blood from that stone with no responsibility for long-term planning."
It's basically indefensible. It's either wrong or it's so deeply cynical that I don't know why anyone would even hold out an ounce of hope for that organization. It feels like anyone that believes that is actually probably more negative about the team than those of us who deeply dislike this management group
I'm trying to think of a polite way to put this, but... let's assume all of this consternation over the fan base is true. How little respect do you have for yourself as a fan to take the following rationalization and not only accept it but defend management on its basis: "all the fans at the games are idiots who have no idea what's happening and ownership is beholden to wringing every bit of blood from that stone with no responsibility for long-term planning."
It's basically indefensible. It's either wrong or it's so deeply cynical that I don't know why anyone would even hold out an ounce of hope for that organization. It feels like anyone that believes that is actually probably more negative about the team than those of us who deeply dislike this management group