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It’s clear the Flyers have to do more to persuade their fans they’re worth watching | Mike Sielski

Updated: November 7, 2019 - 10:23 PM
 
 
 
 
It’s clear the Flyers have to do more to persuade their fans they’re worth watching | Mike Sielski
 
YONG KIM / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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These days, when the Flyers play there, the Wells Fargo Center is loud in a peculiar way. It is loud from the hair-metal and ‘90s-club music that is pumped throughout the building. It is loud from an in-game host appearing on the brand-new giant video board and screaming at all the early arrivals settling into their seats to GET PUMPED FOR FLYERS HOCKEY. It is loud when the Flyers introduce or acknowledge an old former player or a young military veteran. It is loud when Gritty … gritties. It is loud for reasons that don’t have much to do with hockey.

It was loud for those reasons even Thursday night, when the Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2, on an overtime goal by Sean Couturier, for their third win in four games. Carter Hart made 22 saves, and the Flyers swarmed Canadiens goaltender Carey Price for most of the game, and they’ve now won six of their first eight home games this season. Yet people remain unpersuaded that hopping aboard the Flyers’ train will result in an enjoyable ride. The attendance Thursday night was 16,788, well below the 19,500 the Center can hold, and swaths of seats remained empty from the opening faceoff to the final buzzer.

Two nights earlier, when the Flyers scored three third-period goals to knock off the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1, the official crowd was 16,172, which wouldn’t have been enough to fill the Spectrum back when its capacity was a number everyone in and around Philadelphia had memorized: 17,007. Those modest figures aren’t anomalous, either. From the 2017-18 season to last season, the Flyers experienced the largest decline in average home attendance in their history, according to Hockey Database. They drew 20,372 per game in ’17-18 but just 17,765 last season -- their lowest mark since 1995-96, their final season in the smaller, sparer Spectrum.

Back then, the notion that it was necessary to use artificial measures to excite a Flyers home crowd would have been anathema to everything the franchise represented and those who loved it held dear. Flyers fans were always low-maintenance in that regard. They didn’t need the Phanatic tooling around the outfield after the fifth inning or acrobats soaring off trampolines to dunk two basketballs at once or any between-period entertainment beyond a few adorable mites on the ice.

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They loved their team, and they loved the sport, and they loved those things because those things were affordable and accessible, because they connected with those things on an emotional, near-molecular level, and no one -- least of all a man in an orange shirt screaming into a microphone -- had to remind them to love those things. It was all they needed, and it’s understandable if the die-hardest of die-hards might stay home now because the whole exercise of attending a major pro sporting event can feel so contrived now – and because it will cost a couple hundred dollars for tickets, parking, and grub, to boot.

That shift is part of why the atmosphere here is so stale now, but it’s not all of it. It’s probably not even most of it. The atmosphere at the Wells Fargo Center is stale mostly because the team playing inside it has been stale. Three playoff appearances in seven seasons, a lengthy and gradual rebuilding process, a team that over that time has lacked (for good and obvious reasons) any pizzazz or even a discernible identity: After all those years of knowing that the Flyers would be pouring all their resources into trying to win a Stanley Cup, many fans seem to have reached the point that they have to be convinced that this team will be worth following. And a hot start at home isn’t enough to reach that threshold, not yet.

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I didnt know how to attach an article like many of you forum tech geniuses,  so i copied and pasted it above.

 

How coincidental that we have been discussing this issue, and then an article gets printed. Personally I think we deserve (specifically I) some compensation for coming up with the idea. 

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1 hour ago, CoachX said:

I didnt know how to attach an article like many of you forum tech geniuses,  so i copied and pasted it above.

 

How coincidental that we have been discussing this issue, and then an article gets printed. Personally I think we deserve (specifically I) some compensation for coming up with the idea. 

 

It's because @ruxpin IS Mike Sielski!!!

 

And you're  REPORTED!!!!

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I get what's said. Hopefully we are at the start of a new era. But I suspect it will take a few years of improved, energized play, including playoff runs, to juice the atmosphere. 

 

I find myself less inclined to watch on Center Ice. That is a reflection on prior years of full play. More games like the last few may change that.

 

On attendance, one thing Sielski doesn't touch is cost. The median cost of two seats, parking, and food is $250+. In a country where earnings are flat to declining adjusted for cost of living, that is a lot. Selling standing room seats for $25 may be their Walmart model to bring in cost challenged fans.

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1 hour ago, Howie58 said:

On attendance, one thing Sielski doesn't touch is cost. The median cost of two seats, parking, and food is $250+. In a country where earnings are flat to declining adjusted for cost of living, that is a lot. Selling standing room seats for $25 may be their Walmart model to bring in cost challenged fans.

 

I agree with this definitely.  And really that $250 is more like $300+ if you want good seats, decent food and better beer than bud light.  That's about $60 per person per hour of entertainment (assuming 2.5 hours x 2 people).      

 

So lets say it's a husband and wife.   That's $120 per hour for them.   They would have to have a combined gross household income of $250,000 to make break even on a per hour basis.    

 

I'm aware not everyone places value on their entertainment like I do so change the equation to make it work for you.   But in my mind, the question remains:  is a 2.5 hour game worth 5 hours of work (or more realistically, about a full 8 hour day when you consider taxes, health insurance, 401k....)

 

I'm going to the game tomorrow in Boston and bringing the family.   4 tickets way up top at face value were $105.00.   After all the crazy fees and taxes it came to $495.00.   Throw in transportation/parking, food and drinks it will be over $600.   

 

I'd consider my family upperish mid-class and I can't justify bringing the family to more than one game a year.    If they want the building to be full, maybe consider lowering the costs of either the tickets or the $8.00 beers......

 

/rant

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Actually, he does mention it. He doesn't detail,  but its there. If you missed it, that makes your point. It wasnt emphasized

 

I bought tix on stubhub. I paid $114 for 2, but i could have gotten cheaper. I paid that much to sit where i wanted and still be reasonable. Parking was $20 (ugh). Beer was somewhere around 15 for a 20 ounce, and coffe was around 5. The $7 popcorn was absurd. The fan gear was consistent with online prices, theres always cheaper options

 

Going in to this I knew i would spend money. But i did because it was the flyers and i had an expectation based on past experience that made the decision easy. To Sielskis point though, it was the on ice product that made question whether it was worth it

 

I was disappointed 

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2 hours ago, Digityman said:

Throw in transportation/parking, food and drinks it will be over $600. 

 

Wow i sure hope they win then or we get a shot of you on the camera up high losing his sh it live!!!

 

That should be entertaining.

 

Makes us proud!!!!

 

Go Flyers!!!!!!!

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2 hours ago, CoachX said:

I was disappointed 

 

It could have been better if Elliott didn't play so poorly to start the game...and at least he came around to redeem himself some in the shootout too bad the Flyers can't score in a whorehouse with a $100 bill...

 

...your disappointment alone could have been Jake's weak attempt at a chance...

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14 minutes ago, CoachX said:

Funny you mentioned that. I saw a guy in his late teens/early 20s wearing a macdonald jersey

 

My first thought was , does his kid get in for free?

 

My first thought was: brain trauma?

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1 hour ago, CoachX said:

Funny you mentioned that. I saw a guy in his late teens/early 20s wearing a macdonald jersey

 

My first thought was , does his kid get in for free?

 

Had to be a gift from his grandma who got it at goodwill store...

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