Detroit Visits

Tonight the Red Wings visit Nationwide and I am curious to see how many of their fans come to the game.  I’m not talking about the people who drive in from Marion and Upper Sandusky.  I mean the fans who live in the Detroit area.  The economy has not improved since the playoffs, so the scalpers might not have the huge market that they usually have when one of the favored opponents comes to town.  Say what you want about Detroit, but if it weren’t for their fans and their money, the Jackets would have another half-empty arena tonight. Week nights have not been kind to the local team this season.

I have seen Fredrik Modin at the local rinks a few times recently and he still is limping.  At 35 years old, he is paying the price for a lifetime of going to the net and getting banged around.  He is always pleasant to the people who approach him and always signs autographs and answers questions.  But he can’t be happy with the way things have turned out for him.

There is a lot of local talk about the financial situation of the Blue Jackets, but fans should also be concerned about the future of the NHL.  I’m not implying that the league is in trouble, but the current CBA will expire by the end of 2012 and I don’t have a clue as to what will happen.  The NHLPA (great read from Elliotte Friedman) is in disarray and the NHL itself has some weak franchises to shore up.  We, the fans, could see a lot of different things happen, such as contraction of weak franchises, a different type of salary cap, a weakened salary cap, a more militant union, or possible competition to the NHL itself from Europe or North America.  With this on the horizon, the league can’t be very appealing to any TV network.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to a good game tonight.  Welcome to Columbus, Detroit, but go Jackets.

 

 

Nice Shot

But I think this is fake.

Monday

So the Jackets won two in a row and have won three of their last five, earning points in all of the games.  Detroit is heading here on Wednesday and I’m sure the team is happy about that since it means there will be some butts in the seats.  Maybe the Jackets ought schedule home games with Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, Buffalo, and Toronto as much as possible so that the franchise can be saved by the out-of-town fans.  A kind of reverse cream puffery in the model of OSU.  And by the way, I’m sure the local elected officials are watching the attendance figures closely since hockey fans want them to stick their necks out and help bail out the team.

Cam Ward’s injury has to be one of the more gruesome that I have witnessed.  I have seen people who have had their arms cut by skates and a few who have had the back of the legs cut, but those cuts didn’t gush like Ward’s.  I hope he fully recovers and is ready to play again soon.  Best wishes to him.

Local high school hockey is now in session and there will be quite a few games to see this weekend.  And then there is the huge Thanksgiving Tournament coming up over that holiday weekend, taking place at all of the local Chiller rinks.  With the Jackets out of town during that time, you can see some of the local kids on the ice.

If the Jackets do leave town, how long do you think the Chillers would remain open?  An hour?  Yeah, it’s depressing, isn’t it.  Maybe the buildings could be used for slot machine maintenance or something.

Do you think the Carolina Hurricanes, in a desperate need to get something going, will fire Paul Maurice and bring back Peter Laviolette?  I mean, it worked well when they fired Maurice and replaced him with Laviolette and then it worked nicely when they fired Laviolette and put Maurice back in the coaching slot, so why not do it again?  The NY Yankees used to fire and hire Billy Martin all the time.

I don’t like to call players out, but after watching the Jackets play Carolina Saturday, I have to ask:  Is Joe Corvo the worst defenseman on Carolina, or the worst defenseman in the Eastern Conference?  Could he have played Jared Boll any poorer?

That’s all for now.  Email me tonight during the Kings-Blackhawks game with updates.  The game is on Versus and that means DirecTV won’t be showing it.  You can reach me at dispatchesfromcolumbus at gmail.com.

 

Empty

Wow, the seats in Atlanta look emptier tonight than those in Columbus last night.

One thing I want to add is that I’ve heard about the lack of lower bowl fans.  As someone who has owned seats in the exclusive LB since day one, I believe that there are fewer season ticket holders these days.  I know that the row of seats in my section is mostly unsold now.  Last year, all but four of the seats were accounted for.  So the comments about LB people not showing up are accurate, but I think it’s because they didn’t buy tickets this year.

Another View

Here is an outside view of the CBJ financial mess.  Yes, James and I talk and then and we got together when he was in town for a game.

The Columbus Blue Jackets could leave central Ohio if the team can’t fix an economic model that is causing losses of $12 million a year, according to a report issued today by the Columbus Chamber. But a deal to keep the hockey team here and the Arena District alive — the team and the district generated $30 million in taxes last year — probably will include asking for public dollars, and soon.

“We believe there is a sense of urgency here,” said Ty D. Marsh, chamber president and CEO. “We’re looking for a solution or progress by the end of the year.”

— The Columbus Dispatch

This is a situation that’s been building for a while. I’d actually be shocked if the Blue Jackets have made much of a profit in any year since the prelockout days, when the payroll was very low and interest was at its peak.

Historically, their attendance has been decent, too, at least prior to the lockout, but because a private company built the building, Columbus pays significant rent (about $3.5-million annually), receives no arena perks and ticket prices remain fairly low. The one game I’ve seen there, I sat right behind the bench for $80, tickets that were widely available.

Even with the league’s new revenue sharing system, the Jackets just aren’t all that close to turning a profit:

You can read the rest of his piece here.  But I will add this; the Jackets are in trouble and they can’t stay here past 2013 unless things change.  Think of how many slot machines will fit on the floor of Nationwide Arena.

 

 

 

Same Game?

I joined the 10,000 or so fans last night to watch the Blue Jackets play the Sharks.  And I don’t think I saw the same game as the writers of The Dispatch and a few others.

The only point I will agree on is the fine play of Steve Mason, although I thought he might have played the first San Jose goal a little better.  It reminded me of the goal he gave up to Sidney Crosby last week, a shot that he had initially saved, but didn’t focus enough to complete the play.  It looked to me from my seat that again he stopped his focus too early.  But overall his play was excellent last night and he looks like the guy who saved the franchise last season.

As for the rest of the team, they just didn’t look like they were in it to win.  Maybe they were thinking about the new casino going up a few blocks from Nationwide, or that their employer is losing a lot of money, enough to sound the alarm.  The best defenseman last night was Kris Russell and that says it all.  Jason Chimera played with speed and discipline.  Voracek had some moments, but he couldn’t get something going when the team needed him to.  Umberger, Pahlsson, Tyutin, anytime you guys want to show me what you got, I’m ready.  I’m sure Jan Hejda will play better after a few more games.

Oh, I forgot.  There was this fellow out there, number 28.  Filatov or something like that.  Man, he was really fast and created some nice offensive chances.  I hope they use him more.  I heard Ken Hitchcock mention something about track meets and I thought he really only has a few players who can run that kind of meet and Filatov is one of them.

The last thing I disagree with is the announced attendance, 13,401.  Did they count all the scalpers, parking lot attendants, restaurant customers, etc?  Not good, Columbus, even if you accept the higher figure.  When the game started, I thought to myself that Nationwide looked just like it does when they have the State High School Hockey Championships, empty.

 

Tonight

Light the Lamp and Puck-rakers are bringing attention to the fact that, if you care to go to the game against Pittsburgh, you may find yourself in a minority and surrounded by boorish fans.  As I said earlier, I spoke to a CBJ ticket rep and was told that the game is sold out and it is looking like a 50-50 fan mix.  So it might be uncomfortable for some people, but others might enjoy the companionship of opposing fans.

We’ll all be subject to the usual claims of how great the Penguins are and how strong their fan base is.  And those are true statements, today.  But just a few years ago, fans were not showing up and the team was not very good and they were looking to leave.  But that all worked out and things couldn’t be better in Pittsburgh.  Finishing last, the team got some very good number one draft picks with Crosby and Malkin, a new arena from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and today things couldn’t be better.  The Blue Jackets have never had the honor of finishing dead last (in fact our  third year franchise finished ahead of them in 2003) and we can’t even get the local county to help us out with our Arena issues.  But all is fair in love and hockey.

Welcome to Columbus, Penguin fans, and enjoy the game.  Good luck to you, but go Jackets.

 

Back to 2000

Last night, the Blue Jackets paid a very brief homage to Dave King, the team’s first coach and some would argue the most successful.  For about 60 seconds, a video was shown of the opening night game against Chicago.  The Jackets jumped to a quick lead in that very first game, but then lost their energy and the game.  Most of the 10,000 fans gave King a standing ovation and the current Jackets paid tribute in their own way, by playing like the Jackets of old, inconsistently, and giving the game to Phoenix, 4-1.

A few notes on the clunker I attended:  The announced attendance was 13,184, but that was total BS.  And those that were there last night won’t want to come back anytime soon, either.  For those of you coming on Friday, I hope you enjoy being in the minority.  I talked to some ticket people and they told me that although the game is sold out, Nationwide will be at least half-full of Pittsburgh fans.

Steve Mason couldn’t be blamed for the first two goals.  In fact, the second goal hit a Blue Jacket on the way in.  The old Steve Mason would have stopped the third Phoenix goal and the current Steve Mason was already thinking about something else when Robert Lang roofed a beauty by him from a very sharp angle.

As for the rest of the team, there were a lot of inconsistencies.  I’m probably being charitable, but they had some moment of competitiveness as the current coach likes to say, but Jason LaBarbera was sharp in the nets for Phoenix.  The Jackets took some poor penalties and were only one for six on the power play.

There were a lot of reminders of Dave King to see last night.  The play of the Jackets last night brought back memories of how bad they were nine years ago.  The play of the Coyotes showed what might have been if the team would have let King stay a little longer.

 

Down Goes Chimera

OK, the affair is over, at least the off-ice portion.  Mr. Scuderi has been told that he better not do it again and Mr. Dorsett has been told that upon further review, he did not leave his bench to go fight Mr. Scuderi.  Oh, Mr. Chimera is expected to forget the whole thing, which he probably will do.

I’ll bet that Kevin Pollock and Francois St.Laurent, the two referees that night, will not be able to forget it because they probably got some bad marks on their performance reviews and may not be chosen to work any playoff games in April.  OK, so they “missed” seeing how low Scuderi hit Chimera.  Because they were not watching it?  Or because they were out of position?  And then they said Dorsett left the bench early, but all they called was Too Many Men.  Really?  You call Too Many Men and then tack on a Game Misconduct?  Usually an official will add another two or a ten before the game.  But OK, I’ll work with you guys, Keven and Francois.  You have everything under control now and want to get things going again.

So the next course of action would be …Assess a Misconduct (ten minutes) to Jason Chimera because you don’t like the tone of his voice?  He is bleeding from the face and head, might have a head injury (which the league doesn’t like), is emotional and upset because he almost had his career ended, and you think he deserves a penalty?  That will teach him, although I have no idea what.  You don’t let him blow off a little steam, you don’t call anything on Scuderi, and you take two Blue Jackets off the ice for at least ten minutes.

Keep it up and you’ll find yourselves working D League games at The Chiller.

Fans?

15,251  Really?

I went to my first game last night.  I’ve been out of town or tied up at work during the other two home games, so I was really looking forward to a live game.  I got to the Arena District, parked my car, and headed to a nearby restaurant by 5:30.  But I could tell that something was wrong right away.

What was wrong was the lack of fans.  I got to park a block away from the Arena and was the first car in the cheap lot.  I walked into a very popular restaurant and got a table immediately, as did the others filing in.  And then I walked into Nationwide around 6:20 and saw the empty seats.  So where was everybody?

Was everybody in mourning over the latest Buckeye loss?  I’m sure a lot of people were not able to leave their houses after that game, but those people do not usually attend CBJ games.

Were fans staying home in protest of the way Nikita Filatov is being used?  There is a small minority of hockey fans who do not think the situation is healthy, but that will be addressed later in another post.

Maybe the anti-Kris Russell group boycotted when they found out he was given an extension.  There’s a lot of noise out there singing the praises of the one-dimensional Anton Stralman and offensively challenged Marc Methot.  And they walked away from last night’s game all pissed off because Russell had one assist with the same amount of ice time as the other two.

Maybe, just maybe, the “fans” don’t have any good excuses.  Yes, some people have lost their jobs or have the flu bug, but they don’t go to bars to watch a home CBJ game.  It’s easy enough to get a cheap ticket; just walk the gauntlet of scalpers outside Nationwide.  The scalpers have very good seat choices at reasonable, cash prices.

Look, the local blogs are full of people saying they have been PSL holders from Day One.  (That group must be over 70,000 and growing.)  I can read all kinds of comments on how bad certain Jackets are, how terrible the game operations are, the poor choice of in-game music, the human waste that leaves a game early, and the lower bowl elites who fail to truly appreciate the game like the upper bowl.  Whatever the comment or rant, fans aren’t showing up.  And that is not good.