Windsor Spitfires 2019-20 Season Thread

[OHL 17]

Repeat....If the power play remains under the control of the same coach, and the results over the past 2 years has been poor....well what would you expect!

 

[OHLTG]

Spitfires have come out with Concession deals; one per month. This month is a nachos and a 16ox pop for $8. There are several different ones throughout the season.

 

[TheGremlin]

Now is there tax on that. Also i’d like to know the prices on everything before deciding if it is really a good deal or not. 8$ for hotdog and pop seems like a lot.

 

[RayzorIsDull]

Spitfires have come out with Concession deals; one per month. This month is a nachos and a 16ox pop for $8. There are several different ones throughout the season.

Where's the value in that?

 

[windsor7]

Now is there tax on that. Also i’d like to know the prices on everything before deciding if it is really a good deal or not. 8$ for hotdog and pop seems like a lot.

Indeed.
Probably a small pop too.
If its fountain pop. It doesn't cost much.

 

[OHLTG]

Now is there tax on that. Also i’d like to know the prices on everything before deciding if it is really a good deal or not. 8$ for hotdog and pop seems like a lot.

I think pop was $3-4 (off memory), and I KNOW nachos are $6.50. If I remember on Thurs, I'll look at the rest.

 

[windsor7]

I think pop was $3-4 (off memory), and I KNOW nachos are $6.50. If I remember on Thurs, I'll look at the rest.

Whatever it is. The price is to high.

 

[OHLTG]

Which is why the deals help. Frankly, I think the nachos are a great price - you get a TON of them for $6.50.

 

[Fischhaber]

Spitfires have come out with Concession deals; one per month. This month is a nachos and a 16ox pop for $8. There are several different ones throughout the season.

I'm pretty sure that's about the regular cost in Sudbury and the Soo at least. Good nachos in Windsor? I have only been there once and don't remember.

 

[RayzorIsDull]

I'm pretty sure that's about the regular cost in Sudbury and the Soo at least. Good nachos in Windsor? I have only been there once and don't remember.

All you need to do is look at the attendance on Thursday of 2700. There isn't anyone running to the ticket gate so they can go to a game and get nachos and pepsi for 8 dollars. You can make your own nachos at home and have a pop or a beer or mixed drink for less than 8 dollars. Not sure when marketing or sports franchises lost their way and offering fans a little bone to get very little in return happened but it's been going on for some time.

 

[OHLTG]

It feels like we're at the point where this team could give away tickets and food and people would still get upset. Deals wont get you 6000 through the doors, but credit to them for recognizing some issues and trying to solve.

Ps I enjoyed the nachos when I was in Sudbury. They reminded me of old Windsor arena.

 

[RayzorIsDull]

It feels like we're at the point where this team could give away tickets and food and people would still get upset. Deals wont get you 6000 through the doors, but credit to them for recognizing some issues and trying to solve.

Ps I enjoyed the nachos when I was in Sudbury. They reminded me of old Windsor arena.

Uhhhhhh they drew 2700 on Thursday. It's more about just trying to draw people with food and beverage deals. You do realize they still will need to want to actually buy tickets in order to get food and beverage... right???? You should have podcast every week for the Spits encouraging the team and telling the public why they should go to games. It could be called the OHLTG SuperSpitsFanPodcast or maybe the OHLTGSSFP.

 

[OHLTG]

Uhhhhhh they drew 2700 on Thursday. It's more about just trying to draw people with food and beverage deals. You do realize they still will need to want to actually buy tickets in order to get food and beverage... right???? You should have podcast every week for the Spits encouraging the team and telling the public why they should go to games. It could be called the OHLTG SuperSpitsFanPodcast or maybe the OHLTGSSFP.

If we're going to do that, it has to be a catchy name: Spitfires' Weekly or something. That rolls off the tongue, I think!

You also proved my point - you're not going to get big crowds through the doors on deals alone, but concessions do help some. It's a start; credit where it's due.

 

[NOA]

It feels like we're at the point where this team could give away tickets and food and people would still get upset. Deals wont get you 6000 through the doors, but credit to them for recognizing some issues and trying to solve.

Ps I enjoyed the nachos when I was in Sudbury. They reminded me of old Windsor arena.

Erie actually has a really good promo all year for their Friday games - the Friday 4 Pack. 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs, 4 popcorns, 4 drinks - all for a total of $54

Though I don’t know how much it will actually work. I think the OHL product as a whole is become tougher and tougher to sell to the average fan. What people really care about is the price per ticket and the product on the ice which is becoming an issue for OHL teams

 

[OHLTG]

Windsor has Throwback Thurs, which is a $15 ticket in the one end zone (and corners). I do like the idea of putting tickets + food + program for X-amount idea. One thing that I believe Erie has going for it, from personal experience, is a very inexpensive downtown food scene. I've eaten at multiple restaurants where I can spend under $20 for a full meal + adult drinks. The Otters have to compete with that; I've only eaten at the arena once out of the 10ish times I've been. That said, I'll have to look at the prices in Windsor on Thurs to get an idea of how much the discounts are. Off the top of my head, I don't know.

 

[NOA]

Windsor has Throwback Thurs, which is a $15 ticket in the one end zone (and corners). I do like the idea of putting tickets + food + program for X-amount idea. One thing that I believe Erie has going for it, from personal experience, is a very inexpensive downtown food scene. I've eaten at multiple restaurants where I can spend under $20 for a full meal + adult drinks. The Otters have to compete with that; I've only eaten at the arena once out of the 10ish times I've been. That said, I'll have to look at the prices in Windsor on Thurs to get an idea of how much the discounts are. Off the top of my head, I don't know.

All good points

Teams across the league all seem to be throwing everything at the wall to get butts in the seat

 

[windsor7]

Which is why the deals help. Frankly, I think the nachos are a great price - you get a TON of them for $6.50.

Maybe they got a good deal on lots of bags of chips.

 

[windsor7]

It feels like we're at the point where this team could give away tickets and food and people would still get upset. Deals wont get you 6000 through the doors, but credit to them for recognizing some issues and trying to solve.

Ps I enjoyed the nachos when I was in Sudbury. They reminded me of old Windsor arena.

Families just cant afford to go to games anymore.

 

[youngblood10]

The junior game is a very tough sell now. The game isn't much of a spectators sport in it's current state.

It's became vanilla & stagnant elite minor hockey with high minor pro prices. Poor product, at high prices.

The league is collapsing on itself from a plethora of reasons that have caused a disconnected from the average folk who would fill the rinks regularly.

The only way to balance the scales is to retract the number of teams. Because there isn't enough elite junior players to provide the entertainment at the current price point to over come all the other self inflicted obstacles of incompetence, poor officiating, cronyism, greed & political correctness to touch on a few contributing to quickly eroding revenues.

 

[member 71782]

The junior game is a very tough sell now. The game isn't much of a spectators sport in it's current state.

It's became vanilla & stagnant elite minor hockey with high minor pro prices. Poor product, at high prices.

The league is collapsing on itself from a plethora of reasons that have caused a disconnected from the average folk who would fill the rinks regularly.

The only way to balance the scales is to retract the number of teams. Because there isn't enough elite junior players to provide the entertainment at the current price point to over come all the other self inflicted obstacles of incompetence, poor officiating, cronyism, greed & political correctness to touch on a few contributing to quickly eroding revenues.

Agree with pretty much all of this.

The league has become watered down, claiming to develop the top talent yet most teams have three or four players that would never have made a team twenty or thirty years ago. The so called "JR cycle" is a direct result of this. The ability of players to pick their spot is a direct result of this.

Their development model is shot, you can't claim to be developing the best players when at least 25% of most rosters are made up of filler. Those players and the top talent are both being short changed in their development. The league/owners got greedy looking for a quick payout through past expansions and now cry poor or claim they are losing money because fans won't support an inferior product.

Contraction is the first answer to this, cut the league down to 16 teams.

Cut the draft down to 10 rounds. Why draft players who will never have a shot at making a team. Sure there are some late round gems, they will always be found threw free agency but they are drafting 60 players of which 2 or 3 may actually get a real shot at making a team and most of them will never be impact players, they will usually be 3rd/4th line or bottom pair filler.

Cut the import draft to 1 round but remove all other restrictions on imports. Allow teams to carry as many as they want and remove the import tag when they are OAs if they've played at least one year in the league. The more competitive the league becomes the more of an option it becomes for the highest end imports and less risk involved in getting them to report.

You want to fill arenas, concession discounts on over priced products aren't going to attract people to a game. In any other business would you pay $100 just to save $10 off of an $50 product that is double the price of the same product anywhere else? Probably not so why would someone spend $20 or more to save $2 off of an over priced product? It's great for the fans already at the game but it's not going to put people in the seats. Makes no sense to spend more than you would save to go out of your way to a game that probably doesn't interest you.

Improve the main product, on the ice by bringing more talent together in fewer markets which not only increases interest but also improves development which increases more interest from those high end players you need in the first place.

The league itself has lost sight of what it's self described mandate is. Time to get back on track.​

 

[Teflon]

I do believe the league is losing itself, have for a while now. But contraction??? Don’t agree there. Yes it will weed out some of the lower talent but fans won’t travel far to watch a game. You need to put a watchable exciting product on the ice to attract fans. It needs to be based on the demographics of the area. Windsor likes hard nosed, hard working players. Ottawa wants skilled but not aggressive ... I still say you put an aggressive team on the ice here and you get quite a few more fans then you have now, almost to the point of results be damned.

 

[member 71782]

I agree that individual markets have their own tastes in what they want to see in the product on the ice they do still want to see a winning product as well, just one that fits in with their expectations.

The reason I think contraction will eventually become inevitable, not sought after is when you have more spots open that can't be filled by the talent available you end up seeing a down grade in the product which we really are seeing across the league. I think fans have grown tired of the so called cycle. No one can win every year but expecting people to support a poor product for three or four years just to hopefully have a good product for a year or two gets tiresome. People want to know when they go to a game their team has a chance to win. Of course every team will have a down year once in a while but when down years have become the norm or the expectation 75% to 80% of the time they start to reconsider the investment they are making by supporting the product.

For me the best times were the 70s. No, they never won a title but after the expansion year they were a solid team and fans didn't accept losing. They had a hard nosed product with skill mixed in and they were always competing. They demanded accountability and the team more often than not responded. Not every year was a great year but they still had a shot and if there was consistent issues they were addressed. The barn always had solid crowds, more than we are seeing these days in comparison to seating capacity. You were close to 3800 to 4000 every night in a building that held around 5000. The league was also 12 teams I believe so you had top teams in every night, there were no teams tanking because it was part of the cycle. You wanted support for your team you put a product worth supporting on the ice, simple as that.

I don't think the league would ever support contraction, it would be an admission of failure bt I think you will eventually see teams fold and not replaced. They don't have many markets to go to with an arena and if established teams in established markets are struggling municipalities aren't going to invest $70 million into an arena for a team that may or may not be there ten years down the road. I think that's why there has always been a big push to get teams across the border, new territory but there's not a lot of markets across the border that would be open to spending the money on facilities and have the fanbase to support it that don't already have other teams established.

It's a tough situation but it needs to be addressed and the sooner it is the better off the league will be.

 

[windsor7]

Plus rivalries r dead for a lot of teams.
Fans wont show up.

 

[OHLTG]

I do believe the league is losing itself, have for a while now. But contraction??? Don’t agree there. Yes it will weed out some of the lower talent but fans won’t travel far to watch a game. You need to put a watchable exciting product on the ice to attract fans. It needs to be based on the demographics of the area. Windsor likes hard nosed, hard working players. Ottawa wants skilled but not aggressive ... I still say you put an aggressive team on the ice here and you get quite a few more fans then you have now, almost to the point of results be damned.

This. Hockey is a speedy, creative game now, but you still get a massive rush from the crowd when something physical happens.

 

[RayzorIsDull]

The junior game is a very tough sell now. The game isn't much of a spectators sport in it's current state.

It's became vanilla & stagnant elite minor hockey with high minor pro prices. Poor product, at high prices.

The league is collapsing on itself from a plethora of reasons that have caused a disconnected from the average folk who would fill the rinks regularly.

The only way to balance the scales is to retract the number of teams. Because there isn't enough elite junior players to provide the entertainment at the current price point to over come all the other self inflicted obstacles of incompetence, poor officiating, cronyism, greed & political correctness to touch on a few contributing to quickly eroding revenues.

Agreed that junior hockey has out kicked their coverage. Contraction unfortunately will never happen. The talent in the league isn't what it was a decade ago and that's the biggest problem is talent dictates the product. Even the CHL is out of answers there's only so many times you can come out with the line "fastest way to the NHL." NHL teams don't really care about that if they did 8 guys for the NTDP wouldn't have gone from round 1.