Jason Kay wrote:
Detroit: On paper, the Wings are the team to beat. They’ve lost virtually nothing from the Cup-winning lineup; rather they’ve enhanced it with Marian Hossa. And they’re the closest thing the NHL has to the New England Patriots – minus the cheating. Isn’t it about time we had another dynasty and the buzz that surrounds it? Heck, consecutive Cups may even convince Motowners the club is for real and actually entice them to buy tickets.

[groans]

Not this g-ddamn argument again…

Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 08/09/08 at 10:28 AM ET

You beat me to it, SYF. My response to Kay is, “It doesn’t matter how well the team does, if you don’t have the money, you can’t buy the tickets. And that’s true for both individuals and corporations.”

What I would like to see is the corporations who do buy tickets give those tickets away if they know they’re not going to be used for a specific game. There are youth hockey organizations, high school hockey players and others who would gladly put butts in those paid-for seats on very short notice.

Knowing that many of the empty seats at the Joe are actually paid for doesn’t do the image of hockey or the Wings any good. There needs to be cheering, happy fans in those seats.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 08/09/08 at 10:55 AM ET

OTC, I had a much, much longer post filled with curses, vulgarities, and profane mutterings about Kay’s poorly conceived birth but since this is a PG-rated blog, I figured fewer words would mean more.

Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 08/09/08 at 12:05 PM ET

For the out-of-towners: Even the Lions are struggling mightily to sell season tickets.  The Red Wings were the canary in the coal mine in terms of season ticket issues, and it’s starting to trickle down to other sports…

Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 08/09/08 at 01:58 PM ET

Even the Lions are struggling mightily to sell season tickets.

I noticed - I’ve been seeing their “Do You Believe in Now?” spots on television.  Despite how horrible they’ve been, up until now they have been pretty robust in terms of attendance.

I’ll tell you what, Mr. Jason Moron - If the sight of empty seats so offends you, then use the money you obviously have in abundance since you have a job to purchase a few tickets for those who would like to attend to cheer for the Wings but can’t afford to.  I promise they won’t be hard to find - over one million showed up for the Stanley Cup parade, so you could start with a few of those people.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 08/09/08 at 03:36 PM ET

Even the Lions are struggling mightily to sell season tickets.

The Lions should be struggling to sell any tickets.

I have a friend in Detroit who would send me an email every August enthusiastically saying, “Get ready, this is the year for the Lions.”

This past February, he sent me an email saying: “Okay, I give up. Tell me what I need to know to start following the Wings.” I told him to bookmark KK and to read all of the A2Y posts. Between that, and a little thing called the Stanley Cup, he’s now hooked.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 08/09/08 at 05:21 PM ET

OTC -

I literally swore off the Lions back when they signed Jeff Garcia… that broke the back of my support.  At that point I realized “The Fords don’t WANT to win ever” and swore off them.  I have not watched a Lions game in years—not even on the TV.  I basically gave up altogether on NFL football, because I’m not going to be one of those morons that then switches allegiances to another NFL team.  Until the Fords are gone, and Millen is gone, I will not come back.  No amount of success they ever have (which they won’t) will change that.

Stark contrast to how loyal I was in the days when the Wings were the Dead Things and I had to cheer for Vietch, Ogrodnick, Gallant, Hanlon, etc…  but cheer I did and stick with them I did.

Posted by Primis on 08/09/08 at 06:18 PM ET

This past February, he sent me an email saying: “Okay, I give up. Tell me what I need to know to start following the Wings.” I told him to bookmark KK and to read all of the A2Y posts. Between that, and a little thing called the Stanley Cup, he’s now hooked.

Smart man.  He picked an excellent year to start.  (You did tell him the team doesn’t win every year so it won’t always be like this, right?)

One of my co-workers decided to ignore the Lions last year at the beginning of the season because he was annoyed with being bummed every Sunday. 

About halfway through the season, he started griping about the Lions, and I asked him “what happened to your boycott?  You were doing so well!”

His response:  “They were 6 and 2!”

I reminded him: “They’re the Lions!  You know that was just a tease!”

(Primarily he follows the Wings though, so his hockey experience dilutes out the putridity of his football experience.  This year he swears he’s sticking to the boycott, no matter how well they start off.)

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 08/09/08 at 06:54 PM ET

Until the Fords are gone, and Millen is gone, I will not come back.

Amen, Primis. Amen!

I’m with you 100% on that. As you pointed out, it’s not whether your team wins or loses that’s important, it whether or not they play like they want to win that’s important. I haven’t seen that in the Lions in many, many years.

You did tell him the team doesn’t win every year so it won’t always be like this, right?

Shhhh. Come on, Ms. B, he reads these posts now so don’t spoil the illusion. Right now, he thinks the Wings are a “lock” for another S.C. next spring. And I’m not about to dispell that notion.

“They were 6 and 2!”

That’s exactly what provided the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for my friend. He was so giddy about the Lions in late October I thought I was going to have to drive down to Detroit and slap some sense into him. As it turned out, the Lions themselves did that for me over the next few games.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 08/09/08 at 10:24 PM ET

To me, the Lions are like the Toronto Maple Leafs of football, minus the championships, circa Harold Ballard. 

They’re an old man’s play toy, and as long as the dollars keep rolling in, and even if they don’t (it’s rumoured that there was a $50 million cash call recently, and I know that not even having followed football, well, ever), Mr. Ford will run them the way he’s ran them since he purchased them in the 60’s, despite the fact that his style of management is 50 years old.

Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 08/09/08 at 11:03 PM ET

Can’t go wrong with original 6 teams

http://www.crashthecrease.com

Great hockey talk

Posted by Cory on 08/10/08 at 01:00 AM ET

The Blackhawks are apparently on the upswing, finally.  Granted, it took ownership death to accomplish it, but there may be hope for the Lions - eventually.

When Millen is also gone, of course.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 08/10/08 at 06:26 AM ET