Big Crowd For Stanley Cup Rally

[Duckette 0]

As it was pointed out earlier, this is our first championship. Give us some time. You're an Original 6 team, you've had more time to get more fans than us. Give us a little time

[OsGOD 3]

Aye, that might be the problem... fans in california be expectin' this years championship t' be the norm instead o' the exception. Gar.

[wingnut22 81]

As it was pointed out earlier, this is our first championship. Give us some time. You're an Original 6 team, you've had more time to get more fans than us. Give us a little time

I know, and thats why I wasn't too surprised that the number wasnt some astronomical amount. The thing that gets me is the media saying that Anaheim is the new Hockeytown just because they won the cup. When as Cap'n OsGod as posted we had huge amounts for our first win in 54 years. I know that in a post before you stated that Detroit will always be Hockeytown so this isnt meant towards you. But I think it is pretty cheap of the media to take jabs at our local economy when we dont sell out all playoff games.

[Winged Scooter 0]

As it was pointed out earlier, this is our first championship. Give us some time. You're an Original 6 team, you've had more time to get more fans than us. Give us a little time

This is very true, BUT I would be willing to bet Tampa Bay had A LOT more fans show when they won a few years ago......

[OsGOD 3]

I know, and thats why I wasn't too surprised that the number wasnt some astronomical amount. The thing that gets me is the media saying that Anaheim is the new Hockeytown just because they won the cup. When as Cap'n OsGod as posted we had huge amounts for our first win in 54 years. I know that in a post before you stated that Detroit will always be Hockeytown so this isnt meant towards you. But I think it is pretty cheap of the media to take jabs at our local economy when we dont sell out all playoff games.

Ahoy, the only reason why we did not sell out the games and Anaheim did is becuase our arena was (that same amount short o' sellin' out) bigger than ponda center Gar, Where can I find a bottle o'rum?

This is very true, BUT I would be willing to bet Tampa Bay had A LOT more fans show when they won a few years ago......

Ahoy, tampa bay had two scallywags show up besides the team in th' parking lot... hard not t' beat them.

thar ain't no party like a detroit party. Especially for a championship, argh!

Edited June 11, 2007 by OsGOD

[Drimo 0]

This is very true, BUT I would be willing to bet Tampa Bay had A LOT more fans show when they won a few years ago......

I lived in Tampa / Sarasota area for 1.5 years after the lockout and let me tell you, there are a ton of Lightning fans down there! I went to several games and each time they were completely packed. Plus the fans would go to local bars like Andreychuk's and the whole Channelside area would become this giant party zone the rest of the evening. Florida has an interesting culture because most of the people are transplants from another part of the country, like myself. I was pretty surprised to see just how many fans went to the games, even regular season games, and how a lot of the media and radio stations would regularly talk about the Lightning. Overall, I'd say the impression most LGWers have been expressing about Tampa is incorrect and they really do have a larger following than we might think.

[wingnut22 81]

Ahoy, the only reason why we did not sell out the games and Anaheim did is becuase our arena was (that same amount short o' sellin' out) bigger than ponda center Gar, Where can I find a bottle o'rum?

okay, haha I am tired and your pirate speak has confused me. Are you saying that we sold the same amount of seats as Anaheim did, but because the Joe is bigger if we would have been at the Honda center it would have been sold out? I would still think that Michigans economy had an impact on why not as many people went. Not everyone has the disposable income to spend a couple hundred on tickets. Where I work we have taken a big hit because people don't have the same amount of disposable income as they have in the past and would rather buy gas and groceries than go out for any luxuries. An' as fo' ye rum, me be thinkin' tha' ye firs' mate Ross be havin' a swig o' it an' then be goin' t' th' crows nest t' be talkin' t' th' lookout wit' th' two eye patches!

[Winged Scooter 0]

I lived in Tampa / Sarasota area for 1.5 years after the lockout and let me tell you, there are a ton of Lightning fans down there! I went to several games and each time they were completely packed. Plus the fans would go to local bars like Andreychuk's and the whole Channelside area would become this giant party zone the rest of the evening. Florida has an interesting culture because most of the people are transplants from another part of the country, like myself. I was pretty surprised to see just how many fans went to the games, even regular season games, and how a lot of the media and radio stations would regularly talk about the Lightning. Overall, I'd say the impression most LGWers have been expressing about Tampa is incorrect and they really do have a larger following than we might think.

My parents live on the west side (Venice), and my dad tells me only the Buccaneers have a more loyal following than the Bolts (D-Rays suck with HIDEOUS uni's ). But this is one LGW'er who definitely does not take the Lightning for granted. ( Plus they have very strong ownership...)

[OsGOD 3]

okay, haha I am tired and your pirate speak has confused me. Are you saying that we sold the same amount of seats as Anaheim did, but because the Joe is bigger if we would have been at the Honda center it would have been sold out? I would still think that Michigans economy had an impact on why not as many people went. Not everyone has the disposable income to spend a couple hundred on tickets. Where I work we have taken a big hit because people don't have the same amount of disposable income as they have in the past and would rather buy gas and groceries than go out for any luxuries. An' as fo' ye rum, me be thinkin' tha' ye firs' mate Ross be havin' a swig o' it an' then be goin' t' th' crows nest t' be talkin' t' th' lookout wit' th' two eye patches!

Ahoy, me am one o' the few ad'ocatin' that it is our depressed economy that stopped us from sellin' out the 19,000+ capacity Joe Louis Arena. I was also the one that knocked the duck fans and their media usin' the fact that they sell out the 17,441 arena on a nightly basis durin' the playoffs as a way t' show they be better fans than us. Point o' the matter is, E'en gi'en our piss poor economy, we still would have sold out E'ery game if our arena was as small as the ponda center.

Arrr, so we be on the same page. Me was takin' the ducks media one step further by notin' that with our horrible econonmy detroit could have sold out the ponda center easily also... usin' their sellouts against our non sellouts was a horrible argument.

scur'y dog Ilitch and is god awful high ticket prices coupled with our bad economy and bigger capacity arena is what made our numbers fall short or our sellout streak

[wingnut22 81]

Ahoy, me am one o' the few ad'ocatin' that it is our depressed economy that stopped us from sellin' out the 19,000+ capacity Joe Louis Arena. I was also the one that knocked the duck fans and their media usin' the fact that they sell out the 17,441 arena on a nightly basis durin' the playoffs as a way t' show they be better fans than us. Point o' the matter is, E'en gi'en our piss poor economy, we still would have sold out E'ery game if our arena was as small as the ponda center.

Arrr, so we be on the same page. Me was takin' the ducks media one step further by notin' that with our horrible econonmy detroit could have sold out the ponda center easily also... usin' their sellouts against our non sellouts was a horrible argument.

scur'y dog Ilitch and is god awful high ticket prices coupled with our bad economy and bigger capacity arena is what made our numbers fall short or our sellout streak

aye Cap'n. I was bein' pre'y sure tha' we was bein' on th' same page. Bu' jus' makin' sure o' it. An' I agree we be sellin' out e'ery playoff game if we's be havin' a smaller venue as those Ducks. I be agreein' tha' usin' their sellouts vs our lack of sellouts be a terrible argument! Savvy?

[Guest jaytan]

Why are you guys making a big deal out of this? The Ducks fans were obviously glued to their televisions watching round-the-clock Paris Hilton coverage.

Everyone has their priorities, people.

[ZAMBONI 0]

Why are you guys making a big deal out of this? The Ducks fans were obviously glued to their televisions watching round-the-clock Paris Hilton coverage.

Everyone has their priorities, people.

You nailed it. I was ecstatic to see she is going back to complete her remaining sentence. How did you know there was around the clock coverage of her? Looks like Detroit has its own around the clock watchers.

[Dixie Wingslover 0]

I e-mailed the LA Times writer, Helene Elliott, who wrote the article a few weeks ago about Detroit and Anaheim's love for hockey. She responded with:

Oh, sorry, party. Not parade. Is that supposed to be an excuse?

well. gee, I was at our party in 2002.... in Hart plaza...... with 1.2 MILLION other party goers.... AFTER the parade. Because the Joe wouldn't hold everybody. It was on a Monday. I took off work.

[Dixie Wingslover 0]

No need to feel bad for us; we won the Stanley Cup. If you want to feel bad for someone, read your local newspaper. There's plenty of sadness there with young men and women dying in wars, senseless murders, homelessness and poverty, etc.

Sports is an opportunity to celebrate and be joyous but when you let it consume your entire life it becomes an obsession. To think that the entire State of California would stand still to celebrate any one thing, much less a sporting event, is absurd. We are so diversified out here that we can't agree on anything and if you think that sports is going to be the unifying force, then that's just very simple thinking.

Hockey in Anaheim and So Cal is here to stay whether the fans in Detroit or Red Wings fans like it or not. And it is becoming a very desirable destination for players to want to play and live. Players play here and are traded elsewhere but keep their homes and live here during the summer and they're not native Californians, but Canadians. They have the freedom to live anywhere they want during the summer and after their playing careers, but they choose here. If they had been treated so badly by the fans and felt so slighted by the people out here, I doubt they would have stayed.

Truth is, they like us out here. And maybe it's because we don't treat them like an obsession, but like people.

You mean like they do in Detroit????? with HOF players returning to finish their careers and retire as Wings??

Michigan population in 2005 = 10,120,860; percent attending celebration; .1185669

California population in 2005 = 36,132,147; percent attending celebration; .0004151

This is distressing for a number of reasons...... first, all those 1.2 million fans in Hart Plaza in 2002 probably purchased, say, a locker room shirt or cap..... Official NHL licensed merchandise. Let's say the league cut of each was $.10....... revenue produced by Red Wings fans: $120,000 Being generous, let's assume that 20,000 Ducks fans purchased same merchandise.... revenue Ducks: $2000. We are not trying to be mean..... it is just the facts. If a team that wins the Stanley Cup does not generate a helthy chunk of revenue, then maybe that team needs to be moved. To somewhere the fans will support it and the league with their pocketbooks.

[Dixie Wingslover 0]

My parents live on the west side (Venice), and my dad tells me only the Buccaneers have a more loyal following than the Bolts (D-Rays suck with HIDEOUS uni's ). But this is one LGW'er who definitely does not take the Lightning for granted. ( Plus they have very strong ownership...)

Ironically with ties to MIchigan, as does Karmonos in Carolina and will Bruckheimer, if he gets his franchise in Vegas or where ever.

[livediehockey80 0]

The Ducks have a dismal number for their fan base. Pathetic. Red Wings fans are more numerous, that's for sure.

Take heart though Ducks fans:

You can take solace in knowing that Detroit is the biggest, most depressing s***hole city in the entire country. At least SoCal people aren't getting pink slips and home foreclosures like every two seconds. The pure definition of urban blight=Detroit, Michigan. Moving trucks out of Michigan are still out-pacing California's like 2 to 1.

[RedRockit 0]

The Ducks have a dismal number for their fan base. Pathetic. Red Wings fans are more numerous, that's for sure.

Take heart though Ducks fans:

You can take solace in knowing that Detroit is the biggest, most depressing s***hole city in the entire country. At least SoCal people aren't getting pink slips and home foreclosures like every two seconds. The pure definition of urban blight=Detroit, Michigan. Moving trucks out of Michigan are still out-pacing California's like 2 to 1.

eek, wrooonnng post quoted.

*sigh* It's been that kinda day, I muffed up at work too: just when I was poised to be golden.

Sumbuddy pass me a virtual Guinness.

Edited June 11, 2007 by RedRockit

[Dixie Wingslover 0]

The Ducks have a dismal number for their fan base. Pathetic. Red Wings fans are more numerous, that's for sure.

Take heart though Ducks fans:

You can take solace in knowing that Detroit is the biggest, most depressing s***hole city in the entire country. At least SoCal people aren't getting pink slips and home foreclosures like every two seconds. The pure definition of urban blight=Detroit, Michigan. Moving trucks out of Michigan are still out-pacing California's like 2 to 1.

Ha Ha Ha, I like your sarcasm.... it has the ring of truth! :hockeysmile:

eek, wrooonnng post quoted.

*sigh* It's been that kinda day, I muffed up at work too: just when I was poised to be golden.

Sumbuddy pass me a virtual Guinness.

:beerbuddy: :beerbuddy:

Here's a couple for ya!

[Bannedforlife 403]

Tampa has one team and the other team is about 4 hours south of it. IDK how many people they had turn out, but hockey is HUGE here in Tampa. They call it 'Hockey Bay' for a reason. The only other teams they have to compete with are the Rays and the Bucs, who both suck (the Bucs as of last season anyway) It's not too hard for them to bring in fans. They have rinks around near where the Bolts play so the fans are able to play without long travel. In Anaheim you have one rink. Then another rink in Riverside and another in Escondido. There aren't many around in Anaheim.

Every city around Tampa has their own rink within driving distance (less than 20 minutes)

And FUUFNF, I never even agreed with Anaheim being a hockey town. Detroit is and always will be Hockeytown. Anaheim won't be unless we win about 20 more Stanley Cups.

But for people to claim that no one lives and dies with this team, I'd like to see your proof, because I sure as hell do. I got in a fight at my hockey practice with one of the guys because he was giving me crap about the Ducks. You can't deliver absolutes. I know hockey, I know the Ducks. The only reason why I wasn't there was because I couldn't afford a plane ticket to get out Anaheim.

I think the Kings should go to Winnepeg. Their fans are starting to bail out on them. All my friends that were once Kings fans their entire lives are about sick of it and are becoming Ducks or Sharks fans.

I don't know what San Jose has to do with this discussion at all. San Jose and the San Francisco bay area are so far from Anaheim and the Los Angeles bay area (6+hours) that they are considered by many to be in different states.

I live in Anaheim, not 5 miles from the Honda Center, and I didn't even know that the Ducks had won the cup until the next morning, listening to the radio on the way to work. And that wasn't until after they had talked about Paris Hilton being released from prison for like 45 minutes. Drunken, rowdy fans screaming and honking their horns after the game? Nope. Fireworks show? Not unless you count the one they have at Disneyland EVERY SINGLE NIGHT at 9:30pm. Christ, I even showed up to a sports bar later THAT NIGHT and didn't witness one thing to remind me that the game had happened, except for a Ducks flag on the wall. Now I've never actually been in Detroit the night they've clinched a championship, but I guarantee you, I'd have know it if I had been.

The Los Angeles metropolitan area has the second largest population in the country and California has the 4th largest economy in the world. You can try and make all the excuses you want, but the simple fact of the matter is that, by overwhelming majority, people in socal just don't care about the Ducks. Not now, and probably not ever. NOW, does that mean that the players, the organization, the city or the fans (that they can muster) don't deserve to win the cup? That's for the hockey gods to decide (and in my opinion they work in mysterious ways)

[LeftWinger 4,953]

I was under the impression there were 20K. People left earlier due to traffic and got there late due to traffic. We're not going to turn out one million people, but 15K isn't a small crowd. Just because the entire state of California didn't show up doesn't mean we don't deserve it.

And there wouldn't have been any more people if the Kings had won it. The people who own the Kings just don't give a damn, ask their fans.

Where the party was, it's not the largest area in the world. I'm not making an excuse for it only being 15K, but we couldn't fit the '1 million' that showed up to your parade.

...we can't fit 1,000,000 in Hart Plaza either, we lined Woodward from I-75 to hart Plaza as well as filled Hart Plaza until people were almost hanging over the fence by the Detroit River. So what you and this LA sports writer are saying is the party was in the parking lot and it only could hold 15,000 people. Fine, but just for comparison's how many people were at the "PARTY" for the Angels World Series? I am willing to bet the house that it was a bit more than 15,000...

...Bettman and the NHL HANDED you the Cup, to try and spark interest in Hockey. You didn't earn it, rules were thrown out in order to keep you "STAR" players in the game. Rules were broken, progress was impeded. Well guess what, not even the amount of fans who wacthed Anaheim receive the Cup showed up to party with the Cup and players. So, this experiment failed, I hate to see which team is going to handed the Cup next season, Hmmmm.... will we see Florida have a cinderella season...

...Bettman should be ashamed of Anaheim, and so should you. I have a feeling more people were watching the golf outing, rather than go celebrate a citie's "championship' or should we say "chumpionship."

...also, your little stab at us with the quotes around 1 million, like we are padding our numbers, just bite us, because there was documented OVER a million people at each of our parades and party's. That doesn't include the thousands of folks who stayed at the bar's and restaurants to watch it on the tube. We had more people show up to 3 events than you'll EVER total in ticket sales. I am willing to bet that they barely sold 3,000,000 tickets in the entire Ducks history.

[RedRockit 0]

I don't know what San Jose has to do with this discussion at all. San Jose and the San Francisco bay area are so far from Anaheim and the Los Angeles bay area (6+hours) that they are considered by many to be in different states.

I live in Anaheim, not 5 miles from the Honda Center, and I didn't even know that the Ducks had won the cup until the next morning, listening to the radio on the way to work. And that wasn't until after they had talked about Paris Hilton being released from prison for like 45 minutes. Drunken, rowdy fans screaming and honking their horns after the game? Nope. Fireworks show? Not unless you count the one they have at Disneyland EVERY SINGLE NIGHT at 9:30pm. Christ, I even showed up to a sports bar later THAT NIGHT and didn't witness one thing to remind me that the game had happened, except for a Ducks flag on the wall. Now I've never actually been in Detroit the night they've clinched a championship, but I guarantee you, I'd have know it if I had been.

The Los Angeles metropolitan area has the second largest population in the country and California has the 4th largest economy in the world. You can try and make all the excuses you want, but the simple fact of the matter is that, by overwhelming majority, people in socal just don't care about the Ducks. Not now, and probably not ever. NOW, does that mean that the players, the organization, the city or the fans (that they can muster) don't deserve to win the cup? That's for the hockey gods to decide (and in my opinion they work in mysterious ways)

Ahh, the hockey gods DO work in mysterious ways-- they made a fan out of ME, dinnit they? AND one out of thou....

Give it time. Maybe a LOT of time (I understand that time moves differently in SoCal-- f'r instance, a 25 year old home is eligible for historic status there

Given this time warp, and factoring in Pronger Physics, I figure Anaheim should make Hockeytown status in about the same time it takes to, say. REPEAT.

[Dixie Wingslover 0]

I was there in 2002 when this pic was taken.... we packed in like sardines. 80 plus degrees, no shade and I had people on all sides of me.... less than a foot away. notice how far the sea of red and white extnds out of the plaza

[HockeyCrazy3033 168]

Beautiful pic. Looks even better on tape..or better yet being their live. I remember we got there around 8am thinking it was 'early' yet we had NOWHERE to stand. It was completely insane.

Anyone remember how bad it was raining that morning, and as soon as the Wings and the Cup arrived the sun started shining. Shanny said "God loves the Red Wings." lol

[MIN8TV 0]

I've been trying to tell everyone that no one here in CA cares that the ducks won. It's not a huge deal here. It's VERY sad and it sucks. It's awful for the sport of hockey no matter how you look at it.

If it had been the Kings - it would've been an ENORMOUS deal... the ducks, not so much.

Breaks my heart.

I've been saying the same thing. No one here cares. A friend of my son said he isn't even getting a championship t-shirt even though he is a Ducks fan. He said it's no big deal and he doesn't even care.

[kylee 727]

Dixie Wingslover,

that is seriously one of the most beautiful pictures i've ever seen.

wow that just makes me well up. and im not saying this in a self righteous way or anything but there is nothing like fans of the detroit red wings. look at that!

i see you're from charlotte?

how are the carolina hurricanes on the other side of the state?

haha pretty bad huh?

im actualy moving to south charlotte in a few years, one great thing about this is,

hopefully the Wings will play AT carolina and i could catch a game in person from then on unless im up here again and able to see one at the Joe.