Cornwall Ontario – A lot of chatter about the Sens not selling out the house for the playoffs is making the rounds.
Frankly I can’t blame them and feel for the thousands of loyal Ottawa Senator fans. They have a miserly owner that won’t spend to the cap, and an arena in the middle of near nowhere instead of being downtown or close to that.
With talk of building a new barn being a potential recipe for success it’s not a guarantee. With Quebec City having a new rink just waiting for a team down the road, the option of Eugene Melnyk selling his squad could be a possibility?
I can’t imagine, even with the weird and odd Quebec language politics that there’d be an empty seat in the house if their team were two wins from a chance to drink from Lord Stanley’s Cup?
Of course there are many factors contributing to the current lack of seats. One, it’s Ottawa, never an oasis for events. Two, the rink is in freaking Kanata. What a lame idea that was. Three, the owner doesn’t spend close to the cap. Credit goes to its GM and it’s awesome new coach Guy Boucher, along with the players that have taken the team far further than probably even some of them thought they’d go this year.
A horrible marketing job of the team. For example the Sens don’t work with this newspaper even though our #2 market is in fact, Ottawa. Even when Sens players have done some promotional work in our area we don’t get press releases which is really odd as we’re one of the few papers giving original NHL coverage due to this writer’s NHL experience working for the Habs, and touring with the Old Timer’s Legend’s team a million years ago.
But it’s not just this newspaper. You just don’t see a lot of ads for Senator’s hockey; even online.
What is the brand of the Sens? If you close your eyes what do you see when you think about the team? What’s their identity?
All valid questions. Reality is that there are a lot of intelligent, loyal, and fierce Sens fans that deserve a good team and they have one this year that needs just two more wins to get the finish line and a chance to in the cup.
There should be bidding wars for tickets right now; not clearance sales. It’s kinda cray cray, but then the NHL itself has been suffering due to the Americanization of the product and there being too many teams which has impacted scoring as it’s far cheaper to sign defensive players than guys that hit the twine. In other words, mediocre players muck it up for better ones.
What do you think hockey fans? Should the Sens games be sold out every night? Do you ever go? If not why?
You can post your comments below.
If memory serves me correct they didn’t sell out for ONE playoff game. They sold out tonight’s game. Marketing any sports team isn’t easy. And being located between Montreal and Toronto’s teams does not help. Penny pinching Melynk doesn’t help either.
Uhhh dude? I think you uploaded the wrong pic…
Anyways, with 16 teams in the West and 15 in the East when the Las Vegas Golden Knights take the ice next year, I think adding a team in the Quebec market would make sense.
Aside from that, the Senators suffer from the fact that just about anyone who can afford to fork over Stanley Cup Finals-grade cash is a fan of Toronto or Montreal.
The NHL has made it quite clear that they will not be going into Quebec City, either with an expansion team or a team moving. So, the nice new arena will sit empty, void of a major tenant, much like Hamilton. Hamilton thought by building an NHL arena they’d get a team. The NHL wouldn’t have it and neither would the Toronto Maple Laffs.
Never say Never Hugger 🙂