News Article: Quebec City, Andlauer and the Sparticat Fiasco

[RedWhiteBlackGold]

usually love Cyril Leeder, but he came off looking quite stupid with the jersey idea and just made matters worse in his radio interview, as if blaming the fans for overreacting when it was his missteps that caused all the off ice drama. Hope he does better than this going forward

While I agree it was a dumb decision, honestly would people have reacted this way if they were promoting pre-season games in Halifax and Sparty had a mashed up jersey with the Mooseheads? Likely not. Quebec is a touchy subject close to home.

 

[Tuna99]

Andlauer, in a month has completely made his reputation as a confused guy who’s out of touch with the community - his 613 hat interview and this Quenec thing- he’s an ackward guy with a blurry vision for Sens fans.

Andlauer should talk less, it doesn’t go well when he talks. He talks when he has no point, like he brought a hat out to prove his point but couldn’t answer the questions Caire Hannah was asking him - don’t do interviews like this. Stupid

Buying a Nordiques jersey to cut it in half is also an insult to the Nordiques, Quenec Citu doesn’t want memories of the Nordieqes, they want the Nordiques and not a guy from NDG looking to be a local hero for 2 pre season games.

And I don’t think it strengthens his postion with the NCC, I think it weakens it. If he has options, take them. Why would you Allie with the NCC when you have Leeder there who knows how horrible they are to deal with? He doesn’t have options that’s why and now tje fans think he’s dumb, didn’t help at all

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

usually love Cyril Leeder, but he came off looking quite stupid with the jersey idea and just made matters worse in his radio interview, as if blaming the fans for overreacting when it was his missteps that caused all the off ice drama. Hope he does better than this going forward

It is always the fans. Especially if you are a part of the organization

 

[Tuna99]

It is always the fans. Especially if you are a part of the organization

Andlauer should stop talking he only makes it worse. In Ottawa, it’s always the fans to blame. We are either to cheap, to sensitive or to damaged by other teams.

Just focus on Ottawa, not Toronto and the concerts, not Quebec and defunct franchises, not Hamilton and your hat thingy - Just the Ottawa Senators all the time like the Habs and Leafs do and everything will be fine

Andlaure saying the fans have scar tissue when if the Leafs fans cut a Atlanta Tharshers jersey in half and the owner hinted he wanted to play regular season games there Leaves fans would have their Dads call into the radio station to tell let the Bosses know how angry they were

 

[Back in Black]

All ado about nothing....

All I ever saw from this was 2 pre-games in Quebec City, nothing more...

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

While I agree it was a dumb decision, honestly would people have reacted this way if they were promoting pre-season games in Halifax and Sparty had a mashed up jersey with the Mooseheads? Likely not. Quebec is a touchy subject close to home.

The point is that someone in Leader's position, or a marketing team paid to understand the market should have known this.

If we take Andlauer at face value (I think he is lying/spinning things) and say the pageantry for the preseason games has nothing to do with the NCC, anybody who remotely understands the fanbase would have told him that making a big deal out of a business partnership with the Quebec group, let alone doing it this past week after he publicized his dissatisfaction with the NCC was going to be a huge problem.

It's part of why I think it was intentional. There is no way that Leeder and others are this stupid and out of touch with the local fanbase. They knew exactly what they were doing.

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

Andlauer should stop talking he only makes it worse. In Ottawa, it’s always the fans to blame. We are either to cheap, to sensitive or to damaged by other teams.

Just focus on Ottawa, not Toronto and the concerts, not Quebec and defunct franchises, not Hamilton and your hat thingy - Just the Ottawa Senators all the time like the Habs and Leafs do and everything will be fine

Andlaure saying the fans have scar tissue when if the Leafs fans cut a Atlanta Tharshers jersey in half and the owner hinted he wanted to play regular season games there Leaves fans would have their Dads call into the radio station to tell let the Bosses know how angry they were

He is quickly ruining his honeymoon period with the fans. At least Melnyk's lasted almost a decade before his ineptitude was public.

He hired Staios, who has done a good job fixing this build by hiring a coach who at least in the short term has them playing a defensive system, and identifying some unsexy needs in the roster like swapping a local star in Chychrun for a steady RHD in Jensen.

They are going to get more forgiveness because the team is doing fantastic right now, but I'll put it this way - if this was genuinely an innocent mistake, I am a lot more concerned over the competence of ownership and their top management than I would be if this was a conspiracy to pressure the city and NCC.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I think this one is a bit subjective as to how much it bothers one person to the next. There are also a lot that think it was a nothing burger other than the jersey being a misstep. I think there is a market they can capitalize on and I don't think it's comparable to Melnyk because he was basically sabotaging the operation from the inside while these guys are out there doing the right things, cleaning up with hires and renos, spending to the cap, hockey team winning some games, etc.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

 

[Adele Dazeem]

Some of you are real sensitive people.
Loser mentality, inferiority complex. Whatever you want to call it, it's very palpable around Senators social media.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I can't imagine souring on this guy already after everything we endured during Melnyk's last 10 years or so.

 

[aragorn]

I doubt we have seen the end of this, they will just do things quietly behind the scenes & out of the public eye now.

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

I think this one is a bit subjective as to how much it bothers one person to the next. There are also a lot that think it was a nothing burger other than the jersey being a misstep. I think there is a market they can capitalize on and I don't think it's comparable to Melnyk because he was basically sabotaging the operation from the inside while these guys are out there doing the right things, cleaning up with hires and renos, spending to the cap, hockey team winning some games, etc.

There were hundreds of replies to the tweets of the photos, and counting, 99 percent negative.

Granted, that is Twitter - but it is the Senators mainstream account. It's not some niche superfan account that only people who live on Sens Twitter respond to.

If anything, it seems like the casual fans were a lot more negative than the superfans. If you read the threads here, it's relatively split between the five guys calling people insecure for being concerned, and the five other guys who are very concerned. There were no positive takes on the Sens posts. They eventually deleted both after hundreds of negative comments.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

There were hundreds of replies to the tweets of the photos, and counting, 99 percent negative.

Granted, that is Twitter - but it is the Senators mainstream account. It's not some niche superfan account that only people who live on Sens Twitter respond to.

If anything, it seems like the casual fans were a lot more negative than the superfans. If you read the threads here, it's relatively split between the five guys calling people insecure for being concerned, and the five other guys who are very concerned. There were no positive takes on the Sens posts. They eventually deleted both after hundreds of negative comments.

I'm not saying it's a niche and that some aren't pissed, I'm saying it's not black and white that everyone is pissed. I think there's a section of the base that is pissed, a section that doesn't GAF at all, and then a whole host of people likely in the middle that it doesn't muster enough anger to bother worrying. As usual, the outraged will be the loudest.

I don't blame anyone that is a bit upset by this, but I find the comparisons to Melnyk laughable.

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

I can't imagine souring on this guy already after everything we endured during Melnyk's last 10 years or so.

I don't think anybody is souring on him. I think they are judging him by his actions. People want stable ownership that respects the market. Trust has to be earned.

If anything, the response to this enforces that sentiment that fans just really want to believe the bad times are over and they now have stable ownership who works for them. A lot of fans bought into the very poorly constructed "we're sorry!" Leeder apology, where he half-blamed the fans for calling them out on it. A lot of people were ready to move on, because they don't want more chaos, they touted how it was such a good example of leadership. It isn't as if Andlauer is getting the Melnyk response. Where as, this Quebec thing was peak-Melnyk. Has anybody tried to pull at Andlauer's face to make sure it's not a Scooby Doo style mask?

The entire thing was absurd. Playing with fire as far as marketing to this fanbase goes. I can't wrap my head around how a management group that has access to people like Leeder and Mendes, who have been in this market and should understand why highly publicizing a business partnership with our greatest relocation threat during the same week that the owner heavily publicized further issues securing an arena (the same season Arizona just relocated) might be a bad idea.

People are trying to minimize this to being "they were mad that they cut the logo", which detracts from what the actual issue was.

The positive take isn't that they weren't trying to use relocation to pressure the NCC, because that means the team is run by people who are completely ignorant of the market they are trying to sell their product to. Honestly, that's worse than it turning out that they were trying to pressure the NCC to get the arena done.

Also, Andlauer couldn't even go on soft-ball TSN 1200 to address this. He had to send Leeder. True leadership would have been Andlauer facing the fans instead of taking multiple days to get his story straight, and then only do an interview in Sens territory.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I don't think anybody is souring on him. I think they are judging him by his actions. People want stable ownership that respects the market. Trust has to be earned.

If anything, the response to this enforces that sentiment that fans just really want to believe the bad times are over and they now have stable ownership who works for them. A lot of fans bought into the very poorly constructed "we're sorry!" Leeder apology, where he half-blamed the fans for calling them out on it. A lot of people were ready to move on, because they don't want more chaos, they touted how it was such a good example of leadership. It isn't as if Andlauer is getting the Melnyk response. Where as, this Quebec thing was peak-Melnyk. Has anybody tried to pull at Andlauer's face to make sure it's not a Scooby Doo style mask?

The entire thing was absurd. Playing with fire as far as marketing to this fanbase goes. I can't wrap my head around how a management group that has access to people like Leeder and Mendes, who have been in this market and should understand why highly publicizing a business partnership with our greatest relocation threat during the same week that the owner heavily publicized further issues securing an arena (the same season Arizona just relocated) might be a bad idea.

People are trying to minimize this to being "they were mad that they cut the logo", which detracts from what the actual issue was.

The positive take isn't that they weren't trying to use relocation to pressure the NCC, because that means the team is run by people who are completely ignorant of the market they are trying to sell their product to. Honestly, that's worse than it turning out that they were trying to pressure the NCC to get the arena done.

Also, Andlauer couldn't even go on soft-ball TSN 1200 to address this. He had to send Leeder. True leadership would have been Andlauer facing the fans instead of taking multiple days to get his story straight, and then only do an interview in Sens territory.

I respect your right to have this opinion, and anyone else that has similar, but I don't think we're going to see eye to eye on most of this and don't think it's worth the back and forth where we just disagree in the end on the majority of the factors anyways. Minds are made up on why this happened and I see a lot of entrenched positions. I think there were some handling issues but have no issue with the overall process of trying to break in to Quebec more, a part of their viewing region, which I believe is simply what this was about. And again, I find any comparisons to Melnyk's transgressions laughable. I think this pales in comparison to much of what he did and was more a death by a million cuts than one singular thing.

I guess part of it depends on how legit you see QC as a relocation option. Personally, I don't give it even a remote chance that Bettman and the board would ever allow it. They will have other, bigger, US markets pegged should that ever happen. I give QC a 0% chance of getting an NHL franchise.

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

I respect your right to have this opinion, and anyone else that has similar, but I don't think we're going to see eye to eye on most of this and don't think it's worth the back and forth where we just disagree in the end on the majority of the factors anyways. Minds are made up on why this happened and I see a lot of entrenched positions.

I appreciate the sentiment.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I appreciate the sentiment.

I should add that I'm only giving my perspective. Doesn't mean I'm right, just how I see it. And really, after Melnyk and how much I felt he was a severe handicap for the franchise, Andlauer is still like a saint to me. This puppy is still in leg humping mode.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

Small market Canadian teams are f***ed

 

[Crosside]

CH vs Sens à Québec : Tous les billets sont déjà vendus

Le Canadien de Montréal et les Sénateurs d’Ottawa croiseront le fer à Québec le 30 septembre prochain. Les deux clubs vont se disputer la victoire dans le cadre d’un match préparatoire. Cela dit…

www.danslescoulisses.com

Ticket put in sale this morning. Montreal game all ready sold out and New Jersey game 5000

 

[Tuna99]

The reason Andlauer and the team are still losing this story is because they are trying to explain to the fans the reason they are mad - and in conclusion and with 100% t trasnpency the explanation from Andlauer is because Ottawa fans are mental.

In reality, this is a f*** up by his staff and he said rhat and it should end there. Explaining to Sens fans they are scared or damaged is gaslighting tje fanbase for your own f***.

There’s a saying - if you’re explaining you are losing. It’s why they are losing because tje conclusion from the team is it’s kinda our mistake, kinda Melnyck’s and kinda tje fans when it’s 199% their mistake, they mix in words like transparency and accountability to make to seem official but it’s their stupid mistake and explaining to fans they are damaged is completely dumb

and our own owner came down from Toronto to tell the NHL the Ottawa fans are damaged and keep that story line alive - friendly fire from our own owner. Just stupid in every level if that’s their conclusion, we aren’t resilient, we aren’t demanding - we are damaged. Okay, thanks Mike and company

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

CH vs Sens à Québec : Tous les billets sont déjà vendus

Le Canadien de Montréal et les Sénateurs d’Ottawa croiseront le fer à Québec le 30 septembre prochain. Les deux clubs vont se disputer la victoire dans le cadre d’un match préparatoire. Cela dit…

www.danslescoulisses.com

Ticket put in sale this morning. Montreal game all ready sold out and New Jersey game 5000

The Montreal game is going to be fascinating visually to see how many people are there in Canadiens jerseys.

The idea that it's a market for them to capture does not make any sense when there is still so much work to do in Orleans and Gatineau, both areas where fans can be converted both to TV viewers and season-ticket members.

It seems to predicate on this false idea that everybody in Quebec are Nordiques fans, waiting with arms crossed for the team to come back - refusing to cheer for the Canadiens. That they all hate the Canadiens so much that they would be willing to watch the Senators if we just played pre-season games there, despite not already converting to cheering for the Senators in high numbers over the last 30 years since the Nordiques left. I assume that the reality is that anybody below the age of 35 or even 40 does not remember the Nordiques at all, and has no allegiance to them. If they got into hockey, they likely got into the Canadiens as their closest team culturally.

It's part of why it's very difficult to take it at face value that they were just trying to grow the fanbase, because it seems like any reasonable marketing research would point to there being very little upside. Let alone upside in comparison to the risk of upsetting their core fanbase, which as a team that relies heavily on selling season seats to regular fans, they badly need to appeal to. They don't have business-to-business sales to lean on as much as other teams do.

If you've ever watched the show Righteous Gemstones, Michael Andlauer basically just gave us the "Car Pranks" explanation. You'd have to be so naive and so badly want nothing to go on to believe it, because it doesn't make any sense compared to the much more logical explanation of "an NHL owner was trying to pressure the city into giving him an arena, so he showed that he had a business relationship with a group looking for relocation". It was meant to be Jeff Katz being spotted in Seattle on steroids, but they wanted plausible deniability because of how obviously upsetting it would be to the fans.

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

Small market Canadian teams are f***ed

If they want parity to remain, they need to allow teams to sell cap space for cash or draft picks.

The disparity is going to be there regardless with spending, but at least this way small market teams can get 1st round picks, or can build up stockpiles of cash early in a rebuild to allow them to spend during their window.

They already allow this in a convoluted way with teams trading players after signing bonuses are paid, or teams attaching draft picks to bad contracts. There are multiple instances with past Senators trades where you can argue that we sold off draft picks for cash considerations. Only, by outlawing actual cash trades, the league makes it less efficient and more convoluted.

 

[Crosside]

The Montreal game is going to be fascinating visually to see how many people are there in Canadiens jerseys.

The idea that it's a market for them to capture does not make any sense when there is still so much work to do in Orleans and Gatineau, both areas where fans can be converted both to TV viewers and season-ticket members.

It seems to predicate on this false idea that everybody in Quebec are Nordiques fans, waiting with arms crossed for the team to come back - refusing to cheer for the Canadiens. That they all hate the Canadiens so much that they would be willing to watch the Senators if we just played pre-season games there, despite not already converting to cheering for the Senators in high numbers over the last 30 years since the Nordiques left. I assume that the reality is that anybody below the age of 35 or even 40 does not remember the Nordiques at all, and has no allegiance to them. If they got into hockey, they likely got into the Canadiens as their closest team culturally.

It's part of why it's very difficult to take it at face value that they were just trying to grow the fanbase, because it seems like any reasonable marketing research would point to there being very little upside. Let alone upside in comparison to the risk of upsetting their core fanbase, which as a team that relies heavily on selling season seats to regular fans, they badly need to appeal to. They don't have business-to-business sales to lean on as much as other teams do.

If you've ever watched the show Righteous Gemstones, Michael Andlauer basically just gave us the "Car Pranks" explanation. You'd have to be so naive and so badly want nothing to go on to believe it, because it doesn't make any sense compared to the much more logical explanation of "an NHL owner was trying to pressure the city into giving him an arena, so he showed that he had a business relationship with a group looking for relocation". It was meant to be Jeff Katz being spotted in Seattle on steroids, but they wanted plausible deniability because of how obviously upsetting it would be to the fans.

How I see that. TVA sports and rds broadcast alot of Sens games. Andlauer want to go there to thanks viewer that listen in french

And who know if they go each years. Maybe thats gonna really help. Also I hope they play a pre season game in Gatineau. I was there this year and he said that. Will see

 

[IpsoPostFacto]

While I agree it was a dumb decision, honestly would people have reacted this way if they were promoting pre-season games in Halifax and Sparty had a mashed up jersey with the Mooseheads? Likely not. Quebec is a touchy subject close to home.

The issue is that it wasn't Halifax and it wasn't the Mooseheads.

btw, I don't think the issue was the pre-season games. It was the tacit approval of playing regular season games - "...that's up to the N.H.L". that's a pretty "I'll do it" was of saying yes without saying yes.

but ...
Halifax had not been used by previous iterations of the team as a move threat.
Halifax has not been throwing money in a black hole for years trying to convince the NHL for a team.
Halifax was not called out by every interested thread on this entire site as a likely landing spot for the team.
Halifax hockey fans were not at games with signs saying how ready they were to take a relocated sens.

That's the difference as I see it.

I'm taking the team at their word in that they thought it was a way to poach some fans in the area. I don't believe that will happen, but I believe they believe it.

I don't think it was some "up yours" to the N.C.C as a negotiation tactic. If the team gets squeezed by the N.C.C, they already have the rink they play in as a fallback, or nearby city owned land; they can tell the N.C.C to stuff it and all Sens fans, fans in general, media - even the dastardly Toronto media - will fall right in behind the team because nobody likes or trusts the N.C.C in the first place.

To be honest, if the team sits back and looks at this week, the should see this as a great experience. A bunch people got pissed at them - an it doesn't matter if the customer is right or wrong. Fact is, they got pissed and that support should thrill the team.

The fans care.