Let it be noted that, as hockey season starts, the summer weather is absolutely amazing and hopefully stays through September.
And let it also be noted that, when hockey season ends in mid-to-late February for the midget Trappers and the OUA Nipissing Lakers there will still be six weeks of winter left, the ice huts and snowmobiles will still be on the lake, the backyard rinks will still be frozen.
For some, hockey starts too early and ends too early.
Anyway, the pre-season is over and the puck has already dropped on the hockey season.
The midget North Bay Trappers opened at Memorial Gardens over the weekend, playing in front of crowds in the range of 300 to 400.
The junior A Trappers open their home season Sunday when the defending champion Soo Thunderbirds visit town.
But with the new Nipissing Lakers also setting up shop in Memorial Gardens, set to play a Blue-White scrimmage Friday night and a pre-season game against the Ottawa Gee Gees Sept. 19, the question that will soon be answered is . . . how many fans will come out and support the teams?
The junior Trappers (formerly Skyhawks) averaged 1,602 fans per game last season, down from 1,641 in 2007-08, 1,751 in 2006-07 and 1,938 in 2005-06.
With the OUA Lakers competing for fans and season-ticket sales, how many fans will be showing up to support the Jr. Trappers this season?
The pre-season attendance was dismal, with less than 400 per game.
How many fans will the Lakers attract? While the OUA brand of hockey is now the highest calibre in town and its better hockey than the OHL, by the way and it will attract many of the citys traditional hockey supporters, there is also an opportunity for the Lakers to attract a new type of fan.
The university student.
The Laker Maniacs campaign is taking root on campus, with buses being organized to provide transportation to and from campus, as well as post-game festivities at the campus pub, The Wall.
Will excitement for the new Lakers hockey team spill down from the Education Centre into Memorial Gardens?
What is the over-under on Lakers attendance? Will the team be able to sustain attendance numbers through the season if the team struggles on the ice as a start-up operation?
It will be interesting to see.
Come on Ken – How can you say that the OUAA is better than the OHL – Im hoping you mean the NOJHL which i will agree with you on that one , We all know the OUAA is where overaged Major Junior Players who should have made an effort to go to school while they played junior hockey end up . I was in Ottawa last year and had the opportuity to catch U of O vs Carlton – a bitter rivalry – well at least for about the 150 people that were there . Certainly – the buzz in town is Lakers and that’s great – it has a great line up of supporters in the ownership area and the Parks and recreation Dept bending over backwards to ensure it succeds.
Its amazing how all the media outlets are all over the lakers to succeed and the trappers to take a beating , i guess thats the marketing machine behind the Lakers. Yes PRESEASON Trapper attendance was minimal , but it was also 75 degrees and sunny outside – didnt have too many of those days this past summer.
400 for Midget Trappers was outstanding – minmal coverage on that from media – thats a big number for midgets especially in September .
Perhaps if the city would have done this whole thing up right – worked equally with both clubs (The Parks and Rec Dept selling advertsiing in their own rinks – ran their own concessions) and treated everyone as a customer and, perhaps if the two clubs could have come up with a same seat 2 team package season ticket deal , and most importanly , both clubs getting equal positive coverage from all media outlets – then these coffee shop , breakfast restaurant arguments that occur daily in this city about Lakers/Trappers wouldnt happen. Then you wouldnt have to ask questions regarding attenandce or support – but could write on how North Bay works together to bring great hockey at all levels to our city – i thought that what you were supposed to be doing anyway.
I have never watched a Canadian University hockey game but I have been covering the Ontario Hockey League since the 1975-76 season when Mike Foligno was a star player with the Sudbury Wolves. The calibre of player that comes through the OHL these days is just as good as back in ‘75-76 but I will say that the style of play in the OHL is not nearly as exciting now as it was then. I would still rather watch a U.S. college hockey game across the International Bridge at Lake Superior State University than a Soo Greyhounds OHL game because I find the U.S. college game more exciting than the OHL and that may be because the players range in age from 18-23 as opposed to 16-19.
Besides, the higher the calibre of play does not necessarily mean more excitement. In fact, I find the opposite to be true in several instances. For example, the National Football League has better players than the Canadian Football League but I find the CFL to be more — way more — exciting than the NFL. And truth be told, I would rather watch the Blind River Beavers play the Soo Eagles at the Pullar Stadium than I would the Soo Greyhounds play the Sudbury Wolves at the Essar Centre. The better players may in the OHL but to me, the NOJHL is more exciting.
Dcky 33,
The OUA is a higher calibre of hockey than the OHL.
The fact that 150 people watched Carleton against Ottawa has nothing to do with it. The 67’s draw 6,000 per game not because it’s a higher calibre, but because the OHL might offer better entertainment level, a certain OHL tradition and no doubt a chance to see some hockey stars of the future come into town.
But when some of those 17- and 18-year-old Ottawa 67’s are done junior hockey, they are recruited to play OUA hockey. The OUA game features players aged 21-25 who are far more developed, faster, stronger and smarter.
Each OHL team might have 3 to 5 players who are pro prospects/potential NHL draft picks, but OHL rosters are often filled out with still-developing 17- and 18-year-olds. If these two lines of 17- and 18-year-olds are thrown on the ice with an OUA team of 21-25-year-olds, the gap in physical strength and speed is noticeable. (They’d be the first ones cut and told to play a couple more years of junior)
Talk to any hockey person or any player who has played both (the OHL and OUA) and the answer will be the same the OUA is a higher calibre of hockey.
And Dcky 33, which media outlets are all over the Lakers to succeed and the Trappers to take a beating? Where is the example of that, I’d like to looki it up? Where is the “minimal coverage” on the midget Trappers’ opening weekend?
For what it’s worth, I think the two-person sports department of Ken Pagan and Jordan Ercit does a blanket job of covering the AAA midget and Jr. A teams for the Nugget and I suspect that will also be the norm with the new OUA team. I read the Nugget on-line regularly and I certainly don’t find local sports coverage to be lacking in any area. Just my opinion!
The Skyhawks/Trappers, and now the Lakers, are both results of the sale of the Centennials. North Bay is by no means a big market but it is a good hockey market and the vacuum caused by the loss of the OHL motivated Blanchard the businessman to move his club from Sturgeon to the Gardens. The old business saying is to find a need and fill it – well, the Hawks filled that need but the problem was, and is, that a good portion of junior hockey fans in these parts turned their nose up at this lower level of product and never accepted tier 2 as being worth their time or money no matter what Blanchard and his team did.
Enter Al MacDonald and his group of private investors who also sense a need and are trying to fill it with a higher level of play and an OUA club. The curiosity factor alone will draw area fans to see these games and combined with the student crowd, attendance should be good, but they are handicapped by a short schedule with several long gaps between home games. Ultimately, I think these things will work against any large attendance numbers although, like the Jr. Trappers, they will be higher than what the other clubs in both leagues get (Lakehead excepted).
The only solution in the eyes of many diehard junior hockey fans is the return of the OHL someday. If the OHL decides to expand at some point in the future, and 2010 has been kicked around OHL forums, would a private group like MacDonalds be prepared to move on an opportunity like that? The OHL may have passed beyond the financial reach of a community like North Bay even though North Bay, Brantford and Cornwall are
often mentioned as potential expansion sites. Clubs like London, Kitchener, Ottawa and Windsor have gates and budgets beyond the dreams of any NOJHL or OUA club. The Gardens is fine for the NOJHL and the OUA but not the OHL and until council moves to either replace it or spend big bucks on it, we will be watching second best.
In a perfect world, North Bay would get its long planned horse racing track with slots and the communitys profit share could fund a new arena, but we don’t live in that world.
Well articulated, Armand . . .
aside from OHL expansion, another opportunity lies in the current economy and any wealthy owners looking to liquidate an asset or stop the bleeding (i.e. Brampton). But it will take closer to $6-million for anyone to buy an OHL club and move it here. The odds are against OHL hockey returning to North Bay (especially, as you noted, with the perception of Memorial Gardens as an outdated arena, despite the recent renovations and new 50-inch flat-screen TVs recently installed in each section).
An incoming OHL club would also leave Nipissing University on the hook for operating a men’s varsity team at Memorial Gardens when it would be given second billing to an OHL club (even though OUA hockey has become a higher calibre with the growing number of OHLers with “education packages” moving on to play in the OUA).
As an institution, Nipissing University took a huge step forward by launching an OUA varsity team and getting in the action with the bigger universities. Cancelling the hockey program because of an incoming OHL club would be an even bigger step backwards for the university.
Didn’t the Wolves and Voyageurs share the Sudbury Arena at one time? – and did that cause the demise of the Laurentian program or were there other reasons? – and are there other examples of co-existence around Ontario?
Sec. 2 Row P,
Laurentian and the Wolves played out of Sudbury Arena for many years. The Wolves in front of 3,500 fans and Laurentian in front of 150, even though Laurentian could beat the Wolves head-to-head on the ice most years.
The difference between Laurentian and Nipissing is, Laurentian’s hockey budget was absorbed and operated by the university and when operating costs began to climb and it came time for the hockey team to try and raise its own sponsorship . . . the hockey team’s fundraising golf tournament attracted two foursomes who signed up.
Nipissing’s hockey operating costs (outside the salary of the coach, who is a university employee) are absorbed by the private group (Al McDonald) and the group is reliant on generating enough ticket sales/concessions etc. to operate the team.
Most examples of co-existence around Ontario are similar to Laurentian/Wolves the university is responsible for the team’s operating budget and not reliant on being “the big game in town” to attract revenue. Most other university hopckey programs also have a strong alumni group, which also helps raise money for the team.
we picked up seasons tix for both the lakers and Traps. I may be more curious to see a Lakers/RMC matchup than a Trappers/Islanders matchup. So il cherry pick my games a little more carefully.
Around a 1000 or so fans were curious enough to come out on a Friday night to see a Lakers inter-squad game on a night when people had other events they could be attending like senior high school football or a jaunt to the Trappers game. To me, it shows there is still a strong attraction to good hockey if its available and I was impressed with Matt Lahey and Sean Ryan. Their experience was abvious and their calm play-making was a treat and we didn’t even have to pay to see it! (free popcorn too!). Hopefully this is a sign that the final roster will be a good quality team. The more established teams coming into town will also feature very good players to see as well. Given the choice, I will likely go to a Lakers game over a Trappers game because there are just so many times you want to go out to see the Royals, Islanders or Beavers. Its the same reason why people in Sudbury and the Soo go OHL games instead of their available NOJHL games.
Interesting that last night’s Trapper crowd was about the same as the Laker inter-squad game. Though 995 is still better than anybody else in the NOJHL, its not quite the gravy train that Blanchard is used to. Looking forward to Lakers first home opener to compare.
i think myself being a fan of the skyhawks for 10 years,university sounds good but id rather watch hockey till april.
It would be of interest for the university to promote the Trappers as well as their own games. The uni holds the concession rights and the higher the attendance at the Trapper games the higher the revevue. At some point a decision will have to me made by one or the other, to buy the other out, it can only go on for so long.
I didnt get to see the Lakers or the trappers first games cause I wasn’t there at the games, but my buddy tolded me that they are servin pickeral filets at the Gardens now – Is it true that they are servin pickeral fillets at the Gardens now? That would be good! Fish and chips and a brown to wash it down! People might even come out for the food! What is the best food for to eat at a rink? I like the dirty water hotdogs, cause boiled tube steak is something that my Mom’s boyfriends use to make me eat at his house! The suasage cart outside the Woof’s games was always good too. What’s yer favourite rink food, and where do you get yer favourite food from an arena? That wood be a good topic fer a blog!
Pagz
drop me an email, my contacts got deleted
take care
Ole Ole,
Gretzky ate a dirty water hot dog and washed it down with half a glass of Diet Coke before every game. I heard their serving up Dogs at the Hack n Whack n Jack this weekend.