Hockeytown is DEAD

[Nero 20]

Maybe I'll buy some and hope I get the same luck with the ushers.

Thanks for the feedback.

$9 is cheaper than the Plymouth Whalers regular season tickets

Edited October 7, 2007 by Nero

[OsGOD 3]

Maybe I'll buy some and hope I get the same luck with the ushers.

Thanks for the feedback.

$9 is cheaper than the Plymouth Whalers regular season tickets

not when you have an into the coaching staff for free tickets to every game

i would still buy the $9 seats... don't get me wrong for last 18 years (save the last two where i had kick ass season tickets) I have been paying full price for those same $9. I would live off them.. I personally don't have a problem being up there... I am just expressing the concerns that others who may be more picky than me might have. Personally being in the Joe at any level trumps all.

seats that are worse than the $9 ... are the Suites... i don't care for them at all, however the free pizza and snacks were a huge plus .

Edited October 7, 2007 by OsGOD

[lfd250 1]

Can someone put this to bed and remove it?? Thanks

[Duck Guy 86]

THE SKY IS FALLING THE SKY IS FALLING haha this guy is a joke

[BlakChamber 8]

Can someone put this to bed and remove it?? Thanks

Why? It's a legitimate topic of discussion.

[Kp-Wings 3]

Why? It's a legitimate topic of discussion.

Discussing things such as our own attedance would be off-the-charts on the homer meters. Only teams in the south should have attedance problems, like Nashville!!1!!!1

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[auxlepli 17]

Can someone put this to bed and remove it?? Thanks

Yeah, I know what you mean, but you could just not click on this thread anymore.

[mooose kiiisses 0]

I went to Meijer yesterday and was looking at the Red Wings gear and almost everything was sold out, people are buying the merchandise, hockeytown is not dead. It's just nobody can afford tickets.

BTW: Michigan, State, Lions and Tigers stuff was not sold out only red wings.

Edited October 8, 2007 by mooose kiiisses

[Lou_Siffer 1]

I got free tickets to the game tonight and went. Anyone who tells me its not the product/players that is mainly responsible for the lack of fans at the arena is completely fooling themselves. These were free tickets i had so it wouldnt take much for me to have a great time, but to be honest the game really bored me. Myself and my dad had more entertainment making a bet on who could find someone wearing the oldest Wings jersey (i eventually spotted a Ciccarelli and won). I think i counted about 10 hits between the 2 teams. Also its funny how you see SO many Yzerman, Shanahan, McCarty, and Chelios jerseys, ...but very few of the likes of Zetterberg and Datsyuk. These are the key figures on the team, yet i spotted about 10 jersey total between the two. Thats nothing against either of those guys, but its just a fact. Also of course zero Samuelssons, zero Hudlers, zero Flips. I think this perfectly illustrates the point that the plethora of european players being the main guys on this team just doesnt sell to the fans...sorry. Without their Yzerman, Shanny, and McCarty the interest isnt there anymore. The team is in desperate need of a couple North American stars.

Thank god Matt Ellis played though to entertain us all.

North American stars as well as fighters i should say...

[datsyukismyfriend 4]

I got free tickets to the game tonight and went. Anyone who tells me its not the product/players that is mainly responsible for the lack of fans at the arena is completely fooling themselves. These were free tickets i had so it wouldnt take much for me to have a great time, but to be honest the game really bored me. Myself and my dad had more entertainment making a bet on who could find someone wearing the oldest Wings jersey (i eventually spotted a Ciccarelli and won). I think i counted about 10 hits between the 2 teams. Also its funny how you see SO many Yzerman, Shanahan, McCarty, and Chelios jerseys, ...but very few of the likes of Zetterberg and Datsyuk. These are the key figures on the team, yet i spotted about 10 jersey total between the two. Thats nothing against either of those guys, but its just a fact. Also of course zero Samuelssons, zero Hudlers, zero Flips. I think this perfectly illustrates the point that the plethora of european players being the main guys on this team just doesnt sell to the fans...sorry. Without their Yzerman, Shanny, and McCarty the interest isnt there anymore. The team is in desperate need of a couple North American stars.

Thank god Matt Ellis played though to entertain us all.

North American stars as well as fighters i should say...

i thought it was a great game tonight. hits were 19 to 13 in favor of detroit. not bad at all.

[Jwo 7]

I cannot afford tickets.

And I would prefer to actually watch the game. "Obstructed view" does not sound pleasant. Can anyone comment on the $9 seats? Maybe I'll show up if they are not as bad as they sound.

What $9 seats?

Perhaps they should make them more convenient for people to get.

Edited October 9, 2007 by Jwo

[OsGOD 3]

Boxoffice ONLY for the $9

Gotta spend the GAS (twice) to save the Cash once.

[Lou_Siffer 1]

i thought it was a great game tonight. hits were 19 to 13 in favor of detroit. not bad at all.

oh come on, hit stats are the biggest load of crap of all time. They count the smallest shove into the glass. I made it a point to start counting the hits, and when they showed the between period stats it was more than double what i counted.

[Barrie 900]

Also its funny how you see SO many Yzerman, Shanahan, McCarty, and Chelios jerseys, ...but very few of the likes of Zetterberg and Datsyuk. These are the key figures on the team, yet i spotted about 10 jersey total between the two. Thats nothing against either of those guys, but its just a fact. Also of course zero Samuelssons, zero Hudlers, zero Flips. I think this perfectly illustrates the point that the plethora of european players being the main guys on this team just doesnt sell to the fans...sorry. Without their Yzerman, Shanny, and McCarty the interest isnt there anymore. The team is in desperate need of a couple North American stars.

I guess you can put me in this category of fans. I'm a Wings fan and have all the gear, but without guys I can connect with (Yzerman, Shanahan, McCarty, Lapointe, etc.), I'm not rushing out to buy tickets. I'm fine watching on tv, following along online, checking the highlights/boxscores, and posting on the Forum. I haven't lost interest in the team, but I've lost interest in spending money to go to games. And if I go to a game, I'd wear an Yzerman jersey.

Nothing against the Euro's, but I think it's a fair request to want a little more North American talent on this team.

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

Nothing against the Euro's, but I think it's a fair request to want a little more North American talent on this team.

Agreed. We have enough euro's, we need some North American talent. Back when we were winning cups, we had a great mix of both. Now, one is pre-dominate and the other not so much.

[Kp-Wings 3]

I got free tickets to the game tonight and went. Anyone who tells me its not the product/players that is mainly responsible for the lack of fans at the arena is completely fooling themselves. These were free tickets i had so it wouldnt take much for me to have a great time, but to be honest the game really bored me. Myself and my dad had more entertainment making a bet on who could find someone wearing the oldest Wings jersey (i eventually spotted a Ciccarelli and won). I think i counted about 10 hits between the 2 teams. Also its funny how you see SO many Yzerman, Shanahan, McCarty, and Chelios jerseys, ...but very few of the likes of Zetterberg and Datsyuk. These are the key figures on the team, yet i spotted about 10 jersey total between the two. Thats nothing against either of those guys, but its just a fact. Also of course zero Samuelssons, zero Hudlers, zero Flips. I think this perfectly illustrates the point that the plethora of european players being the main guys on this team just doesnt sell to the fans...sorry. Without their Yzerman, Shanny, and McCarty the interest isnt there anymore. The team is in desperate need of a couple North American stars.

North American stars as well as fighters i should say...

Agreed, Lou. Guys like Yzerman, Shanny, and McCarty were cornerstones to this franchise, and it just isn't the same now that their gone.

This team desperatly needs more North American players. It really does. I mean, people try to shoot that theory down with the Russian 5 being so popular, but the Russian 5 were a totally different breed. Those guys had charecter, especially Vladdy. Guys like Larionov and Fedorov were the same way. I'm not saying that guys like Zetterberg don't have charecter, which he does sort of. But the rest of the team really doesn't. The only true charecter guys left on the Wings are Chelios, Drake, and Downey. One of those guys hasn't even played a single game with the Wings yet, either (well, technically not in the regular season), which is a shame.

This team really does need some North American players though. It's hard for fans to connect with such a bland paper-weight team that the Wings currently have. This isn't a stab at guys like Lidstrom or Zetterberg, but more likely Samulesson and Hudler. These guys aren't very popular players. Samulesson is especially a waste of space on the roster, but hey, that's just me.

I don't know if this will ever change anytime soon, but for the fans sake, some more entertaining player need to be signed. Fighters included.

None of this is a stab at Euro's either. All I'm saying is we need a balanced mix. Right now, this team is dominated by European players. I'm not asking for a Brian Burke one-way Canadian street, but a balanced mix would be nice. Right now, it's pretty much all European.

Thank god Matt Ellis played though to entertain us all.

Tonight would have been the perfect night for Downey to play. Why he didn't I will never know. A Downey vs. Souray or Downey vs. Torres fight would have made my night.

Edited October 9, 2007 by Kp-Wings

[Barrie 900]

None of this is a stab at Euro's either. All I'm saying is we need a balanced mix. Right now, this team is dominated by European players. I'm not asking for a Brian Burke one-way Canadian street, but a balanced mix would be nice. Right now, it's pretty much all European.

Right, mostly what it comes down to is marketing. Only a hand full of guys market and sell the team well to the fans. We're still winning which is great, but us fans need some character and entertainment if we're going to spend our hard earned money. Add to that, in my case, I need that character/entertainment not only to buy tickets, but to make the 3+ hour drive to see a game.

Edit: I've had a few people already this year ask me if I could take them to a game, but I'm about 50/50 when it comes to going. I do, but I don't. If it was 2-10 years ago, I'd be there no problem.

Oh well, as I've mentioned already I think it's healthy for a team to go through this. Ownership is more accountable to the fans if they're not a guaranteed sell out every night. The Organization will be better off for it in the long run.

Edited October 9, 2007 by Barrie

[RedWingsFanatic 4]

It's tough, though, because you HAVE to take a better European player over a weaker North American player. I don't think you can take a player just because of where he is from. It's about winning.

[Avalanche Warning 0]

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.

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

^ To RedWingsFanatic

I hate using this point, buttt. The Ducks won last year, with mostly canadians, but important Europeans.

Edited October 9, 2007 by Detroit # 1 Fan

[Barrie 900]

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.

The price of Pistons tickets are more affordable the Red Wings tickets, plus they have players who the fans can connect to i.e. Billups, Hamilton, Prince, and Wallace.

The Tigers are the new thing in town after their surprise appearance in the World Series in 2006 and fans are excited to see a World Series.

If you're a guaranteed sell out every game, you'll turn into the Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Cubs, or Detroit Lions. I don't think I need to explain myself.....

[Kp-Wings 3]

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.

I won't deny that point. Detroit shouldn't be called Hockeytown, because it isn't. It hasn't been in almost 5 years. "Hockeytown" was nothing more than a marketing slogan created by Mike Illitch, because he's too much of a tightass to think of anything better. That's something people need to through their heads and stop being so critical of the Wings fan base.

I'll bet that if the Wings had never created that dumb slogan in the first place, nobody would give a rats ass about the Wings attedance. But because of that, the Wings fans are put under a microscope.

The name "Hockeytown" really doesn't even belong to any American City, except maybe Minneapolis. You can say what you want about the bandwagoners that are supporting the Buffalo Sabres right now, but the Minnesota Wild have a true fan base, and if any American team should get that title, it's them. They've soldout every game since they've re-entered the league in 2000. And those are true-sellouts also, with asses in the seats. Not corperate heads who don't show up anyways.

As far as the logo at Center Ice: that thing will be there until the new arena goes up. Illitch firmly believes that's some sort of effective marketing slogan, even though it clearly causes more harm then good as far as the team's popularity and media effects are concerned.

Hopefully Illitch cuts the crap and stops with the 10 cents a day marketing, and starts doing a real job of marketing this team to it's fans. If he does that, and lowers the ridiculous prices of tickets, then the fans will start coming back again.

Edited October 9, 2007 by Kp-Wings

[Avalanche Warning 0]

The price of Pistons tickets are more affordable the Red Wings tickets, plus they have players who the fans can connect to i.e. Billups, Hamilton, Prince, and Wallace.

The Tigers are the new thing in town after their surprise appearance in the World Series in 2006 and fans are excited to see a World Series.

If you're a guaranteed sell out every game, you'll turn into the Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Cubs, or Detroit Lions. I don't think I need to explain myself.....

I don't see how a packed arena/stadium would result in the team losing. Look at Red Sox and Yankees.How would Montreal have 26 Stanley Cups?

[Avalanche Warning 0]

"Hockeytown" is dead.....

under 17,000 tonight.

Sad..... they didn't sellout one playoff game last year.

Hockey Town is likely dead, but when was the last time the Hawks sold out a game?

hehe just kidding . The Hawks have an excuse, Wirtz basically ran the Franchise into the ground, the fans haven't had much to cheer about. But watch out in the next few years, they'll be a force for sure.

[Kp-Wings 3]

"Hockeytown" is dead.....

under 17,000 tonight.

Sad..... they didn't sellout one playoff game last year.

Yeah, big ******* deal.

Tell me again: what was the Blackhawks average attedance last year? Oh, I do believe that was around 12,000, good enough for 29th in the league.

When your own team becomes a success, then you can trash talk. I haven't seen that happen yet, though, and one meaningless win over the Wings proves nothing. The playoffs don't start in October, in case you're too young and stupid to know that.

I don't see how a packed arena/stadium would result in the team losing. Look at Red Sox and Yankees.How would Montreal have 26 Stanley Cups?

It makes the ownership careless of the teams success.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, for example, never have to worry about building a successful team. They'll reap the benefits of the sellouts regardless, and the income brought in from TV contracts and whatever else. The Detroit Lions are another good example of that cause.

The Wings are a good team, but the ownership, as far as fan relations go, is terrible. The ridiculous ticket prices and the isolation from the players is the reason the fans don't go. Couple that with the retirement of Yzerman, the loss of Shanny and McCarty, and a not very overall exiting team, and you have a recipe for empty seats. It's as simple as that.