OK, I've had it!

[Lunatic]

I've followed the Flyers since their second year. This is the first time that I have lost hope for them. Things have changed. I attended my first game in many years. It was hard to follow the game. "Fans" were returning to their seats ten minutes into the period and were leaving their seats with five minutes to go in the period. Everything is different, the fans, the team and the management.   I feel sad. If there is any hope for the Flyers, it's time for a total rebuild, but I don't see it in the Flyers genes.

[GratefulFlyers]

if you haven't gone to a game in "many years" it's a shock how much has changed. It hit me at MSG a few years ago, then in Philly the year after. Corporate culture and Marketing 101 has invaded the rink and taken complete control. It is so far from the experience at the Spectrum, or the Igloo or any of the old barns - like night and day - where you were surrounded by fans who were there to actually watch the game. There's still plenty of them going to games today but there's also So Many who obviously have no interest or little interest in hockey or in the game at hand. Staring at their stupid Eyephones...

 

The gdamn jumbotron - which is probably run by an algorithm - tells fans when to clap - the little animation.... How childish and unnecessary is that? Plus the constant music blaring at every break, the very instant the action stops on the ice...keep you pumped up so you'll spend spend spend.

 

The advertising dripping off every edifice is the worst though. Soon guys will be sporting corporate logos on their sweaters and helmets - if they're not already.

[radoran]

4 minutes ago, GratefulFlyers said:

The advertising dripping off every edifice is the worst though.

 

When they sold the risers on the stairs it was all over.

 

Literally.

[GratefulFlyers]

o god right - the freaking stairs. Next is the urinals - if they're not covered with logos already.

[radoran]

8 minutes ago, GratefulFlyers said:

o god right - the freaking stairs. Next is the urinals - if they're not covered with logos already.

 

Perhaps my favorite was the realization that they had put together a sponsorship package for the vomitoriums.

[FD19372]

The urinals, sponsored by Natty Ice.

[Lunatic]

I guess that I am not the only saddened fan. Is there any hope for our Flyers?

[trevluk]

11 minutes ago, Lunatic said:

I guess that I am not the only saddened fan. Is there any hope for our Flyers?

Stick a fork in them, they are done.

[flyer4ever]

BITFU

[OccamsRazor]

10 hours ago, GratefulFlyers said:

if you haven't gone to a game in "many years" it's a shock how much has changed. It hit me at MSG a few years ago, then in Philly the year after. Corporate culture and Marketing 101 has invaded the rink and taken complete control. It is so far from the experience at the Spectrum, or the Igloo or any of the old barns - like night and day - where you were surrounded by fans who were there to actually watch the game. There's still plenty of them going to games today but there's also So Many who obviously have no interest or little interest in hockey or in the game at hand. Staring at their stupid Eyephones...

 

The gdamn jumbotron - which is probably run by an algorithm - tells fans when to clap - the little animation.... How childish and unnecessary is that? Plus the constant music blaring at every break, the very instant the action stops on the ice...keep you pumped up so you'll spend spend spend.

 

The advertising dripping off every edifice is the worst though. Soon guys will be sporting corporate logos on their sweaters and helmets - if they're not already.

 

C'mon bro they have to do something to distract from the putrid product on the ice they have a business to run...I am sure Snider is rolling over in his grave...

 

[Digityman]

10 hours ago, GratefulFlyers said:

if you haven't gone to a game in "many years" it's a shock how much has changed. It hit me at MSG a few years ago, then in Philly the year after. Corporate culture and Marketing 101 has invaded the rink and taken complete control. It is so far from the experience at the Spectrum, or the Igloo or any of the old barns - like night and day - where you were surrounded by fans who were there to actually watch the game. There's still plenty of them going to games today but there's also So Many who obviously have no interest or little interest in hockey or in the game at hand. Staring at their stupid Eyephones...

 

The gdamn jumbotron - which is probably run by an algorithm - tells fans when to clap - the little animation.... How childish and unnecessary is that? Plus the constant music blaring at every break, the very instant the action stops on the ice...keep you pumped up so you'll spend spend spend.

 

The advertising dripping off every edifice is the worst though. Soon guys will be sporting corporate logos on their sweaters and helmets - if they're not already.

 

While I agree some of this is corporate greed the other piece is the changing times.  If a business doesn't change, they die as you know.  The younger generations require constant "entertainment" and quite frankly with the number of stoppages in a hockey game, it doesn't give it to them.  I have two kids 12 & 8 who watch games with me from time to time.  The oldest said the other night "it feels like they don't play more than they play" along with "why are do they stop all the time".     Well, the kid has a point.   

Here's the rough math:

~3 commercial breaks each period @ 2:00 each = 18:00

~60 faceoffs @ ~ 0:20 each? = 20:00

2 intermissions @ 18:00 each = 36:00

===== 74 minutes of non-hockey vs 60 minutes of hockey ====== 

The average length of a game is 2:20-2:40 so my math is a little off but not by much.

 

Quite frankly, without the non-hockey entertainment, the sport is doomed as us old-diehards go senile.    So while I understand exactly what you are saying, I completely understand it.   Don't get me started on the NFL (which I've stopped watching completely).

 

 

[flyercanuck]

1 hour ago, Digityman said:

 

While I agree some of this is corporate greed the other piece is the changing times.  If a business doesn't change, they die as you know.  The younger generations require constant "entertainment" and quite frankly with the number of stoppages in a hockey game, it doesn't give it to them.  I have two kids 12 & 8 who watch games with me from time to time.  The oldest said the other night "it feels like they don't play more than they play" along with "why are do they stop all the time".     Well, the kid has a point.   

Here's the rough math:

~3 commercial breaks each period @ 2:00 each = 18:00

~60 faceoffs @ ~ 0:20 each? = 20:00

2 intermissions @ 18:00 each = 36:00

===== 74 minutes of non-hockey vs 60 minutes of hockey ====== 

The average length of a game is 2:20-2:40 so my math is a little off but not by much.

 

Quite frankly, without the non-hockey entertainment, the sport is doomed as us old-diehards go senile.    So while I understand exactly what you are saying, I completely understand it.   Don't get me started on the NFL (which I've stopped watching completely).

 

 

 

It is sad how they've let TV interrupt the game. 

 

That said, it's still a pretty damn good bang for your buck compared to football.

[ruxpin]

9 minutes ago, flyercanuck said:

 

It is sad how they've let TV interrupt the game. 

 

That said, it's still a pretty damn good bang for your buck compared to football.

 

And both better than baseball.

Average time:   3 hours.  10 minutes.

Literally 2 hours 45 minutes of the majority of 18 players standing doing exactly nothing of visual interest.

In a really good game, 25 minutes of action--not consecutive.   like 30 second increments across the 3 hours.  Maybe as much as a minute.

 

Sounds like a year of marriage condensed to 3 hours to me.

 

[FD19372]

7 minutes ago, ruxpin said:

 

And both better than baseball.

Average time:   3 hours.  10 minutes.

Literally 2 hours 45 minutes of the majority of 18 players standing doing exactly nothing of visual interest.

In a really good game, 25 minutes of action--not consecutive.   like 30 second increments across the 3 hours.  Maybe as much as a minute.

 

Sounds like a year of marriage condensed to 3 hours to me.

 

Good post!

[Digityman]

32 minutes ago, ruxpin said:

And both better than baseball.

Average time:   3 hours.  10 minutes.

Literally 2 hours 45 minutes of the majority of 18 players standing doing exactly nothing of visual interest.

In a really good game, 25 minutes of action--not consecutive.   like 30 second increments across the 3 hours.  Maybe as much as a minute.

 

Sounds like a year of marriage condensed to 3 hours to me.

 

Baseball (and my marriage) are the worst.   Baseball and Golf are the two best drugs to help me sleep.  

[Brewin Flames]

TV timeouts kill game flow...

 

Noticed this last month when i went to an AHL game in Providence, insane.

[GratefulFlyers]

4 hours ago, Digityman said:

Quite frankly, without the non-hockey entertainment, the sport is doomed as us old-diehards go senile. 

 

Maybe but I don't think it has to be "doomed" if the NHL would get back to what made NHL games at the rink so much better than watching them on TV. As it is now half the time I feel like I am watching on TV...commercials blaring every break, constant reminders about the concession counter.

 

The televised NHL product pretty much sucks. It's basically 30/70 game vs. commercials. But okay fine TV is all about selling product. It has gotten ridiculous now with this Split Screen showing a commercial while the game is still going on. The crawl at the bottom is invisible but it reads: THAT'S RIGHT SUCKER NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.

 

So anyway - make the rink completely different than TV, make it about hockey and only hockey. Show the damn scores again from around the league again. Oh they show them now, for about 8 seconds. Then it's right back to "blah blah blah at your Local Ford Dealer..."

 

If I was in charge of "growing the game" as the execs say that's where I'd start - at the rink. Some number-crunching dickhead will tell me it's a loser financially. That's when I'd take my old Sherwood and bash him right in his chops.

 

Well anyway - just spitballing. I have no idea if it would expand interest. But it does seem to me like a no-brainer: make the Live Game as different from the TV Game as you can. Give fans a REAL escape not just more of the same sell sell sell.

 

 

 

 

[GrittyForever]

2 hours ago, Brewin Flames said:

TV timeouts kill game flow...

There's game flow? 

So you're not watching Flyers games then?

[ruxpin]

2 hours ago, GrittyForever said:

There's game flow? 

So you're not watching Flyers games then?

I don't think the Flyers even have blood flow.

[pilldoc]

13 minutes ago, ruxpin said:

I don't think the Flyers even have blood flow.

 

well if they have no blood flow ...then according to my medical training they are dead .....

[OccamsRazor]

5 minutes ago, pilldoc said:

 

well if they have no blood flow ...then according to my medical training they are dead .....

 

 

 

[ruxpin]

2 hours ago, pilldoc said:

 

well if they have no blood flow ...then according to my medical training they are dead .....

And they're not only merely dead,

They're really most sincerely dead

 

 

[Puck_Pun]

A rebuild should be the next move. Look at Ottawa, at the beginning of the season they announced they're out of rebuild mode after several bad years and look at them go! Hmm bad analogy. 

 

But yeah, to be serious it's needed. I remember a couple of years ago someone here shared an article describing the flyers as "consistently mediocre". The point made was that they never got to be terrible but never really were a threat in terms of making playoff runs, they just kinda floated in that middle zone. I think this is the eventual result, not enough planning in a long term sense has cost them.

 

I guess the question is whether the GM can pull off a long term plan to pull apart and put the team back together, and whether ownership will have the patience to let him enact it