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Post by Swimmy on Jun 8, 2011 19:36:19 GMT -5
On the AHL's 75th Anniversary and after 38 years of professional hockey in Binghamton, the Binghamton Senators finally win the championship!!!!
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Post by bobbbiez on Jun 8, 2011 22:49:23 GMT -5
 Hallelujah! Good for them. It is one they will never forget. 
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Post by Swimmy on Jun 9, 2011 6:27:08 GMT -5
Nor the city. Until this season, I never realized how dedicated this city is to its sports teams. If only utica were still the same. I remember Utica Devil's games as a kid. Probably why I grew up to be a NJ Devils fan.
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Post by bobbbiez on Jun 9, 2011 22:48:41 GMT -5
Nor the city. Until this season, I never realized how dedicated this city is to its sports teams. If only utica were still the same. I remember Utica Devil's games as a kid. Probably why I grew up to be a NJ Devils fan. NJ DEVIL'S FAN?    You know Swimmy, I have been an all round sports fan since I was a very young girl and my favorite sport is hockey. This whole area, Utica, N.Hartford, Whitesboro and Rome are avid fans of their teams and have always supported them. In all leagues and in all games from the beginning pee wee players to high school to college the attendances is unbelievable. The Aud is packed for the UC games. The Aud has also been chosen to host many State Championship tournaments in all leagues and divisions and I must add we have taken quite a few of those Championships. Plus, our area has produced many great players who went on to play with pro teams. There is no lack of fans who are loyal and support their teams in this area. This comes from a grandmother who has spent all her life sitting in a cold hockey rink freezing her a** off, but all worth it as she watched her son playing for the MVCC Hawks when they took the State Championship in their first two years in hockey and seeing her two grandsons, this year, as they won their own Division Championships. The blame goes on poor management of any teams that raised their heads in this area and didn't make a go of it.  |
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Post by Swimmy on Jun 10, 2011 0:34:06 GMT -5
Then why are there no professional sports teams in Utica?
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Post by Clipper on Jun 10, 2011 13:47:38 GMT -5
I have to disagree with ya BZ. However dedicated the fans that DO support hockey in Utica, there IS no major fan base of a significant enough size to support a professional hockey team. I was a baseball fan when I lived there and when you had a Toronto Blue Jays farm club there, I would sit in the stands that were often not even half filled with fans and watch some of the best baseball short of the major leagues that I had ever watched. I watched ball games there with less than 200 fans in the stands. And Utica wants to build a new stadium? For what??? For the taxpayers to pay to maintain, while teams come and go due to lack of fan base and support? Utica hasn't seen a truly professional hockey team since the Mohawk Valley Stars and our friend Dick Popiel. Incidentally there is an article about him on the OD homepage today. What a character he is. Gotta love him. www.uticaod.com/blogs/x832289948/Dick-Popiel-What-a-character |
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Post by bobbbiez on Jun 10, 2011 21:58:37 GMT -5
Then why are there no professional sports teams in Utica? Like I said, most semi or pro teams that were here killed themselves in their own organizations. My family and friends were season ticket holders for most all that played in Utica and we also hosted in our own homes a good majority of their players because they were not paid enough for housing and etc., causing the better players to move on else where. Yet, these organizations didn't think cheap when it came to the cost of tickets or other promotions to benefit their own pocketbooks. When you have college teams who has no problem filling the Aud one has got to figure out the cost of the tickets are very reasonable for whole families to go and watch some damn great hockey. I myself enjoy our great high school and college games better then any pro teams who once played in this area. |
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Post by Swimmy on Jun 11, 2011 21:53:15 GMT -5
That, or the public didn't realize the cost of having a professional hockey team here and chose not to support one.
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Post by bobbbiez on Jun 12, 2011 1:26:43 GMT -5
That doesn't sound logical when we all know this whole area, Utica, whitesboro, Rome, N.Hartford and Clinton have always been well known for being hockey towns since I was a young girl and still are. Throughout the years winning so many championships in many leagues and divisions, with having many of our players drafted into the pros, these are not areas where the people will not support hockey. Damn, even in the OD this week, Jim Mancuso from Utica, an author of numerous books on professional hockey won the Brian McFarlane Award from the Society for International Hockey Research. Trust me, as a mother of two boys who played hockey from the age of five years old, it is a very, very expensive sport for a kid to play in. I could have heated my home all winter long with just the cost of broken hockey sticks my kids went through during one season in games and in practice. This is one sport where ALL the equipment is bought by the parents and players. The only thing the leagues provide is the jerseys, sometimes. Hockey skates alone range from $150 to $300 and just as shoes the kids outgrow them pretty damn fast. Won't even go into the cost of all the protective pads, helmets, pants, gloves, guards, rolls of tape and blade sharpening needed by one kid to play hockey. Now, I was just one of many parents who supported their kids in this sport without hesitation and we support the sport completely. Very hard for this old hockey fan who always bought season passes to games to believe the fans are to blame.
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Post by Swimmy on Jun 12, 2011 10:13:03 GMT -5
I'm just sayin' that we have no professional sports teams, here. As big of a fan as you are or other parents are for their children's teams, they were obviously missing when professional teams came to town. You suggested that it was the management of these teams, I am suggesting that it was the lack of fan base. The Utica Devils left, not because of increased ticket prices, but because of ever decreasing ticket sales.
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Post by bobbbiez on Jun 12, 2011 22:42:16 GMT -5
Well Swimmy, I repeat, my family and friends were season ticket holders so we weren't missing, but the price they began to charge for games was getting too high for families to attend. If you were an individual the price wouldn't burn a hole in your pocket but if you were a mom and dad with 3-4 kids, there was no way you could afford to attend all the games. Good enough reason for the "decrease in ticket sales." Now, we personally know they weren't paying their players well for the cost of the tickets to be raised out of sight, so what does that tell you?
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Post by Swimmy on Jun 13, 2011 10:28:10 GMT -5
Not for the Utica Devils. And, frankly, you and your friends are not enough, no offense. The down ticket sales for the Utica Devils was solely because of their several losing seasons. It had nothing to do with increased ticket sales. In fact, my parents used to host my cub scouts having hockey parties where we would go to the game. SO, tickets were not that outrageous. We're also forgetting the Utica Blue Sox. Their ticket prices remained the same affordable price for many years. The problem was getting people to buy them. Eventually, the Blue Sox left too. Again, if Utica was that dedicated to professional sports, it would have a professional team.
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Post by bobbbiez on Jun 13, 2011 13:16:55 GMT -5
Well, if the organizations were not paying their players well enough to even support themselves during the seasons what level of players do you think they had? Damn good reason for all the losses and lack of interest on the fan's part. "All" I have stated is the reasons why there is no pro teams here in sports.
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Post by Clipper on Jun 13, 2011 13:55:01 GMT -5
When the day is over, it all comes down to the fact that the city of Utica NEVER supports professional sports, period. Never has, never will. The last good hockey team that played in the area was the old Clinton Comets, and when they moved to the Aud, they signed their death warrant. Who the hell wants to park down there to watch a game. Security in their parking lots has always been almost non existent.
They can't pay their players enough if they don't make it at the door in ticket sales. Plus the Aud probably charges an arm and a leg to try and recoup the costs of maintaining that dinosaur of a building.
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Post by bobbbiez on Jun 13, 2011 22:53:42 GMT -5
Then Clipper, you explain to me why the Aud is packed with fans for all the UC games and all the tournaments that are held there. Same Aud with the same parking facilities. I don't see any lack of local support for them and they aren't even "pros."
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Hallelujah! Good for them. It is one they will never forget. 
