Enjoy the season, Dogs!!!

[knights05]

Congratulations on finally getting a team back to the Region. I grew up in Niagara and was left without a team when the Thunder packed up and moved to Erie. I've since moved to London and have been a season ticket holder for the last 6 years. Needless to say, being a Knights fan has been pretty good lately - I'm looking forward to the game at the Jack in October, hopefully with Gagner and Kane back in the fold.

You will enjoy this year - you may just have inherited the Nordiques!!! Although season ticket sales aren't what they should be, hopefully in a year or two people will be kicking themselves for not stepping up and getting their foot in the door before seasons are capped. This is exactly what's happened in London after the JLC opened in 2002. I even considered forking out the money for Dogs seasons just so I could sell the packages in subsequent years. Hockey fans in Niagara will rue the day they missed Pietrangelo play 34 times a year in a junior hockey barn. What, he played here??? He won't nearly be as interesting or noticeable in a 19,000 seat arena.

Can 't forget to mention Foreman - he should keep you fairly entertained, provided he's on the ice and hasn't been suspended.

Good luck - see you Oct.18 and hopefully in the OHL final (that's when things will get really interesting between my brothers, who are Dogs season tickets holders and I).

[AlphaDog]

Great post! Thanks for the info! Yah I'm hoping for a lot more season ticket holders if/when they put up a new rink. I think we'll have great crowds this year, as the pre-season games just kept growing in size. The fact is, the Jack just doesn't look/feel like "big league" arena, which might scare some people who WOULD be new fans to the game, away. St. Catharines alone could easily support an OHL team and keep it successful, but if we could get a new rink in a good location in the city, with parking right next to it, and a rink that had all the stuff modern rinks have, I'd would think that people living in the Falls, Grimsby, Port Colbore, Fort Erie, Welland, etc.. would be more likely to come and support the team. I can't see people being too eager to come from out of town to the limited seating / limited parking arena we have now. It just doens't have that big league arena draw to it.

But with that being said, people should be filling the seats all year long. Heck, there's only 2800 seats there. Keep doing that and show the owners/league that it's not big enough for us, and hopefully a new one will be built.

Still, with ove 1,000 season tickets sold, that's 1 out of 3 seats. Sure it's not Kitchener's ratio yet... but come 2nd year I'm sure that # will skyrocket.

[slamr]

Well, I think that our Administrator has pretty much nailed it in his assessment.

My own personal view:
Having watched junior hockey (both A & B) since the days of Marcel Dionne I think I have a pretty good idea on the pulse of this area.

Since the IceDogs announced back in early spring that they were coming, I have been on my own personal crusade to get people I know to get on the bandwagon. It has been met with mixed results.

Some are exited and ready...others are not. Most are pretty ignorant of what is being done at the arena. When I tell them, they have this look of bewilderment on their face.
What! Beer in the seats? Since when?
Replay screens? Really?
A Tiki bar? You're kidding!It's apparent that unless you view these forums you just don't have much of an idea of what's being done here. These people need to be educated and informed because short of knowing that there is a team here, they just don't know much at all.

I know people from all over this area and I can tell you that regional competition is alive and well. Bill Burke can call the team whatever he wants but they still view it as a team playing out of a rink in St. Catharines and is therefore a St. Catharines team and being from the Falls or Welland, why should they care?

Most of the negative comments I have heard are the obvious...parking, old uncomfortable rink etc.

I personally still believe that in order to get a real "pulse" of the support this region can give, then a modern rink with lots of parking and in a good location is needed. I like near White Oaks in NOTL or off the 406 in Thorold. If Mr. Burke is serious about making this a team for the whole region then I believe this is the only way to do it.
Until then, we will never really know what kind of support this team can get.

Mr. Burke has said there will be a new arena in 5 years. Well I really hope so.
The apathetic, negative attitudes around here is a cancer and we need to do whatever we can to reverse that trend. I will do my part by attending the games in the old barn to help the cause. I hope many others do as well.

Oh...and hats off to Mr. Burke for doing his best in trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear. It will be fun this year.

[Canuck311]

great thread , puta smile on my face..

see you guys sunday

[AlphaDog]

Good post slamr. The problem with this city is that there's just not enough free room in the "core" of the city. That would make a new arena location out in the surrounding city limit areas a no-brainer, except the business side of the location comes into play. The franchise will need to keep businesses around the arena happy to get as much support as possible from them. Some businesses might be hesitant on spending advertising $ when the arena is out in the bush. So from a location standpoint, the franchise would probably want it right in the heart of the city, but from a fans standpoint, we want ROOM. Big arena, big parking, large non-busy roads going to/from the venue. So it'll be interesting to see what middle ground is chosen between the two if/when a new arena is put up. I still think the lower level parking lot would be great. Right off the 406, the downtown in the background, enough room for an arena and a parking garage right next to it, bus station a hop away... and it's a bloody eyesore the way it is right now. If instead of driving on the 406 and seeing those beat-up backs of buildings we could see a nice new arena, that would be great aesthetically.

But we should probably all hold our opinions back on the Jack until a year or two go by. We can expect a new franchise to dump $ into a whole new arena without testing the waters first. IT only makes sense from a financial standpoint to make sure you're going to get a return-on-investment before you sink the money into it.

As far as making it a regional team... that's going to be a hard one. Local media in those communities are going to have to build up interest in it, and make people realize it's THEIR team and not St. Kitts' team. Maybe play a handful of games in arenas around the penninsula during the year? Besides St. Kitts and the Falls I'm not sure what other localities have arenas that could hold enough people to make it worth while. They'd be taking a short-term hit at the box office that's for sure. But hopefully in the long run it would bring those people to a 5000 or 7000 seat arena in St. Kitts down the road.

Of course, most of my suggestions in the past have come with the mindset that I have unlimited funds and won't loose a dime if something was tried out and failed. And I wouldn't be loosing any money over it. I've got to keep in mind that this is a BUSINESS with $ at stake, and not just a team that was brought here soley for my own enjoyment.

Whatever decisions they make, they're not going to be easy ones!