Top Shelf said:
Your right, Columbus hasn't been around very long but yet apparently they have been around long enough for you to draw conclusions.
Quite frankly, why would the Columbus franchise or their fans care about what they draw on the road? Selling tickets to road games is not the Blue Jacket's responsibility.
Bottom line is that the CBJ were one of only 10 teams to actually make money last year and you want to yank them. Because why? - oh, b/c they don't draw well on the road and haven't had enough time to fail yet.....
Of course you don't care on the road .. You get to watch them for a small amount .. Its fans in other cities when Columbus is on the road that has to pay triple and quadruple at the gate to see their team play, regardless of the team in town .. Columbus is holding out their hand like all the other non-traditional Hockey markets hoping for Revenue Sharing from others to allow them to compete in the NHL ..
Drawing at home effects 1 hockey market ... NOT drawing on the road effects 29 others ..and its nice that Columbus made money, but because it road schedule and lack of success on the ice it is contributing to the losses in all those other cities, where they simply have no iterest in seeing Columbus or paying the prices to see them. Surely this concept can't be hard to grasp.
How do you know your home team interest is for the your own team or the fans in Columbus are paying to see Mario Lemieux, Peter Forsberg, Marty Brodeur, Mike Modano, Joe Sakic, Ilya Kovalchuk come to town ??
I bet some of your worst home gate receipts for Columbus occur when Nashville or Carolina or someone comes to town that doesn't have the star power to draw $$ from the fans ...
Also Cinny and Cleveland are 2 major cities in OHIO and have major sports teams in the NFL, NBA and MLB ... How come the NHL went to Columbus ??.. and not the major sport cities ??
What is wrong with having Columbus as a AHL market .. The AHL is in Cleveland and Cinny and then are not complaining ??
The point about new is based on the fact that everything new is a novelty item at first when its shinny and new .. We have no idea if that will wear off .. If Rick Nash blew out his knee and was lost for the year, I guarantee you gate receipts would drop off big time for HOME CROWD viewers should that occur .. IMO