New arena? Malloy wants to bring the NHL back

[Huskygamble19]

Arena is too small and too old-style.

Totally tongue in cheek. I know for a fact that it would never work there, but you could go shopping in the metropolis of Uncasville???

 

[ctchamps]

Thought I was the only one who stopped watching the NHL.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

Loved going to Whalers and UConn games. It was tough for many years seeing both getting beat downs. But every year a buddy and I would look at the teams and know "this" year was going to be different. Well it never panned out for the Hartford Whalers, but UConn gave me the holy grail. It didn't make matters better that I was a Red Sox fan as well. And a Pats fan. The Bucky Dent and Bill Buckner thing and the beat down by the Bears and the Fridge. And UConn with it's perennial 8-9 game BE tournament matchup and the Whalers trying to get a winning season. Those were the days when you weren't a fair weather fan, that's for sure.

 

[methodology]

Attendance wasn't really the problem. Relative to the teams performance it was actually great and much better than the first several years attendance in Carolina after the team moved. It was the lousy media contract Karponas inherited. The only way to break it was to move since it was a regional media deal. Whalers were a perennial bottom dweller but they had a great supporting fan base.

There were no fair weather fans going because the weather was always miserable with that team. But I loved my seasons tickets. I still don't watch NHL because of the bail.

I pretty much stopped watching Hockey when the Whalers left also. My grandfather had season tickets to the Whalers and Nighthawks.

Interesting thing about the Whalers. When the NHL started to remerchandise and start selling Whalers gear it became one of the best selling team gear in the NHL. A friend of mine works for the merchandising part of the NHL and they said they couldnt keep up with the demand and orders for Whalers gear. They kept selling out and probably missed out on a lot of sales because they were not ready for the demand of remerchandising Whalers apparel

 

[Waquoit]

they managed something like 9,000 plus, so it wasn't enough.

Not true. The average announced attendance was over 12K. In fact, this understates the actual attendance. The new owners refused to included the skybox and club level attendance in the total.

 

[upstater]

Loved going to Whalers and UConn games. It was tough for many years seeing both getting beat downs. But every year a buddy and I would look at the teams and know "this" year was going to be different. Well it never panned out for the Hartford Whalers, but UConn gave me the holy grail. It didn't make matters better that I was a Red Sox fan as well. And a Pats fan. The Bucky Dent and Bill Buckner thing and the beat down by the Bears and the Fridge. And UConn with it's perennial 8-9 game BE tournament matchup and the Whalers trying to get a winning season. Those were the days when you weren't a fair weather fan, that's for sure.

I'm a fan of all the teams you liked, and the new millennium starting in 1999 is an entirely different experience than I had growing up. I first started following the Patriots when I was 8 or 9 during the infamous Ben Dreith call and Dent's homer was the in the same year as Fairbanks leaving for Colorado.

The only championships during all those years were by the Celtics.

 

[Huskygamble19]

Not true. The average announced attendance was over 12K. In fact, this understates the actual attendance. The new owners refused to included the skybox and club level attendance in the total.

In that case than these wonderful new owners had it already made up theirmind that they were moving regardless of the hoops we had to jump through to get the team to stay. I remember vividly them saying we had to get 12'000 for the last few games, but only 9'000 plus showed up and they lowered the boom on us. No more talk of an NHL team just to go through this again.

 

[ctchamps]

In that case than these wonderful new owners had it already made up theirmind that they were moving regardless of the hoops we had to jump through to get the team to stay. I remember vividly them saying we had to get 12'000 for the last few games, but only 9'000 plus showed up and they lowered the boom on us. No more talk of an NHL team just to go through this again.

As I stated, Karponas hated the media agreement he was saddled with when he bought the Whalers. He was unable to renegotiate it so he moved the team. Since the contract was a regional media contract, Karponas was able to buy it out on the cheap.

 

[BoatShow]

The new busline could lead right into the arena!