All I can speak for is myself, but I used to watch every game nearly religiously, and got to at least a few games a year. It’s over an hour drive one way, so it’s a decent commitment to go to a game for me.
Now I can hardly force myself to watch a game on TV, and can barely remember the last game I went to.
I think it’s a combination of many things.
Mainly I just can’t get any excitement going no matter how good they’re playing because I’d rather not get attached and get my hopes up for them to just collapse in the playoffs in humiliating fashion like they seem to do so often.
Another part of it is True North as an organization being so tone deaf for so long, doing so little to make it affordable, or even fun to attend a game. It’s painfully obvious even on TV how dull the atmosphere in there was the last few seasons. Then Chipman wants to guilt us into feeling like we’re the reason the team has attendance problems. A large part of me just doesn’t think he is the right person to be running this organization, and that just doesn’t make me keen to support the organization unfortunately.
As much as people want to pretend like it’s not, I know for a fact that going downtown is a huge deterrent for a lot of people. Especially rural people coming in from out of town.
That’s just the way it is to me anyways. I just can’t bring myself to get excited about a team rolling through the regular season when they’ve had one good playoff run in their 13 year history. And more often than not play like garbage in the playoffs. Which is a shame, because I really do want to be excited about them.
I think there is a common fatigue like anything in life these days. It's hard to believe how much energy there was in the building for the like of GST, and some really bad teams that fed off crowd energy.
The first playoff year was nuts in the building. But NHL hockey was still a novelty. Watching the odd superstar in preseason, or catch a couple of Canucks on their way up was different. We were in the big show. Now it's an economic reality that going to game is more expensive than it used to be, unless you pick your weakest, least popular teams. Tier pricing is something every owner profits on. But it's funny that the NHL is tone deaf to what fans see as real rivalries. Everybody passes through,, you see Minny or Chicago the same amount times as San Jose in some years. And Calgary, Edmonton as often as Carolina in others.
The NHL doesn't market its stars enough. I imagine watching Mackinnon play live is quite the show. I haven't seen it yet. When I bought in I always got stuck with St. Louis. I came to hate David Perron.
Covid killed the hockey experience for me. This is my first year back, in 5. I notice that seniors were regular customers at Jets game as the years wore on, and they are probably not in an economic position now to pick up that slack, though having your house paid off definitely puts you in a better economic position.
This team isn't going to be good forever, so it's probably the best time to enjoy it, if you can afford it.
