Hearing the little rich kid talking about his last-place team some day hosting a Memorial Cup is a little rich.
Poor Doug Springer. Here he is, tryin' to throw what's left of the Kingston Frontenacs fanbase a friggin' bone, he goes and gets the OHL All-Star Game for next February, and still people are cynical. God forbid they would be upon hearing that getting the all-star game makes getting the Memorial Cup likely, when that tends to rests more on a team's competitiveness than the opulence of their arena, as the Fronts found out once before. Seeing Springer trumpet this aggravates the accumulated frustration of the last 11 seasons and makes people all tense in the chestal region.
Damn that David Branch. Why did he have to play his consummate politician's role with platitudinous remarks such as, "Undoubtedly when you host an event like this, it only serves to enhance opportunities for going forward for other special events ... when teams held the all-star game or one of our Canada-Russia games, I think it held them in good stead when it came to successful bids (for the Memorial Cup)."
There is no begrudging David Branch for what he said. He's a politician. It's more of a fevered dream to imagine him getting his Dean Wormer on and putting the Frontenacs on double-secret probation instead of talking about them hosting a Memorial Cup.
Point being, people in K-town are right to scoff when they read or hear the Frontenacs owner saying, "We're thrilled the commissioner is looking at it that way. It's all possible because we have what we believe is the best facility in the Ontario Hockey League." The Frontenacs highers-up should maybe try to worry about winning a playoff series this century before they start bidding to host the Canadian Hockey League's championship tournament.
To sum up, the Frontenacs are hoping they will be competitive enough to host the Memorial Cup by 2014 (Windsor is a lock to get the tournament in 2011). Sure, and the Deltas in Animal House were hoping their midterm grades would really boost their average:
It's not that the hardy souls who have hung in through thin, thinner and Springer won't go to the OHL All-Star Game. There is nothing wrong with having the event; the complaints are more about the owner's perceived attitude.
It's by most accounts a decent enough event. It could also be a huge love-in for Kingston native Taylor Hall prior to the 2010 NHL draft, since his Windsor Spitfires team typically makes only one Eastern swing a year, usually during the first half of this season. There could be some fun, fan-friendly events with the players on the outdoor rink at, wait for it, Springer Market Square in downtown Kingston. The CHL Top Prospects Game is probably a sweeter plum, since outside the junior hockey diehards who have a Shea Kewin replica jersey, there's a better chance statistically of getting 40 players you'd want to see from the 60 CHL teams than the 20 in the OHL.
The Kingston area, for all the complaining about the K-Rock Centre's location and the total lack of attention of detail during its construction (the home team bench isn't connected to the dressing room, so if a player has an equipment problem, the trainer can't leave the bench until play is stopped, for instance), has come a long way in a short time in terms of hockey facilities. The Kingston Kimco Voyageurs, who play at the Invista Centre, are talking about hosting either a regional or national Junior A championship. The Clarkson Cup, the Canadian women's championship, was held at the K-Rock Centre in April. Neighbouring Napanee's less than five-year-old Strathcona Paper Centre was the site of last fall's national under-18 women's hockey championship and will be for the 2010 Ontario Tankard for men's curling.
There are a lot of hockey events out there which would probably work well in Kingston, such as the World Under-17 Challenge, the Telus Cup (Canadian midget championship) and perhaps an IIHF Women's World Championship, given that public enthusiasm for buying tickets to women's hockey might be on the wane. People shouldn't look down on bringing in any of those events. (Granted, it's not perfect, since Queen's has no campus arena and summer-sport athletes are somewhat SOL due to the lack of a proper outdoor running track. Kingston's high school track and field championships had to be held in Belleville).
By that token, though, at some point Springer has to figure out that he has stop trying to put a Mercedes-Benz façade on a broken-down beater of an OHL franchise. Trading off Doug Gilmour's celebrity as coach while retaining The Royal Mavesty (Rhymes With...) as general manager smacks of this. The same goes for getting the all-star game and talking about the Memorial Cup after a 50-loss season. Granted, after seeing talk that Kingston would likely stand a shot at hosting, "Well, 2014 is when Larry Mavety's 17-year plan should really kick in."
Springer isn't going anywhere. The best to hope for is attitude adjustment in the front office. The Frontenacs are in a Bill Wirtz scenario and are crying out for a Rocky Wirtz, who made over the Chicago Blackhawks after his dad died. It is possible for someone to go from a bad owner to a good owner. George Steinbrenner had that metamorphosis. Mark Cuban is headed in that direction.
Until that happens in Kingston, though, people are right to be cynics about anything coming from the Frontenacs. Right now, Doug Springer could find a way to make cars run on consommé and people would still turn up their noses.
It has been 591 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston.
Related:
OHL boss hints at Memorial Cup (Doug Graham, Kingston Whig-Standard)
Showing posts with label David Branch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Branch. Show all posts
Friday, June 05, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Memorial Cup: The format still stinks
Sportsnet renewing its television deal with the Canadian Hockey League meaning there's no chance of overhauling the outdated format for the Memorial Cup.
As awesome as the Windsor Spitfires' win for a town and a team, the fact remains it's a tournament where, as super-commenter Dennis Prouse put it, "all you need is a 1-2 record to make the playoffs."
You know what this means, though? In the big picture, there was a point behind the booing at the Rimouski Colisée yesterday. You just have to believe it wasn't being vented at the teenagers on the Kelowna Rockets, but at the highers-up such as CHL president David Branch, who refuse to ditch the overly drawn out, outdated format since it's a cash cow (and TV ratings were up from last season, but here one could point out that's not saying much since a U.S. team represented the WHL in 2008).
Regan Bartel, Kelowna's play-by-play man, stuck up for his guys, and there's not a word there that's wrong. Teenaged players should not be booed, but the adults who left them hanging in the wind should:
In this case, Windsor was the No. 1-ranked team. Kelowna probably had trouble getting motivated to play their final round-robin game since there was nothing at stake for them, since they were assured a spot in the final. Each Québec team had a chance to oust Windsor in win-or-go-home match and didn't get it done.
The point is the Canadian Hockey League has a problem if customers perceive that it could be to a team's advantage to dump a game. Meantime, the fact a team does not need to win the majority of its round-robin games and can still win the championship is kind of chintzy.
The rub is that in 1980, as Gregg Drinnan related in a great retrospective on the '80 debacle, Branch's predecessor, the late Ed Chynoweth and the other powers-that-were had the humility to realize bad policy could lead to bad results.
As awesome as the Windsor Spitfires' win for a town and a team, the fact remains it's a tournament where, as super-commenter Dennis Prouse put it, "all you need is a 1-2 record to make the playoffs."
You know what this means, though? In the big picture, there was a point behind the booing at the Rimouski Colisée yesterday. You just have to believe it wasn't being vented at the teenagers on the Kelowna Rockets, but at the highers-up such as CHL president David Branch, who refuse to ditch the overly drawn out, outdated format since it's a cash cow (and TV ratings were up from last season, but here one could point out that's not saying much since a U.S. team represented the WHL in 2008).
Regan Bartel, Kelowna's play-by-play man, stuck up for his guys, and there's not a word there that's wrong. Teenaged players should not be booed, but the adults who left them hanging in the wind should:
"... I was a little turned off by the reaction of the crowd at the Colisée over the booing every time the Rockets touched the puck. The booing was the result of the fans belief that the Rockets threw Tuesday's game against the Spitfires when they had a chance to eliminate them from the tournament. Essentially it looked like the fans are blaming the Rockets for the demise of both Rimouski and Drummondville. Windsor would beat Rimouski in the tie breaker before eliminating Drummondville in the semi-finals. To say the Rockets threw the game is laughable."Obviously, that game was on the level. This was no repeat of the stunt Mike Keenan pulled at the 1980 tournament, when his Peterborough Petes lost the last game of the round-robin so they could face Cornwall instead of host Regina in the final. (That debacle prompted a change in format.)
In this case, Windsor was the No. 1-ranked team. Kelowna probably had trouble getting motivated to play their final round-robin game since there was nothing at stake for them, since they were assured a spot in the final. Each Québec team had a chance to oust Windsor in win-or-go-home match and didn't get it done.
The point is the Canadian Hockey League has a problem if customers perceive that it could be to a team's advantage to dump a game. Meantime, the fact a team does not need to win the majority of its round-robin games and can still win the championship is kind of chintzy.
The rub is that in 1980, as Gregg Drinnan related in a great retrospective on the '80 debacle, Branch's predecessor, the late Ed Chynoweth and the other powers-that-were had the humility to realize bad policy could lead to bad results.
"We were lucky for eight years under this system ... There's no sense moaning over what's happened now. Everybody coming into this knew the rules, knew the pitfalls and whatever. It's just unfortunate that this had to happen in our league's turn as host and in the host team's own city.More Drinnan:
"Still, we (in junior hockey) do recognize that we do get ourselves into some great holes with the way we conduct ourselves at times."
"Brian Shaw, the WHL's chairman of the board, added: 'We, as adults, have put the youngsters in a precarious position because there is a loophole or two in the formula as we know it.You wouldn't hear that kind of candour today, even with the increased lip service major junior hockey pays to education. Everything is tamer than it was 30 years ago. Tamer players, tamer fans, and certainly a tamer media. Thank goodness for those Spitfires:
" 'The format, as it stands, is all right as long we put in a modification to prevent a recurrence of what happened Friday night. This formula is the best to bring together competitors from across Canada.
" 'There was a suggestion to go back to an East-West final, but we're involved with the education of our players. We don't want them out of class for the length of time it would take. With the present round-robin taking exactly one week, they don't miss too much school.' "
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Memorial Cup: There can't be that much sightseeing to do in Rimouski
Fish and the Memorial Cup begin to smell after four days.
The Memorial Cup's nightmare scenario kicked in last night. The Kelowna Rockets beat Drummondville 6-4 and secured a spot in Sunday's final. Kelowna's last round-robin contest tonight vs. the Taylor Hall-led Windsor Spitfires will essentially be an exhibition game, coast-to-coast on Rogers Sportsnet (while their baseball-playing corporate brethren are on TSN2). Meantime, the other three teams will play up to three more games to decide whom the Rockets meet in the final. Don't worry, CHL president Dave Branch, your national championship's format makes sense.
It is reasonable to wonder if any of the journalists who are out there for a long, pretty much pointless in Rimouski, Que., are going to sack up and ask Branch when he plans to adopt a more compact format. The only reason for the current model is greed.
This is not an original thought. David Naylor and Bob McCown, in their 100 Greatest Hockey Arguments book, made a very strong case for switching to a Frozen Four format for the Mem Cup. The gist of it was, find a way to have four teams qualify (no "host teams") and do it over a single weekend.
It is understood that there are financial considerations for a 10-day tournament. It is a cash cow for the host team. This being Canada, there's a feeling that it's a waste to have teams travel cross-country to play only one or two games. Since the all-news-is-local phenomena applies in junior hockey (once the local team goes out, most people tune out), the belief is that there has to be a team with a rooting interest, hence the host berth. Reverting to a three-team double round-robin will never happen, since everyone remembers 1980, when Mike Keenan's Peterborough Petes dumped their final game to ensure an all-eastern final vs. Cornwall (which backfired, since the Royals won).
However, a badly designed format will inevitably yield bad results.
It's not like this happens every year at the Mem Cup. The way the 2007 tourney in Vancouver unfolded was close to a perfect scenario. Two teams went 2-1 and two went 1-2 in the round-robin, which led to a tie-breaker game. The Medicine Hat Tigers, who earned the bye straight through to Sunday, ended up being defeated in the final, albeit by the host team, the Vancouver Giants, who didn't earn their way there on the ice but through their ownership being willing to sign some cheques.
The CHL cannot count on that happening. Branch and the boys might have good little moneymaker on their hands, but it shortchanges players and fans watching across Canada (and the U.S.).
First of all, the drawn-out format, one could argue, can sap teams of momentum, which is important in playoff hockey. Imagine how Kelowna is going to feel if they lose Sunday after sitting and stewing and sightseeing for four days. The players have also put in a full season, 68-72 games plus four playoff rounds, while getting paid a token sum.
By mid-May, 17- to 21-year-old juniors only have so much good hockey left in them. The second and third games of the tournament, Windsor's two one-goal losses to the QMJHL teams, were very entertaining, but can they be expected to keep that up as the week drags along? Probably not.
The way to do it, as others have noted, is to confine it to one weekend. Find a way to have four teams qualify and do it all over a single weekend. Or have two league champions play off for the right to meet the champion of the league which produced the previous champion. In that scenario, Drummondville could have gone to Windsor for the semi-final and the winner could have proceeded right on to Kelowna. Perhaps that would not work or be deemed too cost-prohibitive.
Any and all ideas for fixing the tournament are welcome. The current model is as broken as the Cup itself was after Spokane got it last season.
The Memorial Cup's nightmare scenario kicked in last night. The Kelowna Rockets beat Drummondville 6-4 and secured a spot in Sunday's final. Kelowna's last round-robin contest tonight vs. the Taylor Hall-led Windsor Spitfires will essentially be an exhibition game, coast-to-coast on Rogers Sportsnet (while their baseball-playing corporate brethren are on TSN2). Meantime, the other three teams will play up to three more games to decide whom the Rockets meet in the final. Don't worry, CHL president Dave Branch, your national championship's format makes sense.
It is reasonable to wonder if any of the journalists who are out there for a long, pretty much pointless in Rimouski, Que., are going to sack up and ask Branch when he plans to adopt a more compact format. The only reason for the current model is greed.
This is not an original thought. David Naylor and Bob McCown, in their 100 Greatest Hockey Arguments book, made a very strong case for switching to a Frozen Four format for the Mem Cup. The gist of it was, find a way to have four teams qualify (no "host teams") and do it over a single weekend.
It is understood that there are financial considerations for a 10-day tournament. It is a cash cow for the host team. This being Canada, there's a feeling that it's a waste to have teams travel cross-country to play only one or two games. Since the all-news-is-local phenomena applies in junior hockey (once the local team goes out, most people tune out), the belief is that there has to be a team with a rooting interest, hence the host berth. Reverting to a three-team double round-robin will never happen, since everyone remembers 1980, when Mike Keenan's Peterborough Petes dumped their final game to ensure an all-eastern final vs. Cornwall (which backfired, since the Royals won).
However, a badly designed format will inevitably yield bad results.
It's not like this happens every year at the Mem Cup. The way the 2007 tourney in Vancouver unfolded was close to a perfect scenario. Two teams went 2-1 and two went 1-2 in the round-robin, which led to a tie-breaker game. The Medicine Hat Tigers, who earned the bye straight through to Sunday, ended up being defeated in the final, albeit by the host team, the Vancouver Giants, who didn't earn their way there on the ice but through their ownership being willing to sign some cheques.
The CHL cannot count on that happening. Branch and the boys might have good little moneymaker on their hands, but it shortchanges players and fans watching across Canada (and the U.S.).
First of all, the drawn-out format, one could argue, can sap teams of momentum, which is important in playoff hockey. Imagine how Kelowna is going to feel if they lose Sunday after sitting and stewing and sightseeing for four days. The players have also put in a full season, 68-72 games plus four playoff rounds, while getting paid a token sum.
By mid-May, 17- to 21-year-old juniors only have so much good hockey left in them. The second and third games of the tournament, Windsor's two one-goal losses to the QMJHL teams, were very entertaining, but can they be expected to keep that up as the week drags along? Probably not.
The way to do it, as others have noted, is to confine it to one weekend. Find a way to have four teams qualify and do it all over a single weekend. Or have two league champions play off for the right to meet the champion of the league which produced the previous champion. In that scenario, Drummondville could have gone to Windsor for the semi-final and the winner could have proceeded right on to Kelowna. Perhaps that would not work or be deemed too cost-prohibitive.
Any and all ideas for fixing the tournament are welcome. The current model is as broken as the Cup itself was after Spokane got it last season.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Hockey logic...
There is journalist and reader fatigue from the Great Canadian Hand-Wring over hockey violence, but you can stand for one more editorial.
Karlo Berkovich, a veteran sportswriter at the Waterloo Region Record, took the starch out of of some of the game's leaders, notably NHLPA boss Paul Kelly and OHL commissioner David Branch, whose league has banned players taking off their helmets before fighting.
Journalistically, there is some hypocrisy. It's one thing to have a good argument and not to attack people rather than their points, but it's better if you learn it, live it, love it. It is tough not to think that some of the same commentators who are coming on all serious now were the same ones who would be chuckling away in the press box when a scrap broke out on the ice.
Personally, I'm the exact opposite. When a fight starts, the hands stay folded in my lap, but there is awareness that until the rules change or the hockey mentality changes, a team which doesn't have an enforcer s vulnerable to opponents taking liberties with their players. On Dec. 12, the day Don Sanderson was critically injured, that was a topic of discussion on Kinger's show, Offsides, with respect to the Kingston Frontenacs. Their players were being run all over the ice because management, in its wisdom, had traded away tough guy Peter Stevens. Thankfully, no Kingston player has been seriously injured, either from an overly aggressive check or from fighting.
Once again, the changes that would work to eliminate fighting from hockey go way beyond rule changes and some editorializing journalists. Good on Berkovich for telling it like it is.
(Hockey Night in Canada clip captured by MisterDB from Fronts Talk. whose YouTube channel is a veritable treasure trove of Kinger's between-periods interviews on TV Cogeco in Kingston.)
Related:
Hockey fighting: The lunatics run the asylym, so let 'em (Karlo Berkovich, Waterloo Region Record)
Karlo Berkovich, a veteran sportswriter at the Waterloo Region Record, took the starch out of of some of the game's leaders, notably NHLPA boss Paul Kelly and OHL commissioner David Branch, whose league has banned players taking off their helmets before fighting.
"...you could also read (no doffing your helmet rule) another way -- that Branch is perfectly fine with fighting; he just wants fighters to keep their helmets on, not only to avoid injury but, c'mon, so one day, when a (Don) Sanderson incident happens in the OHL, the league can avoid a lawsuit.One big sticking point seems to be that Branch and Kelly are fine with half measures; in the former's case, anything to make this go away at least until next season. They're both politicians, versed in the art of the possible, and they have to manage the egos of some of those short-tempered puckheads, so there is some understanding.
"As for (the NHLPA's Paul) Kelly, he's hilarious. It's imperative that players must be protected from hits to the head. He's talking cheap shots, elbows to the chops (which the sainted best leader in the history of the known cosmos, Mark Messier, is always praised for). Those are no-no's. Hits to the head via a punch in a fight? Hey, by all means, boys, feel free. And take off your helmets while you're at it.
"(Kitchener Rangers player Mike Mascioli's) quote about not being happy about it because jobs will be lost is also unintentionally a scream. How about he look at it another way: learn to play properly and you'll have no worries.
"Not that any of this will convince any of the lunatics who continue to run the asylum, though. So to come full circle, let 'em. It could be -- as we've now, unfortunately, experienced -- their funeral."
Journalistically, there is some hypocrisy. It's one thing to have a good argument and not to attack people rather than their points, but it's better if you learn it, live it, love it. It is tough not to think that some of the same commentators who are coming on all serious now were the same ones who would be chuckling away in the press box when a scrap broke out on the ice.
Personally, I'm the exact opposite. When a fight starts, the hands stay folded in my lap, but there is awareness that until the rules change or the hockey mentality changes, a team which doesn't have an enforcer s vulnerable to opponents taking liberties with their players. On Dec. 12, the day Don Sanderson was critically injured, that was a topic of discussion on Kinger's show, Offsides, with respect to the Kingston Frontenacs. Their players were being run all over the ice because management, in its wisdom, had traded away tough guy Peter Stevens. Thankfully, no Kingston player has been seriously injured, either from an overly aggressive check or from fighting.
Once again, the changes that would work to eliminate fighting from hockey go way beyond rule changes and some editorializing journalists. Good on Berkovich for telling it like it is.
(Hockey Night in Canada clip captured by MisterDB from Fronts Talk. whose YouTube channel is a veritable treasure trove of Kinger's between-periods interviews on TV Cogeco in Kingston.)
Related:
Hockey fighting: The lunatics run the asylym, so let 'em (Karlo Berkovich, Waterloo Region Record)
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Fronts: Fans are Scrooged, unless someone grabs that Branch
The OHL's holiday break hasn't stopped Kingston Frontenacs owner Doug Springer from adding to his loss total.
Springer and Fronts GM-for-life Larry Mavety have lost another of their handy-dandy excuses for why Fronts' attendance has fallen into the triple digits. The U.S.-Latvia world junior exhibition game drew 4,007 to the K-Rock Centre on Sunday night, which beats the typical Fronts crowd by a factor of four in terms of people actually in the arena. One one can anticipate the U.S.-Russia tilt tonight will bring out similar numbers.
It puts the lie to Springer blaming Kingston's supposed unwillingness to support hockey or saying that December is a dead zone for attendance. Hey, anything to avoid acknowledging the (white) elephant in the room: The attendance is a direct reflection on the delusional Springer and the dismal Mavety.
There is no accountability at the league or municipal level. There isn't even accountability in terms of fans voting with their feet, since the city is on the hook for those shortfalls. Over the weekend, Save The Fronts explained why the Frontenacs' upcoming meeting with the City of Kingston over their low attendance could amount to little more than smoke-and-mirrors, as much as so many people wished they would pay the price. The team has the "sweetheartest of sweetheart deals with the K-Rock Pot," where they only pay a percentage of their profits as rent.
The deal is so one-sided that's it almost as laughable as Springer's assertion a few weeks back that Mavety is a "great hockey man." One among many ironies is that Neil deMause, author of the book Field of Schemes which talks about how sports owners shake down governments for new stadia, gave an interview this week where he said, "nobody wants to give money to an owner who's in last place." Neil deMause has never been to Kingston.
Kingston's city council does not meet again until Jan. 6. The pretext for the meeting was to talk about the team's marketing plan, not the toxic environment around the team or the fact that no serious coach or GM would touch the Fronts with a 40-foot composite stick, since Springer runs more interference than the New Jersey Devils during pre-lockout hockey. Framing this as being a marketing problem means they can send poor PR flack Jeff Stilwell. So much for the adage that if you're going to lead the band, you better be able to face the music (and by the way, the music selections at the K-Rock Centre are straight from an early '90s high school dance, do something about that).
On a league level, your guess is as good as any as to why OHL commissioner David Branch is letting a good hockey market go down the drain. As a fan at Fronts Talk put it, "The fact that the K-Rock was able to attract over 4,000 fans to a game that didn't even involve a Kingston player, or a Canadian team at that, speaks volumes about this city's willingness to go to hockey games, so long as the product on the ice is worth it."
Branch, just like the NFL's Roger Goodell with the Detroit Lions mess, should step in and demand a better owner, or at least that Springer remove Mavety. He should be asking to see a clearly defined plan that shows how they play to have OHL-calibre hockey people in place, who will ice an OHL-calibre team, not one who counts on blue-chippers such as Ethan Werek and Ottawa native Erik Gubranson, to be a Cadillac façade on a K-Car.
It might be unprecedented, but so is the situation in Kingston. The city has had bad teams before. This one is also a corporate welfare bum and unapologetic for not putting a better team on the ice and have tried to influence the media coverage. Diehard fan MisterDB can testify:
Kingston has seen bad hockey before. That '87-88 debacle -- the Canadians went 14-52-0, lost 28 games in a row and were outscored 432-246 -- led to a new owner, new coach and a name change. (All three changed again before the '89-90 season.)
This team is actually on course to top, loosely speaking, that team's dubious accomplishments. These Fronts' goal differential, when compared to the next-worst figure in the league, is worse than the '87-88 teams. You could look it up.
(I did the math. The '87-88 team was outscored by 186 goals. The next-worst team in the OHL that winter was outscored by 121, meaning the Canadians' "quality of victory" was by a margin of 54%. This season, Kingston's in the red by 58 goals, not counting shootout winners. The next worse goal differential belongs to Peterborough, minus-39. On a per-game basis, that means the Fronts are 57% worse -- which jumps to 71% if you do count the shootout goals that are counted in the standings but not in the players' stats.)
The mere fact those comparisons are being made is shameful enough for Springer. It is uplifting to know the fans back home got to see quality hockey for a change. One can only wonder what Frontenacs player will think when they hear what the crowd was like for these two games. How will it influence their willingness to give 100% for an organization which is not doing it for them?
Those are the kind of questions Springer and Mavety -- Ignorance and Incompetence, Inc. -- must be forced to answer. Full power to anyone who points out how bad they embarrass everyone who has Kingston hockey in her or his blood.
Related:
Don’t get your hopes up (Save The Fronts)
Springer and Fronts GM-for-life Larry Mavety have lost another of their handy-dandy excuses for why Fronts' attendance has fallen into the triple digits. The U.S.-Latvia world junior exhibition game drew 4,007 to the K-Rock Centre on Sunday night, which beats the typical Fronts crowd by a factor of four in terms of people actually in the arena. One one can anticipate the U.S.-Russia tilt tonight will bring out similar numbers.
It puts the lie to Springer blaming Kingston's supposed unwillingness to support hockey or saying that December is a dead zone for attendance. Hey, anything to avoid acknowledging the (white) elephant in the room: The attendance is a direct reflection on the delusional Springer and the dismal Mavety.
There is no accountability at the league or municipal level. There isn't even accountability in terms of fans voting with their feet, since the city is on the hook for those shortfalls. Over the weekend, Save The Fronts explained why the Frontenacs' upcoming meeting with the City of Kingston over their low attendance could amount to little more than smoke-and-mirrors, as much as so many people wished they would pay the price. The team has the "sweetheartest of sweetheart deals with the K-Rock Pot," where they only pay a percentage of their profits as rent.
The deal is so one-sided that's it almost as laughable as Springer's assertion a few weeks back that Mavety is a "great hockey man." One among many ironies is that Neil deMause, author of the book Field of Schemes which talks about how sports owners shake down governments for new stadia, gave an interview this week where he said, "nobody wants to give money to an owner who's in last place." Neil deMause has never been to Kingston.
Kingston's city council does not meet again until Jan. 6. The pretext for the meeting was to talk about the team's marketing plan, not the toxic environment around the team or the fact that no serious coach or GM would touch the Fronts with a 40-foot composite stick, since Springer runs more interference than the New Jersey Devils during pre-lockout hockey. Framing this as being a marketing problem means they can send poor PR flack Jeff Stilwell. So much for the adage that if you're going to lead the band, you better be able to face the music (and by the way, the music selections at the K-Rock Centre are straight from an early '90s high school dance, do something about that).
On a league level, your guess is as good as any as to why OHL commissioner David Branch is letting a good hockey market go down the drain. As a fan at Fronts Talk put it, "The fact that the K-Rock was able to attract over 4,000 fans to a game that didn't even involve a Kingston player, or a Canadian team at that, speaks volumes about this city's willingness to go to hockey games, so long as the product on the ice is worth it."
Branch, just like the NFL's Roger Goodell with the Detroit Lions mess, should step in and demand a better owner, or at least that Springer remove Mavety. He should be asking to see a clearly defined plan that shows how they play to have OHL-calibre hockey people in place, who will ice an OHL-calibre team, not one who counts on blue-chippers such as Ethan Werek and Ottawa native Erik Gubranson, to be a Cadillac façade on a K-Car.
It might be unprecedented, but so is the situation in Kingston. The city has had bad teams before. This one is also a corporate welfare bum and unapologetic for not putting a better team on the ice and have tried to influence the media coverage. Diehard fan MisterDB can testify:
"As a season ticket holder since the Aces days (40 years) this is the most disgusting product that has hit the ice compared to what could be there. The woeful Canadians in their losing streak (editor's note: a CHL-record 28 straight losses in 1987-88) had more entertainment value and had more fans attending then what was at the last game.Branch can suspend players for idiotic behaviour on the ice that happens in the spur of the moment. By that reckoning, he should be able to do something about the off-ice idiocies that have continued for more than a decade in Kingston.
Kingston has seen bad hockey before. That '87-88 debacle -- the Canadians went 14-52-0, lost 28 games in a row and were outscored 432-246 -- led to a new owner, new coach and a name change. (All three changed again before the '89-90 season.)
This team is actually on course to top, loosely speaking, that team's dubious accomplishments. These Fronts' goal differential, when compared to the next-worst figure in the league, is worse than the '87-88 teams. You could look it up.
(I did the math. The '87-88 team was outscored by 186 goals. The next-worst team in the OHL that winter was outscored by 121, meaning the Canadians' "quality of victory" was by a margin of 54%. This season, Kingston's in the red by 58 goals, not counting shootout winners. The next worse goal differential belongs to Peterborough, minus-39. On a per-game basis, that means the Fronts are 57% worse -- which jumps to 71% if you do count the shootout goals that are counted in the standings but not in the players' stats.)
The mere fact those comparisons are being made is shameful enough for Springer. It is uplifting to know the fans back home got to see quality hockey for a change. One can only wonder what Frontenacs player will think when they hear what the crowd was like for these two games. How will it influence their willingness to give 100% for an organization which is not doing it for them?
Those are the kind of questions Springer and Mavety -- Ignorance and Incompetence, Inc. -- must be forced to answer. Full power to anyone who points out how bad they embarrass everyone who has Kingston hockey in her or his blood.
Related:
Don’t get your hopes up (Save The Fronts)
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