Majors Home Opener

[ItsGameTime]

From the attendance on the OHL website it looks like people in Mississauga still don't care about hockey and those in Toronto don't care enough to make the trip because the recorded attendance was only about 2,500. I think thats like half capacity or less. Way to go Eugene! Was anyone at this game and can comment on the crowd? At least the Majors got an exciting shootout win for those in attendance.

[AlphaDog]

They won a game finally eh? That's good for their home audience. I guess....

Yah they seat around 6000 so they were at 42% capacity.

(whereas we were at about 80% capacity last night) :D

[GoDogsGo]

i think it's all about marketing... market the team well and they come...

[ItsGameTime]

i think it's all about marketing... market the team well and they come...

I think it also has to do with the IQ of the fans in the area. They went from having a top OHL team in the 'Dogs to a team that is going to be struggling for wins this season. I think their still a bit bitter about the whole situation. I know I would be!

[AlphaDog]

i think it's all about marketing... market the team well and they come...

But if it's not the arena's fault, and we are truley a hockey town as you say (I'm just playing devil's advocate here), wouldn't the game sell itself? Do we really need to have interest generated for us?

[GoDogsGo]

it did sell it self to "TRUE" hockey fans... look at this site...people posting even before the team was in town...it needs to be marketed to people that are fence sitters...
I showed a few guys from work the clips and pictures from here....and all will be attending games...cause they are hooked...

[Boner]

The icedogs need a street team of "a certain variety of gifted women" to do various events to get themselves in the paper more. Also, CH news should do alot better job covering events in this area. Their license demands they do it, but doesn't enforce the half ass job they do because of their own hockey team, and general lack of giving a **** about the region in general. Hopefully the CRTC will be productive this year and seriously consider giving the go ahead for TVN.

Cheers
-Boner

[GoDogsGo]

wouldnt that be a nice... a local station... your right...CH needs to show more... even highlights during the sports report.... time to send some emails....

[AlphaDog]

The icedogs need a street team of "a certain variety of gifted women" to do various events to get themselves in the paper more. Also, CH news should do alot better job covering events in this area. Their license demands they do it, but doesn't enforce the half ass job they do because of their own hockey team, and general lack of giving a **** about the region in general. Hopefully the CRTC will be productive this year and seriously consider giving the go ahead for TVN.

Cheers
-Boner

Yah CHCH does promote itself as serving the Niagara area as well as Hamilton. But then again, how often do they include the Bulldogs in their sports updates on the news?

[WellandDogsFan]

I saw a TSN SUV pull up to the Jack today... and there was a TSN cameraman roaming the rink, I wonder what he was shooting. Should we expect a segment on one of the IceDogs soon? National exposure is great, but the word needs to get out to more of the people in the region.

[ItsGameTime]

Yeah I think I know who you are talking about. He was taping right beside me but I didn't think to ask him what he was shooting for... damn.

On a side note, related to the Majors, they won 8-1 today in front of a measly 1,200 people

[AlphaDog]

On a side note, related to the Majors, they won 8-1 today in front of a measly 1,200 people

That's what the GAME SHEET said. I watched part of the game on my DVR. Wow.. there were a groups of 2/3/4 people together spread throughout an empty arena. It was pretty much all empty seating from what I saw. 1200 would be one in 5 seats taken. It was more like 1 in 30.

[ItsGameTime]

I was just on the Majors message board looking for some pics and WOW, talk about a ghost town!

[AlphaDog]

Here's a shot of their crowd from last night :

[slamr]

Whoa!

I hear some criticism of our attendance a bit but can you imagine if we drew that?
Jeez, I would just love to see what kind of crowds we could get if we had one of those buildings.

Looks like it's going to take a while for Missassauga to warm up to their new team.

[ItsGameTime]

Wow. That is really bad...

[RioBravo]

Well they couldn't get a crowd for a great team. More people aren't going to show up for a worse team.

[WellandDogsFan]

WOW.. thats pathetic!

[ItsGameTime]

There was a post on the Majors message board of an old Mississauga IceDogs fan venting about the situation. I'm thinking thats how most of the people in Mississauga feel right now, not even counting those in Toronto.

Random thoughts on the opener. Off the top of my head,

I stayed away from training camp because my heart wasn't in it, the exhibition games as well, and I really resented both Branch and Melnyk for causing it.

I went to the opener not knowing what the hell I was going to do when the Majors scored and I ended up cheering for them right from the start. IceDogs? Who the hell are the IceDogs?

I booed Melnyk as soon as they announced his name when he came out but they kept playing music in the background, obviously to drown it all out. I bet there were a lot more people doing it than just me.

I really liked the big posters of former St. Mikes players wrapped around the columns as you walked the concourse. I'd forgotten just how many NHL greats started their careers with the Majors, Horton, Keon, Duff, Mahovlich, the list goes on.

I still don't like the jersey much but I'm sure I'll get one as time goes by. One game doesn't erase everything that's happened.

Nice to see just about all the regulars were back.

It felt really weird that no one in our row had their IceDog jersey on and I didn't see one anywhere in the building last night. I didn't see any flags either.

It was great to see the crazies from Toronto make the trip. I was hoping they'd be there like they usually were over the years. They, a few groups of them around the arena, were louder than everyone else and I'm glad we're on the same side now. They certainly know how to get things going. If this place doesn't start to become intimidating like Erie and Windsor are to visiting teams and fans it won't be for lack of trying with these new supporters in the building.

Five on five this team looked really good in spots but not for a full 60 minutes. I'd expect that from a team that finished in 18th spot last season but I was surprised at just how well they could play overall.

Obviously I don't know the players as well as the St. Mikes fans but how could you not notice the play of Caria, Piva, Pelech, Sparre, Daugavins and Messier? The team just kept coming at the Spitfires all night. It reminded me of another team that used to play here.

Solid goatending by Carrozzi, although I thought he was probably off his angle on the 3rd one that beat him glove side. I didn't have a good angle for that shot so I couldn't tell if he flat out blew it or had lost his angle when moving across.

Nice to see this team can shut down the opposition in the 3rd period when they themselves need to score. How can you not like the excitement of tying the game with less than a minute on the clock?

In nine years I've never seen a game where one team had so many bounces go against them in one period. We (notice the 'we' now) had so many chances to take this game away from Windsor in the 1st period but time and time again we either fanned on the shot, had the puck jump over a stick or had it bounce in the air all over the place. Even nicer to see was the fact that they never gave up and won it in the end. They aren't a 1st place team yet but they certainly aren't an 18th place team either.

I thought we did a good job of staying out of the box all night, just 6 minors in all.

Hello, power play! Where are you? O for 10?

The best thing I saw all night, with the exception of the win in the shootout, was having the players salute the fans at centre ice at the end of the game. I loved it. In nine years of watching hockey here I've never seen that and it made a strong impression I can tell you.

Hell of a start, guys. Welcome to the Hershey Centre.

Now for Melnyk. For a guy with a few billion dollars you still aren't too smart at times, are you? Considering what you and Branch pulled off this past season, for all the upset you caused the fans of both teams, one would think you'd do everything in your power to fill the place on opening night. You had to know there would be a lot of empty seats after all that's gone on. You had to know you'd lose the interest of a lot of people yet you did nothing to bring them in for a look-see. With all your dough why didn't you buy up 3,000 tickets in advance (you knew ahead of time you'd never sell out and it's mere chump change for a guy like you) and give them away to schools, free of charge, just to get asses in the seats? With a little over 2,000 or so in the building last night you could've easily bought a few thousand and had one hell of a lot less empty seats in the place. What a damn shame it was for the players to come out on the ice and find the place more than half empty. They deserved better, they didn't cause this mess and I'm sure they were a little intimidated to have to skate out onto the ice knowing that there were a lot of unhappy fans to begin with, afterall, they've been hated for nine years now, it couldn't have been easy for them. You really dropped the ball here, you blew it. On top of all that the team won in a shoot-out and you could've had more than 5,000 people see it. Had you done this up right there would be a lot more people talking about the exciting win last night than there are right now. One would've thought you'd have wanted to fill the place knowing in advance you weren't going to get anywhere near the numbers every other team gets for a home opener, and in this particular instance you already knew you'd be fighting an uphill battle long before the night got here. Dumb, really dumb. I hope you learn from it.

[GoDogsGo]

interesting...