Lightning Vs. Leafs (3/15/12)

[Flycoon]

The Leaf and Cane games brought the most ignorant fans I have ever had the misfortune of sitting near. Sadly, they were fans of the home team. Trying to start "USA,USA" chants, yelling that the refs were partial to the Canadian team, etc, etc. Usually don't get these goofs in the club level.

Originally Posted by BurnTHalO

So you are upset people didn't want/couldn't go to the game, so they sold them?

Funny as of Monday this game was an announced sell out. I am sure, or hope, that many wanted to see Stamkos score the 50th goal, which he did Tuesday. But omg that sure was a lot of tickets that got sold between Tuesday and game time.

Either that or most had no clue how many goals he had scored.

[Sotnos]

Originally Posted by 2min4cc

I get the financial/logical aspect of your argument; mine is, obviously, an emotional one. Rarely the twain shall meet. The hordes of away-team-fans also, unfortunately, legitimizes for some, the argument that hockey will never succeed in a non-traditional market such as ours...

Yep. Not sure if that was a national broadcast in Canada last night, but I certainly hope not.

I will say, at a few games I've been to this year I've seen way more Ontario plates than I've ever seen in the parking lots before. For a few years, snowbirds were down, now they might be back up again.

Originally Posted by Flycoon

The Leaf and Cane games brought the most ignorant fans I have ever had the misfortune of sitting near. Sadly, they were fans of the home team. Trying to start "USA,USA" chants, yelling that the refs were partial to the Canadian team, etc, etc. Usually don't get these goofs in the club level.

Money doesn't equal taste or manners.

[NoSpin]

The number of away fans is a quirk of the florida market and it should not be seen as a negative to the teams that are here. You aren't going to convert a 50yr old Leaf fan who moves down here, and you aren't going to see many people uplifting their families to move to horrible Toronto.

We live in a nice place, Red Wings/Caps/Pens fans really don't. They all move here and watch their teams, and are a reason why hockey CAN survive in the south.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Sotnos

Money doesn't equal taste or manners.

This applies to so many areas in life..

Originally Posted by NoSpin

The number of away fans is a quirk of the florida market and it should not be seen as a negative to the teams that are here. You aren't going to convert a 50yr old Leaf fan who moves down here, and you aren't going to see many people uplifting their families to move to horrible Toronto.

We live in a nice place, Red Wings/Caps/Pens fans really don't. They all move here and watch their teams, and are a reason why hockey CAN survive in the south.

I have been going to the games since 92. Was never this bad, even when we could only put 8-10,000 in the place. This team has a lot going for them. I just found it a shame that so many seats went to those from up north when in the past several years more from the area were in the seats. I would guess last nights game had close to 10,000 Toronto fans, when in the past years it was closer to a few thousand.

Do I think it is nice that Mr. Vinik can collect their money? YES!!! But after all he has done I would had hoped the area would had stepped up to show more support for the team and Mr. Vinik's contributions to the area.

[Donnie D]

The travel agents from Canada buy tickets for the 2 Florida games and pack the folks in planes and buses. As long as these games are scheduled in the winter in warm Florida, every ticket that isn't owned by season ticket holders is going to be purchased by those agents. And the Lightning and Panthers cooperate with the agents to facilitate those purchases.

And isn't that capitalism?

[gatsby]

I'd much rather sell my ticket for more than it's worth to some dumb Leafs fan then go sit amongst a family reunion of wayward Ontarioans. Kudos to the STMs that did that. Why even bother?

[timothy]

Originally Posted by pete

You'd have a hard time convincing me we got the better end of the Ashton/Aulie deal after tonight.

Aulie had a bad game for sure. That whole shift for the Crabb goal was especially bad.