NorthCoast
Registered User
- May 1, 2017
- 1,250
- 1,167
It's about marketing or lack there of.
The marketing group of this team should be taking light jabs at their rivals though I believe it is not allowed.
I have said this before, when the team was in the playoffs for so many years out of the last 15 years, it is a successful team. I know some others can say it was not the team they wanted... but the way I see it, it should have swayed a lot of the younger generations (kids of the habs and leafs parents) to be hardcore fans. In my opinion, it has not.
In the end, I think the cheap marketing needs to be moved up a notch and everyone who is a real fan of this team should speak highly of the future.
Every time I am travelling and I bump into someone at an airport or in a Tim's lineup I stop and say 'nice hat' or 'nice jersey' and start a conversation if I can. There are a few kids in my son's school here (in Toronto) that are fans. I always make sure to tell them that the future looks bright and that how awesome it was when we beat the leafs that game... etc.
The whole recent owner/trades/etc debacle has been hard, but what hurt the most is all the anti-sens (organization/owner/players) sentiment online. This is what will go down in the books as a big hole left to fill.
I do not like to dwell on the ownership issues. He has been a bad owner. For sure. I do have a hard time dealing with the extreme negativity. It is really going to hurt down the line. New hockey fans will have an easier time jumping on the bandwagons of the other teams in the area that are doing better. The effect of this will be seen soon.
Some may say 'yeah, but eff melnyk!, he deserves it!' -- but what it is doing is killing a lot more downstream.
A new owner is not going to change much when the ship has sailed.
Back to marketing for the future... most important thing that will make this team a real success is good marketing... not 'SENATORS RISING' ads, but a real creative campaign that brings pride back to the masses.
Yes, the marketing sucks. I have been saying this for years. It is underfunded and understaffed, and doesn't appear to have a whole lot of experience looking from the outside in. Other teams try new promotions/packages/campaigns, etc all the time. Ottawa has not changed how they sell/market tickets.
The product has also deteriorated significantly. Team is much worse and it is hard to buy-into hope when confidence of being able to retain our best players post UFA is very low. The arena has had almost no improvements beyond what Bell has paid for.
Improve the product and improve the marketing, and I think you could see some significant improvement. But you will never maximize revenues without new ownership and a move downtown.