OT: Things we find freaking neat but no place to post

[Bizzle McDizzle]

What's the difference?

 

[puckhead]

that is a very big black hole.

 

[mattola]

Since I was only AT one, and there are several, the sample size was good

Not sure what you people want from me..

Believe me you biz we want it to succeed but all we are saying is when multiple arenas are like that then you can say hey it's working with one busy arena it's just one arena.

 

[Bizzle McDizzle]

Ill be sure to visit them all then instead of the one near my house and report back.
At least the assumption is that they are empty I guess. Guess assumed empty until proven full is the rule.

 

[Bizzle McDizzle]

You know what

Fuck it


Forget I said anything



Relocate

 

[Bizzle McDizzle]

Guess ill go watch NASCAR now

Fuck hockey.

No one here likes it.

 

[mattola]

Lol um ok not trying to discredit or upset you if we were at a bar I'd buy you a beer but you seem angry

 

[puckhead]

Lol um ok not trying to discredit or upset you if we were at a bar I'd buy you a beer but you seem angry

no wonder he's angry.
hard to get a decent night's sleep with all of those NASCAR vehicles zooming around the neighbo(u)rhood all night long. right turns only, of course.
The good thing is, whenever he goes to put gas in his car, 8 guys zoom out to help.



/also, no one has more that three teeth.
//something something chewing tobacco.

 

[xalbox]

 

[xalbox]

I ended up on the weird side of the Internet.. again...

 

[Eddie_Shack]

Gotta love those foreign image boards, eh?

 

[elocomotive]

Yo Biz - Glad to hear it's doing well there. The arenas around DC are packed nearly 24/7 too as there are too few rinks and so many players that need ice time.

The triangle in Carolina and DC metro are places hockey should do well with so many middle class families. Hope it continues. The Caps base was partly due to bandwagon effect, but a huge expansion of rinks in the early/mid 90s in this area created more hockey players and thus fans as well.

Not sure why you all are busting Biz' balls on this one. Here are some stats...

North Carolina had a significant 10.1 percent growth spurt in 2011-12. Like Tennessee, NC experienced across-the-board growth in youth hockey. Since the Hurricanes arrived in 1997, hockey participation has grown by 152.9 percent in North Carolina.

Relatedly...

Since 1990-91, Maryland’s hockey population has grown by 377.1 percent, Virginia’s by 511.9 and D.C.’s by 259.6.

 

[Eddie_Shack]

Two trips to the finals and a Cup win sure helped things out as well.

I've said this before, and maybe it needs it's own thread, but I already started typing so it's going right here.

I have absolutely no problem with expansion in non-traditional markets (read: places where no one gives a fuck about hockey and there is no natural ice). Here's the thing though; if a market has never been a hockey market before, if the high schools don't have hockey teams or clubs, if there is no local ice hockey youth league, no beer leagues, limited rinks, limited or zero minor league followings, no junior hockey, etc, it's going to take a long time to develop and grow the sport. The NHL can't just shit a franchise into the nearest arena and walk away. I would plan on a minimum of 20 years to grow the sport and see if it's working. You aren't going to develop hard core fans over night, it's going to require a grassroots effort and you're going to have to capture young fans and wait for them to grow and get jobs.

The NHL needs to funnel money into the promotion and development of high school leagues, local stick and puck night (have NHL players show up on Friday nights when available to sign autographs and play with the kids/players who show up). They need to actively sponsor youth hockey teams and leagues, they need to advertise, and most importantly they need to be patient. When the NHL moves into an SEC, NASCAR, or desert market, they need to develop and attract kids to the sport, AND wait for them to have kids of their own. They need to fund the team, support the team, AND dump money into all of the afformentioned promotions, leagues, and other low level hockey activities. This is a twenty year, full fledged, top to bottom effort, and if the NHL can't commit that kind of time, patience, effort, and money, they don't belong in the market at all.

The problem and animosity arises when the NHL creates or moves TEN FRANCHISES in ten years into these markets, nearly doubling the size of the league over that time period. That's WAAAY too much, and when much of this relocation and expansion comes at the expense of northern markets, you are going to create massive backlash among the fans that have supported the league for years, and when almost all of those fans are in the north, well... don't be surprised when you find widespread animosity against southern teams and fans. Also, don't be surprised when they have a strong argument against such relocation and expansion, because the NHL botched it in the first place.

The NHL should have added or relocated two franchises at a time, and given each franchise AT LEAST five years to develop and monitor progress before even considering adding new teams. The NHL should have been funding ice rinks and youth leagues in Phoenix, not begging for money and swindling city governments. They should have been giving away free equipment and offering free drop in hockey in Miami, not plunking the team down and then moving on to the next city.

The NHL treated expansion like (warning: incoming Godwinning of thread) the German Blitzkreig, and then spread themselves too thin. Getting too big too fast tanks a lot of corporations and businesses, and the NHL is lucky they didn't completely sink the ship trying to add teams.

So yeah, that's my take on expansion.

 

[dash]

Fan friggin tastic post, Eddie - Have a slice of

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Two trips to the finals and a Cup win sure helped things out as well.

I've said this before, and maybe it needs it's own thread, but I already started typing so it's going right here.

I have absolutely no problem with expansion in non-traditional markets (read: places where no one gives a fuck about hockey and there is no natural ice). Here's the thing though; if a market has never been a hockey market before, if the high schools don't have hockey teams or clubs, if there is no local ice hockey youth league, no beer leagues, limited rinks, limited or zero minor league followings, no junior hockey, etc, it's going to take a long time to develop and grow the sport. The NHL can't just shit a franchise into the nearest arena and walk away. I would plan on a minimum of 20 years to grow the sport and see if it's working. You aren't going to develop hard core fans over night, it's going to require a grassroots effort and you're going to have to capture young fans and wait for them to grow and get jobs.

The NHL needs to funnel money into the promotion and development of high school leagues, local stick and puck night (have NHL players show up on Friday nights when available to sign autographs and play with the kids/players who show up). They need to actively sponsor youth hockey teams and leagues, they need to advertise, and most importantly they need to be patient. When the NHL moves into an SEC, NASCAR, or desert market, they need to develop and attract kids to the sport, AND wait for them to have kids of their own. They need to fund the team, support the team, AND dump money into all of the afformentioned promotions, leagues, and other low level hockey activities. This is a twenty year, full fledged, top to bottom effort, and if the NHL can't commit that kind of time, patience, effort, and money, they don't belong in the market at all.

The problem and animosity arises when the NHL creates or moves TEN FRANCHISES in ten years into these markets, nearly doubling the size of the league over that time period. That's WAAAY too much, and when much of this relocation and expansion comes at the expense of northern markets, you are going to create massive backlash among the fans that have supported the league for years, and when almost all of those fans are in the north, well... don't be surprised when you find widespread animosity against southern teams and fans. Also, don't be surprised when they have a strong argument against such relocation and expansion, because the NHL botched it in the first place.

The NHL should have added or relocated two franchises at a time, and given each franchise AT LEAST five years to develop and monitor progress before even considering adding new teams. The NHL should have been funding ice rinks and youth leagues in Phoenix, not begging for money and swindling city governments. They should have been giving away free equipment and offering free drop in hockey in Miami, not plunking the team down and then moving on to the next city.

The NHL treated expansion like (warning: incoming Godwinning of thread) the German Blitzkreig, and then spread themselves too thin. Getting too big too fast tanks a lot of corporations and businesses, and the NHL is lucky they didn't completely sink the ship trying to add teams.

So yeah, that's my take on expansion.

I think this is actually happening with the Devils. I go to way more games now than I did as a kid because I now have disposable income. The Devils playoff run last year was nothing but sellouts, they had more sellouts this year than probably ever before, all because people such as myself that got sucked in by the Stevens era teams are now older.

 

[forty_three]

DEADLY SERIOUS! Don't you know that about me by now?

You know what

Fuck it


Forget I said anything



Relocate

No, I'm happy here.

no wonder he's angry.
hard to get a decent night's sleep with all of those NASCAR vehicles zooming around the neighbo(u)rhood all night long. right turns only, of course.
The good thing is, whenever he goes to put gas in his car, 8 guys zoom out to help.



/also, no one has more that three teeth.
//something something chewing tobacco.

Just watch out for Pierre McBaldyhead coming to tell you not to poke that bear.

Biz, I is just messin with ya. I have a cousin in Raleigh and a sister in Charlotte, both of which are into hockey and NOT NASCAR. I do the same to them, though.

Given my choice between the two I'd be in the triangle though. Charlotte is a dark and scary place. Well, not *dark* per se.

Yo Biz - Glad to hear it's doing well there. The arenas around DC are packed nearly 24/7 too as there are too few rinks and so many players that need ice time.

The triangle in Carolina and DC metro are places hockey should do well with so many middle class families. Hope it continues. The Caps base was partly due to bandwagon effect, but a huge expansion of rinks in the early/mid 90s in this area created more hockey players and thus fans as well.

Not sure why you all are busting Biz' balls on this one. Here are some stats...



Relatedly...

We are busting his balls because he is Biz, and karmaslymer is gone.

But you are right. When I played, I lived in Joppatowne. I had 3 rinks to choose from. Northwest, where the rich kids played and punched you if you showed up in a car less than a Mercedes. Columbia which was an hour away and Benfield which was 45 minutes. I played at Benfield.

I used to have a BMX track in the woods which eventually became the Abingdon rink. It is literally 2 miles from my old house. Now there's rinks everywhere there.

 

[mattola]

great numbers. but if you have 100 hockey fans and they move to 250 in that time frame even if its 150% increase its still small (im not saying your stats are that low of people recorded but I would be interested in seeing those actual numbers). look Im not trying to bust Biz's balls and Im not debating that its taken off in Carolina all I am saying is that one arena with a lineup doesnt indicate its caught on nor is successful. its like when the Ducks won the cup and Bettman stated "who said hockey cant work in Southern California". Hockey doesnt work when you win a cup (congrats to anaheim and carolina) it works when arenas are full and everyone is interested when you win or lose.

again its GREAT but when you start having trouble getting into play or sign up at many rinks then its very exciting. Im glad there are many liking it and getting into it I just want more and more and more internal growth shown in markets like eddie stated.

Yo Biz - Glad to hear it's doing well there. The arenas around DC are packed nearly 24/7 too as there are too few rinks and so many players that need ice time.

The triangle in Carolina and DC metro are places hockey should do well with so many middle class families. Hope it continues. The Caps base was partly due to bandwagon effect, but a huge expansion of rinks in the early/mid 90s in this area created more hockey players and thus fans as well.

Not sure why you all are busting Biz' balls on this one. Here are some stats...



Relatedly...

 

[puckhead]

these pictures seem to go well together

 

[rfjeff9]

Saw one of these on here earlier, but not the rest. If it's ,go fuck yourself...

 

[rfjeff9]