For my first post on this board ..
I have been following Detroits attendance ever since last season when I saw an unusually empty Joe Louis Arena in almost every game. You can blame the Detroit economy , other teams success, etc all you want. But the real question is :
When are they going to remove "Hockey Town" from center ice?
When you consider your city to be "Hockey Town , USA" , you better be able to back it up. Some people blame the other teams (Pistons, Tigers, Lions) for the poor Red Wings attendance. We'll heres the bottom line on this excuse. When you call yourself "Hockey Town" , The HOCKEY TEAM comes first. If it was REALLY Hockey Town , USA, then the fans will pack the arena night in and night out, no matter how the other teams are doing...especially when your teams has 16 straight playoff appearances, 3 straight western conference titles,6 straight division titles and a hell of a good team. I say remove the "Hockey Town" label from center ice to turn some heads , it would be a wake up call for the season ticket holders to get their asses to those games. Just wait until the Wings start losing , imagine what happens then? Now others say its the failing Michigan economy ....BS. The Lions sell out every game with a crappy team, the pistons are the Red Wings of the NBA and they are selling out easily, and the Tigers nearly pack almost every game in a 40,000+ seat baseball field with DOUBLE the home games than the Red Wings.And lastly, theres the "We don't have any great North American players". Take a look at the Rangers, take a look at the Wild. The last 2 seasons they have had good teams carried by Europeans, and they have sold out EVERY game since the lockout. So don't even try to say that the average hockey fan wouldn't pay to see players like Datsyuk and Zetterberg. I'm not here to troll , It just surprises me how one of the leagues largest markets are near the bottom of the leagues attendance."The Hockey Town , USA" label belongs to Buffalo in this era of the NHL.
