Quote Originally Posted by bombermwc View Post
Well here's my question about the whole deal. The Blazers have been well supported here, but they were starting to lose money because of dropping attendence. It wasn't dropping because the team was bad or because people didn't like the Blazers anymore. It was dropping because the Thunder stole some folks and the economy turned sour. We still have an excellent attendence record as far as the CHL goes, but that's not saying much. Look at the arenas that most of the cities we played had. We're looking at less than 10K seats in most of them...think old Tulsa arena.

Now here's the problem i see happening. With moving up a level, they're going to want to charge more for tickets because they'll have to recoop the higher cost of the player salaries. Dont' think for a second that they will cost the same as the Blazers' players...and those players won't be back. Out of their own mouth, they said they weren't good enough for that league....which is why they played in the CHL to begin with.

So with higher prices, and still being in not great economic times, do we expect a brand new team to be received well? It's the same owners as the Blazers, so they could still be called the Blazers, but with all new players. So it's like watching an entirely new cast of a show......It's the same Daren on Bewitched, right?

So do we really think that people are going to want to pay more just because it's one level up? It's still minor league...not NHL. There's a HUUUUUGE difference in supporting the pros compared to the minors.

The cavies are actually a good comparison. Minor league team....did extremely well as far as record, but attendence blew. We move to NBA and it's great. We had our try at the ABL or whatever for a while, and they had bad attendence too.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling that in a few years, we'll be without hockey again...and then wishing we never screwed up the good thing we had going.
I agree. I think people have an attachment to and love for the blazers. I don't see the difference in having the blazers and a chl team...except there will be less fights. Which I promise isn't a good thing for our hockey watchers. Nothing like a good layer of red ice on christmas night! The rivalry will be with whom? We like the rivalry with Tulsa - it was about the only solid one we have where we got to pound the crap out of them. So I don't know what the expectation will be for a new chl team. But I don't think it will do very well. I think the blazers were great and we should have kept them. The attendance would have gone back up. The tickets were cheap and the games were fun. In this economy it was a great trip for schools and churches to be able to fund.

For godsakes please don't touch the redhawks. We have had enough movement and hands in that pot. The field is great, the ticket prices are awesome, the promotions work....just leave them alone.