Scanlan: Senators will waste no time trying to woo fans back
After 113 days of frustration, exasperation and no-action, the National Hockey League lockout is over — and a new waiting game begins. At least this one won’t take so long to get solved. What hockey fans in Ottawa — and elsewhere across the league — are waiting for now is word on when they’ll actually get their NHL hockey back and how it will look.
After 113 days of frustration, exasperation and no-action, the National Hockey League lockout is over — and a new waiting game begins.
At least this one won’t take so long to get solved.
What hockey fans in Ottawa — and elsewhere across the league — are waiting for now is word on when they’ll actually get their NHL hockey back and how it will look.
One Canadian team, the Calgary Flames, has already apologized to its fans for the denying them hockey for nearly four months.
Ottawa’s top hockey officials weren’t speaking on Sunday, the day a collective bargaining agreement was finally hammered out between the NHL and its players union just before dawn.
But Senators fans can be assured Ottawa and the rest of the teams will be quick to launch an aggressive campaign to woo back support after a work stoppage that upset virtually every hockey-lover and enraged some of the game’s most loyal followers.
Senators president Cyril Leeder and general manager Bryan Murray are both expected to waste no time stepping to the plate to remind fans that Ottawa is coming off a surprisingly competitive season in 2011-12 — remember? — even if the lockout has taken the shine off the Senators push to a playoff position during Year 1 of a rebuilding program.
It seems hockey fans have already guided the team on these matters. Several weeks ago, the Senators mailed a letter to season ticket holders asking them to rate potential enticements, including more Metro Family 4 Packs, two-for-one ticket offers on certain games, reduced concession prices and free parking vouchers.
The letter accompanying the questionnaire told fans how the Senators “continue to value your ongoing support of the Senators and remain hopeful a new agreement can be reached as soon as possible so that we can get back to watching the world’s greatest game with the world’s greatest fans.”
The team can only hope every fan has the same attitude of Cindy Flett, the mother of a 10-year-old Senators enthusiast Joshua, who was asked Sunday how she feels about the end to the lockout.
“Get out, support the team, and move on,” she said.
With that CBA agreement expected to be formally in place later this week, wheels have already been set in motion on a variety of fronts.
While team and league officials decide just how much pleading and begging is appropriate to the fan base, players will return home from European leagues and AHL clubs to take part in a mini-camp of about one week in length, once the deal is official. That camp may or may not include exhibition games.
Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said on Sunday that the shortened NHL schedule won’t be announced until the league and its players have had an opportunity to formally approve the deal that was reached following a marathon bargaining session Saturday night into the wee hours Sunday.
While a firm schedule won’t be decided for a few days, fans can expect a 48- or 50-game season with limited travel, probably beginning no later than Jan. 19. If there is a 50-game schedule, the Senators would likely play their Northeast Division rivals — Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Buffalo — five times each and their 10 Eastern Conference rivals three times.
Forget about seeing the Detroit Red Wings or Vancouver Canucks at Scotiabank Place. It will be an Eastern Conference-only schedule, with no chance of seeing a Western opponent except — and this is for those fans who like to dream — in the Stanley Cup finals.
As much as we love to dispense TV viewer numbers, the NHL remains a gate-driven league, and for teams like Ottawa that don’t have instant sellouts via the season ticket base, rebuilding goodwill is paramount.
After pushing the first place New York Rangers to seven games in an opening round playoff series, the Senators had a season ticket total of about 11,300. Bravely, considering the looming lockout, the hockey club set a goal of 13,000 season ticket holders by the fall, a program that was stalled when the work stoppage hit.
Every Senators home game is estimated to be worth about $2 million to the local economy, and by Friday Jan. 11, the city will have missed out on 20 home dates that were part of the original 2012-13 NHL schedule. That’s a cool $40 million for those who are counting.
Now, the game is back, on bended knee. Laid off Senators staff and work-reduced full timers are back at 100-per-cent duty, and what a job lies ahead.
A short season has its pitfalls, for players, fans and marketing staffs. Sudden death, in terms of a playoff berth, might mean one bad week. Injuries could run rampant with a compressed schedule, and no legitimate training camp. Teams that don’t do well out of the gate run the risk of not only missing the lucrative post-season but of losing an already reticent fan base.
As one of the NHL’s younger teams, the Senators have to hope for a boost by their many roster players who kept active during the lockout, including Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson and his Swedish compatriot Jacob Silfverberg, off to a torrid start with the AHL Binghamton Senators.
Team performance and fan reaction will go hand in hand. Here and elsewhere, it will be fascinating to chart fan response. Will fans who vowed not to watch a single game this season stick to their word?
The sense in Ottawa is that fans treasure the NHL club that only came back home 20 years ago and they won’t fritter away their most precious sports commodity because of a four-month shutdown of operations.
Many blame the commissioner rather than the organization, although letters to this corner suggest most fans want to send a message in some way, whether boycotting certain games or skipping this entire shortened season.
There is also this consideration: if this is the last hurrah for Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson — will fans really want to miss watching No. 11, even if it is in a rudely delayed, nearly botched, lockout-bloodied season of 2013?
wscanlan@ottawacitizen.com twitter.com/@HockeyScanner
I really do not care that they are coming back I am not spending money to watch a hockey game this year……they held off all this time the greedy owners and players
why should I spend money of hockey did they care about me when I wanted to watch a game
In a strike somebody has to be hurt or inconvenienced, this strike it was the fans and support staff. Lots of people are bitter and angry, but strikes and job actions are sometimes the reality of some peoples jobs. If it’s a billionaire owner or millionaire hockey player or $20.00 an hour bus driver or cleaning staff that want to make a little more than minimum wage. Somebody gets screwed until the strike is resolved, hopefully the fans will slowly make their way back to the stadiums. I for one know strikes don’t last forever and I’m very thrilled to see it end and hope that we have a full 10 years of labour peace. I will be attending and watching as many games as I can.
I am not interested in seeing only Eastern Conference teams. A fifty game schedule diminishes the product appeal. I was looking forward to seeing the Sedins and other stars in my city.
I have no intention of attending games of this inferior product. My season tickets, which I have held since the start of the lockout, are now not the attraction I expected.
I will not be renewing for a short season, although I may watch some games on TV.
As for Don Cherry`s tweet that the end of the lock out is due in large part to the efforts of Gary Bettman, I counter, so was the initial cause of this lockout the fault of Gary Bettman.
I wil watch every Senators game on TV. Of course, I live in Minnesota, so there’s that. I was looking forward to seeing them at the X this year, but it sounds like THIS RIDICULOUS SCHEDULE will prevent that.
Save your money and time I have switched to watching basketball!
I, for one, will NOT attend ANY games this season and maybe next or forever – at least as long as Bettman is Commissioner!
Fans of the NHL have been held ransom. The league does NOT deserve our support, as they didn’t care about us when they instituted the lock-out.
I hope that fans stay away from NHL arenas in ALL venues… Soccer, Figure skating, Curling, Poker and TVO have become good alternative sources of entertainment
Well boys, this is one “Hockey Fan” who has no intention of “Boycotting” any games, selling anything to do with my club. Hopefully, this deal will be signed, sealed and delivered! When the puck is dropped at Scotiabank, we will be there! GO SENS GO!!!
We will be there with bells on!!! GO SENS GO! Can’t wait to see ALFIE out there again.
Kanata, you are so right. Still love the countdown to 11 and yelling ALFIE, ALFIE.
I guess anyone suggesting that the NHL be boycotted for depriving us of OUR sport by locking the players out doesn’t get comments published…
How were things negotiated BEFORE Bettman?
I know that I won’t be going back to arenas until the Commissioner is replaced!