the WORST hockey city ever. I was born in Boston, but then moved around a lot as a kid, so I was raised on Bruins hockey. However, the first city I ever moved to where there was an NHL team and I could actually go to games was Philadelphia. I love the Flyers. They have broken my heart so many times, but I follow them through thick and thin. I had tickets to game five of the Stanley Cup Finals the year they lost to Detroit . . . in four. I could give you more background, but I'd be wasting your time. We just moved to Tampa this year. I used to go to 10 regular season Flyers games a year. Great time. Always a packed house. Noisy, knowledgable fans. I went to my first game at the Ice Palace this December. I called the day of the game, and got tickets in the seventh row. There were MAYBE 8,000 people there. The couple next to me were both wearing jerseys. They were two of the loudest people in the place. Early in the first, after the ref blew the whistle for a two line pass, she asked him what had just happened. He had no clue. I just about flew out of the building. In the second, after a goal had been reviewed, the ref pointed towards the center circle. She asked what that meant. (Despite the fact that everybody started clapping. It was like a golf clap though.) He didn't know. I was watching on TV after Game 5, and they interviewed 5 Bolts fans. Each one agreed that they hoped their team lost Game 6, because a Game 7 would be "more dramatic". WTF is that? Are you retarded? You want your team to close it out, damn it. I didn't even try to get tickets to the first couple games here in Tampa when Philly came to town. I knew how tough it was to get Flyers playoff tickets, and didn't want to pay a scalper or anything. My friend from Minnesota emailed me this morning, and told me "If you don't literally call Jeb Bush and beg for Flyers-Lightning game 7 tickets, you are a huge, huge [rhymes with maggot]." I called the Ice Palace in the off chance that they might have a single. They told me they had 40 singles left, some in THE SECOND ROW, but those were upwards of 200 bucks. There were almost 100 tickets left in the second level, so I got two tickets in the 8th row. This is at lunchtime THE DAY BEFORE GAME 7 OF THE CONFERENCE FINALS. Everybody in the city has had several hours to buy tickets even after having 100% proof that there will be a game 7. (Despite the fact that any true sports fan knows that if game 7 tickets are available when the series goes on sale, you buy them. No questions asked. That's why they make refunds.) I'll be shocked if anyone in the upper deck knows what offsides is. This is, bar none, the worst hockey town in history. Regardless of the fact that my beloved Flyers are in the game, I would NEVER cheer for such a crappy bunch of fans to get a Stanley Cup, despite the fact that I could CLEARLY get tickets with little or no effort to all three games. What a god damn joke. If you find yourself cheering for these whack offs for one second, you should be ashamed of yourself. Rant over.
On top of which, you know you're a second-rate city when your arena is named after another city's newspaper. In fairness to the couple you were sitting next to, if they were that close to the ice, depending on where the puck was it may've been difficult to see that it was a 2-line pass. Then again, if you could they probably could too. Am I crazy, or did I hear chants of "Let's go Flyers" throughout the 3rd period of Game 2 (the 6-2 blowout in TB)?? Didn't really surprise me, especially after the Eagles-Dolphins game in Miami last fall that had a pro-Eagles crowd (in noise, if not in numbers). But yeah, Tampa fans are horrible...too many yuppies, not enough real fans. Actually, I would bet there are a good number of very knowledgeable hockey fans in the Tampa area--it's just that they're not Lightning fans, they're fans of the Flyers or Bruins or Maple Leafs or Rangers or whatever town they lived in before they moved to Tampa!
God, I hope what you're saying is true. If I can actually cheer for the Flyers (again, I'm going with my Philly experience, and if ANYONE piped up for the other team in the playoffs, especially in the upper deck, that person would be likely to have a beer "accidentally" spilled on them, at the very least), that would be the greatest thing ever. I wouldn't be surprised that real hockey fans in Tampa wouldn't go to the games. I was so put off by the first one this year that I never went back . . . Let everyone in Philly know that it's not to late to buy tickets if they want to come down. Disgusting.
That is why I worry. Philly is a better football city than St Louis, Tampa, and Carolina and we fans got killed while fans who don't know dick about the game happened to get to celebrate. It's a cruel joke that Philly teams always lose to teams with terrible, unknowledgable, fans.
I have to believe everything you said in that thread SuperElf...I could not agree more. There will probably be a slight 60-40 ratio of flyers fans to Bolts fans tonight. The whole of Florida is awful IMO.
Granted, I'm not going to rank Tampa in the realm of Detroit or Philly in Hockey cities, but I think you're being a bit unfair SuperElf. I was there during their playoff run last year against the Capitals and Devils, that place was sold out each time with very few fans of opposing teams and that place was loud loud loud. I'm a Caps fan, believe me, I know.
Eh, maybe they are better during the playoffs. I'll give them another fair shake tonight. HOWEVER, the fact that there were a couple hundred seats left 24 hours before a Game 7 for the Prince of Wales trophy is a little sick. I thought Beau Dure was questioning my observations for a second, there . . .
Hockey and the South just don't mix. No offense to the true southern hockey fans but Gary Bettman's pet projects in Florida, Georgia and other places will not last - which is a good thing because the NHL needs contraction anyway.
It's nice to see a proponent of contraction actually say that they're are true hockey fans in the South. Most assume they're are none. Personally, I think the idea that contraction is needed is overblown, but that is a whole another arguement. I will say this though, how come everyone that wants contraction automatically assumes that it's the Southern teams that will be folding? The last three teams to go into bankruptcy protection have all been in "traditional" markets. Ottawa, Buffalo and Pittsburg. Nah, I just worship the ground Beau Dure walks on. But I'll disagree with him here, and have my money on the Capitals winning the Stanley Cup around the year 2024. I can dream, with a sliver of hope. You mentioned that they had only 200 seats left by lunchtime (that's more than 24 hours before game time) the day before game 7. So that means they sold over 19,000 seats in about 14 hours, I don't think that's all that bad.
OK, I have to fess up. The crowd was pretty good tonight. I mean, I had really low expectations, but the noise and passion were definately there. Handful of things I noticed: - WAY more women and families than I've ever seen at a playoff game before, for any sport. Not saying that's good or bad, just different. - Almost everyone I talked to had only bought tickets after Game 6, and hadn't been to a game all year. - There were about 2500 Flyers fans there. The two guys in front of me had driven down that morning (about 15 hours, if you really motor.) THAT'S dedication. - Long line for tickets outside after the game. It looked like they were going to sell them out by the end of the night though. A LOT of them were scalpers though, FWIW. A minimum of stupid comments, too. One guy asked me what the Zamboni was called. Another one asked me if hooking was a penalty. Other than that, it was par for the course. But the crowd was loud, and into it. Can't really blame them, hell of a game. Sorry I whaled on you, Tampa. You guys put together a hearty effort for the playoffs. If you can muster even half that atmosphere for regular season games, I'll stop arguing that you should be contracted.
I don't know the reason for Pitt and Ottawa, but don't blame the fans in Buffalo, blame Jon Rigas. And look, if natural ice doesn't form in the city at least once a year, you don't deserve a hockey team. Yeah, that's right, contract Dallass.
I guess that means bye bye LA, San Jose and also Vancouver. It gets cold and wet up there, but like London, never really freezes. This also means that Carolina and Nashville get to stay around. It gets a mighty-bit chilly in 'dem parts. Of course, if no city truely deserves a hockey team where natural ice doesn't form, that means that global warming will wipe ice hockey off the face of the earth eventually.
Glad you see the light? Anyways, I do sympathise with you regarding watching your team lose in that building, I know what it feels like. When I was there, I talked to plenty of people during intermission, and they were a lot of knowledgable hockey fans. One guy I talked to said he hadn't even played hockey until his 20's and now was coaching a local high school team, even sending a couple of kids to the National Team Development program. He stated that it was amazing how much Youth Hockey has grown in the area over the last 10-15 years.
Forgive me. I know wanting the NHL to not go bust must sound like an extreme, purist idea to you, but we're crazy for our hockey up here.
The teams that are dragging down the NHL financially aren't in the Sunbelt, as was said earlier. The teams that all went into bankruptcy are in northern cities. All the relocated teams are in better financial shape then they were in Quebec, Hartford, Winnipeg and Minnesota.
Adios, Vancouver Canucks. Yeah, because the NHL needs fewer teams that AVERAGE 99% capacity at their arenas.
Maybe you could show that craziness for hockey by -- oh, I don't know -- buying a few more tickets for the local hockey team? 2000-01 attendance Dallas - 17,001 average (100% capacity at Reunion Arena) Buffalo - 17,839 average (95.5% capacity) 2001-02 attendance Dallas - 18,527 average (100% capacity at the American Airlines Center) Buffalo - 17,206 average (92.1% capacity) 2002-03 attendance Dallas - 18,532 average (100% capacity) Buffalo - 13,735 average (73.5% capacity) 2003-04 attendance Dallas - 18,355 average (99.0% capacity) Buffalo - 15,290 average (80.4% capacity) But hey, I guess that you need to leave 20-25% of the seats unsold at the local arena to establish your rep as a REAL hockey town. Hell, it's what they did in Minneapolis before the Stars moved.
I am a Lightning Season Ticket holder, and it is posters LIKE you who post crap like this that pist me off! First off, the game you attended in December had TWICE what you indicated. I sit in the third deck, and we know hockey. Section 309. Guys like you who wear their worn out Flyers jersey's in OUR HOUSE are considered trouble making idiots. Too bad you team lost. Get over it! Second, the Ice Palace holds 19,700 as a sellout, but can fit up to 22,200 as standing room only. The arena in Philly can only hold 19,600. That is 2000 more tickets per game that Tampa has to sell. If you live in Tampa, and you rooted for Philly, then you suck! Go back to Philly and LEARN WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. As for attendence, the smallest crowd was game two against Phoenix. The second smallest crowd was for a 3 O'Clock game on the day after New Year's against Columbus. Neither team is the type that one would claim is a big draw. Tampa was 13th in the league in attendence. Tampa owns every attendence record ever set in the NHL (Go check year 4 when they played in the Thunderdome!) Take your sour grapes back to philly! It must suck that you live in Tampa, and cannot enjoy the fact that Tampa will have a Stanley Cup sitting next to a Lombardi Trophy. Go weep on you Eagles jersey. And by the way, the Bucs have 100,000 people on a season ticket waiting list. Only the Packers have more! OCTOBER Fri 10 Boston 20,454 Thu 16 Phoenix 12,784 Tue 21 Atlanta 14,822 Sat 25 Minnesota 16,223 Thu 30 San Jose 17,609 NOVEMBER Sat 1 Carolina 16,616 Tue 4 Washington 14,312 Thu 6 Los Angeles 14,287 Sat 8 Pittsburgh 18,262 Thu 20 NY Islanders 14,898 Sat 22 Buffalo 20,112 Tue 25 NY Rangers 16,034 Fri 28 St. Louis 18,787 DECEMBER OPPONENT Thu 4 Ottawa 15,221 Sat 13 Montreal 17,228 Sat 20 Dallas 16,233 Sat 27 Boston 19,942 Mon 29 Anaheim 17,662 Wed 31 Florida 15,234 JANUARY OPPONENT Fri 2 Columbus 13,609 Sat 3 Philadelphia 19,242 Thu 15 Carolina 19,909 Mon 19 Colorado 19,212 Thu 29 Pittsburgh 15,847 Sat 31 Atlanta 20,762 FEBRUARY OPPONENT Tue 10 Toronto 17,222 Thu 12 Montreal 15,644 Sat 14 Florida 18,888 Tue 17 Philadelphia 17,545 Thu 26 Toronto 19,909 Sat 28 Washington 20,124 MARCH OPPONENT Fri 5 New Jersey 20,239 Fri 12 NY Rangers 20,026 Sat 13 Carolina 20,237 Tue 16 NY Islanders 19,914 Thu 18 Buffalo 19,946 Thu 25 New Jersey19,013 Sat 27 Washington 18,812 Mon 29 Ottawa 19,844 APRIL OPPONENT Thu 1 Florida 17,726 Sat 3 Atlanta 20,244 2003-2004 POSTSEASON COMPLETE SCHEDULE & RESULTS Thu 8 NY Islanders 18,536 Sat 10 NY Islanders 19,982 Fri 16 NY Islanders 20,927 Fri 23 Montreal 18,904 Sun 25 Montreal 19,435 MAY OPPONENT Sat 8 Philadelphia 21,425 Mon 10 Philadelphia 21,314 Tue 18 Philadelphia 21,517 Sat 22 Philadelphia 22,117
Philly is NOT a better football city than Tampa. On any level, Tampa outrates Philly in football. Better staduim. Super Bowls hosted (3 going on 4). Super Bowls won. Season tickets sold. Number of consecutive sellouts, 100,000 people waiting to buy season tickets. How can you compare Football mad Florida with Philly is beyond me. That would be like me saying that Tampa is a better hockey town than Philly. No way!