What has this league come to?

[catsfan4]

How many years have the bous been into their new stadium .. Also with a larger population you have a much better base for fun raising . Your problem may be due to a lack of volunteers ,[/quote]

Cats aren't having any problems with fundraisers..

[hooligan]

again.. you can't put fundraising and the size of the arena in teh same sentence. They are two different entities entirely. When you FUNDRAISE you maximize your local town & surrounding area to raise the money.. so YES.. you are using your population... seating capacity has NOTHING to do with it

I do UNDERSTAND the statements made regarding the smaller arena = less gate revenue.. I get. it. but its not always the case.. (as I mentioned before about poor fan support in years past in corner brook dispite a large venue)

but my point is this.. you can't point the finger and blame the teams who happen to be playing out of a larger arena than you.. the caribous would STILL have the smallest arena in the league if the CEC wasn't built.. and dispite what some believe.. the CEC was NOT built for the sole purpose of giving the caribous a larger rink.. the CEC was in the works before the team even entered the league.. ..

Maybe its time the cats (since it seems its the cat fans that are makin the most noise on this issue) come up with a concert concept for the summer that the cats will put off.. all revenue going to the team.. get an act that will draw a crowd (such as the bous and buddy wasisname) and THEN you're fundraising using the community POPULATION.. NOT just the fans of hockey.

THAT is the key.. utalize the COMMUNITY.. NOT just hockey fans[/quote]

I'm not sure if all that was directed at me or not but i'll respond nevertheless. Obviously fundraising and arena size have no direct corelation nor was I impling there was. My point was simply this. Given that all teams do a tremendous amount of fundraising, it's extremely difficult to close the gap in revenues created by the difference in the size of the venues. Think about it, the cats would have to fundraise $80 000+ MORE than the Bous just to be on an equal footing. No small task. For the record I'm not blaming the Bous or Royals for utilizing the size of their venues to their advantage. I would hope that if the Cats were in the same situation they would do the same. I'm simply saying you can't downplay the significance of the venue size discreptancy and it's not fair to the fundraisers for some to imply that they are somehow not doing enough.

[canonball]

A lack of volunteers is not saying that they don`t do enough .. the volunteers can only do so much .. And yes the Bous do have a bigger stadium but that was only the past year .. What did they do before that .. They have ,,like you said , went out to the general public and funraised by having several events that not only involved the hockey fans but everyone who wanted to attend or what ever ...

[HockeyGooRoo]

I have to completely agree with hooligan on this one. Potentially there is a HUGE advantage in having a larger rink, and eventually everyone will realize it.

Lets just forget whats happened in the league up to this point and consider the following hypothetical situation. Then think again whether a bigger venue means something or not.

Hypothetical....the Royals put a wicked team on the ice this season and as a result their average attendance in the regular season goes way up – say 2500-3000 per game then they go to the finals and get another 6 home games. Of course in the playoffs you can expect the attendance to increase even more to say 3000-4000 fans. If you base the gross gate revenue on a constant ticket price of 12 bucks a ticket thats roughly about $500,000 of gross gate revenue for 18 home games. Then if they go on to the Herder you can throw in another minimum of $140,000 of gross gate revenue. Thats 640K, and could easily be over 800K if they get more home games and/or more fans.

Now lets say the Wings average 1200 per regular season game. Then they lose in the 1st round and only get 3 home games, albeit sold out (I said hypothetical Tommy ) Thats a total of about $200,000 of gross gate revenue for 15 home games. Thats approximately a 4 to $500,000 difference at the gate!!!!!

You obviously have to consider the higher cost of rink rental and the continuing cost of operating the team for a longer season for the Royals, but after you close the gap with those considerations you still have a HUGE discrepancy. And no amount of fundraising or business support is going to close THAT gap.

So then I’ll assume that financially, if this actually happened, the Wings would be in the hole and the Royals would be in good shape. So then jump ahead to next season.........when the teams start recruiting players and the bidding wars begin who do you think would be winning those bidding wars? And would the Wings, or the Cats under the same scenario be able to bid at all?

Rink size is a HUGE advantage IMO and it doesn’t matter where the biggest rink is ----- that is simply a FACT. It just so happens that the Royals are the ones with the big rink. The only reason why we haven’t seen it yet is because previous Royals management groups have taken risks that haven’t paid off for them, the same risks that it appears Ross Coates is taking again this season – a calculated business risk. Not knocking him at all – more power to him if it works. But if it does there will be consequences.

The only thing about Coates “business risk” is that if it pays off he’ll look like a genius, but it’ll also translate into the Royals having a very short stint of supremacy in the west coast league because nobody will be able to afford to compete with them.

Just my two cents worth.....

[rusty]

I have to completely agree with hooligan on this one. Potentially there is a HUGE advantage in having a larger rink, and eventually everyone will realize it.

Lets just forget whats happened in the league up to this point and consider the following hypothetical situation. Then think again whether a bigger venue means something or not.

Hypothetical....the Royals put a wicked team on the ice this season and as a result their average attendance in the regular season goes way up – say 2500-3000 per game then they go to the finals and get another 6 home games. Of course in the playoffs you can expect the attendance to increase even more to say 3000-4000 fans. If you base the gross gate revenue on a constant ticket price of 12 bucks a ticket thats roughly about $500,000 of gross gate revenue for 18 home games. Then if they go on to the Herder you can throw in another minimum of $140,000 of gross gate revenue. Thats 640K, and could easily be over 800K if they get more home games and/or more fans.

Now lets say the Wings average 1200 per regular season game. Then they lose in the 1st round and only get 3 home games, albeit sold out (I said hypothetical Tommy ) Thats a total of about $200,000 of gross gate revenue for 15 home games. Thats approximately a 4 to $500,000 difference at the gate!!!!!

You obviously have to consider the higher cost of rink rental and the continuing cost of operating the team for a longer season for the Royals, but after you close the gap with those considerations you still have a HUGE discrepancy. And no amount of fundraising or business support is going to close THAT gap.

So then I’ll assume that financially, if this actually happened, the Wings would be in the hole and the Royals would be in good shape. So then jump ahead to next season.........when the teams start recruiting players and the bidding wars begin who do you think would be winning those bidding wars? And would the Wings, or the Cats under the same scenario be able to bid at all?

Rink size is a HUGE advantage IMO and it doesn’t matter where the biggest rink is ----- that is simply a FACT. It just so happens that the Royals are the ones with the big rink. The only reason why we haven’t seen it yet is because previous Royals management groups have taken risks that haven’t paid off for them, the same risks that it appears Ross Coates is taking again this season – a calculated business risk. Not knocking him at all – more power to him if it works. But if it does there will be consequences.

The only thing about Coates “business risk” is that if it pays off he’ll look like a genius, but it’ll also translate into the Royals having a very short stint of supremacy in the west coast league because nobody will be able to afford to compete with them.

Just my two cents worth.....

I agree with everything but your last statement. the year the royals won the hearder the stadium was full and they had money coming out of their ears. Bought all the boys expensive rings, then Dl. and Gf wanted the royals to cost share with them because they had a lot more money to operate with. And they were at a disadvantage.

[Tommy]

deer lake keep them on the ice when the profit sharing was on the sure,thats the only time the building had fans...lol your a doll rusty.

[rusty]

deer lake keep them on the ice when the profit sharing was on the sure,thats the only time the building had fans...lol your a doll rusty.

I agree with only 3 teams Deer Lake had a great rivalary and yes i agree with you. Hope this year both rinks are filled again and i drive you crazy for tickets.

[Tommy]

deer lake keep them on the ice when the profit sharing was on the sure,thats the only time the building had fans...lol your a doll rusty.

I agree with only 3 teams Deer Lake had a great rivalary and yes i agree with you. Hope this year both rinks are filled again and i drive you crazy for tickets.

wont be driving me crazy im already there

[smogdog]

and how many of those 3000- 4000 fans are kids under 12 . a good many i think so you better do your math again

[btc]

just proves my point btc... small venue means a deficit... my info tells me that you guys were 60 grand in the red...

well then your info is not worth dog poop.