You are not alone. I had seasons tickets from the begining. About 6 years ago I just lost interest. I found it very difficult to care about a mediocre, sub par team year after year with no bright light on the horizon. A rebuilding year is acceptible to me if we are coming off a run for the cup, but it seams that we are always in a "Rebuilding Year".

It became very difficult to care about the team when it the perception was that Mr. Brodsky didn't care about us(the fans) and didn't care about the product he put on the ice. It was very difficult to watch the Cougars flounder at the bottom when upstart teams such as Vancouver and transplanted teams like Kelowna flourish. What is it about the Cougars that stops them from winning, year after year? I point my finger all the way to the top of the food (money) chain. The best thing that could every happen to the Cougars is if Mr. Broadsky sold the team, because he is the problem.

WW

Brodsky is the problem..You've got my vote. Even if he moves the team they will suffer the same fate in a few years. It seems that when new players come to the team they are full of energy but after a few months they seem to drop off. This appears to me to be a lack of respect for the owner. Please Mr. Brodsky, SELL THE TEAM. GIVE US BACK OUR HOCKEY CLUB.

Make no mistake. Brodsky brought this team here from Victoria and it is his. He will not sell it to 'us' whoever that might be.

Brodsky is not the problem. I have to agree with Jim Swanson's comments in the PG Citizen this morning, you can pretty much lay the Cougars' woes at the feet of the GM and the scouting staff who have constantly come up short at the draft table. Until that changes, there will be more of the same.

I used to be a season ticket holder as well, but I got tired of watching a team that on some nights, were beaten before the puck dropped.

14 years of futility, no banners. Something has to change, and not just the coach.

I have no doubt that Mr. Brodsky won't sell the team. I can be sure of that. He will move it before he does that.

Who hires the GM? I do believe it's the owner. How come in 14 years we can't find one when other teams don't seem to have this problem? Do top tear candidates not want to work for him which forces him to hire his family and friends while Vancouver hire the likes of Mr. Hay?

I still say Mr. Brodsky is the problem!

I have no doubt that Mr. Brodsky won't sell the team. I can be sure of that. He will move it before he does that.

Who hires the GM? I do believe it's the owner. How come in 14 years we can't find one when other teams don't seem to have this problem? Do top tear candidates not want to work for him which forces him to hire his family and friends while Vancouver hire the likes of Mr. Hay?

I still say Mr. Brodsky is the problem!

Such a tough decision. Does one blame the owner, the manager, the staff or the customer?

In my books, the buck stops at the desk of the person(s) in charge. In this case, that would be the owner.

The question I have is whether it costs the City more money to host a game at the arena than they receive in income. If so, time to give the owner an ultimatum for non-performance or some such reason for re-opening the agreement.

Which, of course, brings up the question of exactly what is the agreement. Is he in there forever?

My wife and I were also season ticket holders for many years.

You all remember the excitement that enveloped the Multiplex on game night?

For the past couple of years the only excitement for me was trying to get all the wild running children and Rowdy Cat out of my face while the puck was in play.

How about those "security guards" standing in front of the fans at ice level during the last few minutes of the game.

At the end of last season I asked my wife if she still planned on season tickets for 08-09.
She said, "of course, they are my Cougars".

I haven't been to a game yet this year and she keeps razzing me.
Last night she said she didn't think she would renew them next year.

For her to make that statement should really raise the eyebrows of the Cougar organization, because she is usually the last person on this planet to give up on anything.

I'm hearing throught the grapevine that Nanaimo may be getting an existing WHL team moving to their city. No it won't be the Cougars.

It all points to poor management all around.

I say let Brodsky move the team. In a couple years we will have a new team with new owners.

What the hell is Dallas Thompson doing on the bench?
Is he baby sitting the coach?

This organization is a joke and I feel for the players that play for it.

The fans and citizens of PG should challenge Brodsky - I know we could fill the CN Centre up for one game, if we do, he gets rid of Thompson.

Brodsky = Al Davis (Raiders)

Sure PG is disadvantaged by the fact that players dont really want to play here but the problems go beyond that. Brodsky's policy of hiring family over experienced hockey people is the problem.

One time I 'won' some fan appreciation prize. The prize was a card that when I used it to fill up at Mohawk some small amount got donated to the Cougars scholarship fund. One of the most ridiculous true stories ever. With this type of marketing (I beleive at the time marketing was run by one of Brodsky's wonder children) who can be suprised the Cougars will fail?

No one wants to work in an organizaiton where half the staff is related to the owner. No good GMs want to be here, no good coaches want to be here, no players want to be here, and finally the fans dont want to be here.

The only thing that makes me feel better is the WHLs policy of having teams leave and then granting another team for the next season. Different owner = different result. Go COUGARS II.

It is very evident the coaching staff are not able to motivate the players. Yes, some of the draft choices have been suspect but good coaches can get 110% out of the youngsters playing for them. Don Hay seems to perpetually have a contending team and I am sure it is not just through draft choices. With the cougars finishing below Vancouver the cougars should have the better draft choices resulting in a more talented team. Unfortunately the cougars coach is probably out of his element. While he may have been an acceptable coach in the BCHL he is not of sufficent caliber to coach in the WHL. To have a top notch coach requires the owner to open the vault. I am sure the cougars coach receives only a small portion of what Don hay receives.
Leaving 2000 plus seats empty is a lot of money and would go far in paying for top quality coaching and management.
Going back a few months to the begining of the season the sports writers picked the finishing position of the teams in the BC division. The cougars were picked to finsh 5th and in the case of one sports writer he picked the cougars to finish 6th. It appears the sports writers were right on the money in their rating of the team.
In analyzing the cougars over the past few years it certainly appears Ed Dempsey's teams played more exciting hockey and the stands were certainly full.
Hopefully things will improve.

1. The agreement between the City and the Cougers for use of the CN Centre is that the City is to receive 12.5% of gross ticket sales up to $1,500,000.00 and 15% thereafter.

2. The average attendence per game this year is approx 2700 fans. Assuming this average holds for the year, based on an average ticket cost of $14.00 and 36 home games, the City stands to make approx $170,000.00 this year. Gross ticket sales would be $1,360,800.00 . The Cities take per game would be approx $4,725.00 which would hardly cover the costs.

3. When this facility was first built, with all the attending hype they were able to get over 5000 fans per game, however half of these fans could be considered **soft** and once the hype died down they found something else to do. In order to maintain 5000 fans per game for 36 games you would need approx 7% of the population to attend each game.

4. Each time there is a new facility built in Prince George there are less people available to support all facilities for the simple reason that the population is remaining the same or declining. Once people attend a venue at the CN Centre, ie; Corb Lund, Kenny Rodger, etc; or if they go to the Casino on a regular basis, or attend other functions, which might include a basketball game at UNBC, or a Spruce Kings hockey game, there is less money available, and therein lies the problem for the Cougers. They are in stiff competition for the available dollars, and even if they could come up with a winning team, there are not sufficient fans, or funds available to support them.

5. The CN Centre was built without due regard to what was the real fan base in Prince George. We now have a number of years that gives us a pretty good indication, and it doesnt look good for the long term.

"They are in stiff competition for the available dollars, and even if they could come up with a winning team, there are not sufficient fans, or funds available to support them."

Have to disagree with you there. PG is a hockey town and that was obvious throughout the "good years" for the Cougars.
There were lot's of fans because they were a winning, exciting team.

It took a few seasons of very poor performance to wittle down the crowds to what you see today.

Bring in a winning team and you'll see fans flock back to the Plex.

"When this facility was first built, with all the attending hype they were able to get over 5000 fans per game, however half of these fans could be considered **soft** and once the hype died down they found something else to do"

The fact of the matter is that from the 96-97 season right through to the 02-03 season (7 years), PG put an average of 5,312 bodies in the seats for each game. That includes a 4 year span where there were more people in the building than seats (the rink has 5,500 seats plus roughly 500 standing room). I certainly don't consider a 7 year trend "hype". I think it's a rather CLEAR message that the city can and will put 5,000+ in the seats if the product is there.

The numbers show that attendance started dropping in the 02-03 season and from there has continued to where it is now. What happened? Well, on far too many nights the product has been terrible, the franchise has had NO success in putting up banners (unlike most every other franchise in the league during that span), nepotism continues in the organization and there has been no sign or improvement or an apparent willingness to change. That resulted in people giving up on the team and you can completely understand why. People won't keep shelling out thousands of dollars if they get nothing in return.

It isn't rocket science and it isn't that the people here wouldn't support a team. It's a simple case of people choosing not to support a business that doesn't give the customer what they desire. Case closed.

NMG. Your either a fan or your not a fan. It seems you want to take credit for the first 7 years when things were going ok, but you want to blame everyone under the sun for the last 7 years when they are going bad. Isnt it the same owners, and family in charge for the whole 14 years.

I personally know a lot of fans who attended the Couger games in the beginning and now do not attend at all. They may blame the coaching, or the owners, or whatever, but the fact of the matter is, they have just lost interest.

Part of the problem is overkill. We have the BCHL, WHL, NHL, etc; etc; etc;. We have Baseball,Football, etc; etc; etc;. Who has the time to attend, or watch all these games on TV???

To expect anyone except a **hardline** fan to attend 36 home games per year is a bit of a stretch.

Fans are fickle at best, and I suspect that the WHL is on its last legs in this town.

Palopu,
I have to disagree with you.

There was a time where management had top notch coaches, scouts, and managers. Those good people were replaced with nepotizim as we have today.

Prince George hockey fans know the game and stoped going because the owners have disolved the organization and this reflects on the current standings.

Everyone I know that boycot the cougars have the same reasons, The Brodsky Family!
In fact I am one of those fans.

I personally would like the team to leave so we can move on with getting a real team with real owners.

"NMG. Your either a fan or your not a fan"

You are missing a rather significant consideration Palopu and that is the fact that many (most in fact) of the fans from back then have been completely turned off, not from the game, but rather because of what they endured with following this particular franchise so faithfully for all of those years.

I was one of those fans so I think I can speak fairly intelligenty on the subject. As a season ticket holder for many years, I would go to every single game I could and I did so for years. I spent thousands of dollars, as did my group of friends that were also season ticket holders. There comes a point where you just get sick of going to the games and not seeing any progress with the team as well as feeling physically angry and upset on the drive home because you know it isn't going to change (and it hasn't). I'd still be a season ticket holder today if there was any promise that things were improving, but I've watched too many games in that building to know better. It's got to point where it has nothing to do with not being a fan. It has everything to do with making a very concious decision to not support this particular business.

Oh and for the record, those first 7 years didn't result in much success either, but people still had hope back then. The hope is all but gone, as are the fans that COULD be in the seats if the owner actually wanted to do something about it.

Back in the day, there was excitement, enthusiasm, energy and a full house. As a fan and a sponsor at the rink, we supported the Prince George Cougars with 6 season tickets for years as well as investing about $15,000 per year in financial support.

As a business owner, you evaluate the return on your investment each year. Well, let's say that the management of this team caused us more problems than was acceptable. No apology, no attempt to fix the problems and a so what attitude. So, we made a decision to pull our support. It had nothing to do with hockey or the players at the time. I was choked at the organization and how we were handled. We were loyal, faithful and committed supporters of the Prince George Courgars.

But, we do have a choice and in our world, they burned their bridges with us. We support other organizations now. The Cougars are not the only act in town and they better realize they need to compete for people and their limited amount of dollars to spend. They have a product to sell and we have a choice whether to buy or not.

I think one reason the Cougars have failed in their recent years, is the ability to put new fans on the fan escalator. Once fans reach the end of that escalator, whether or out of lack of interest or disgust at the management/ownership, they drop off all together. No new fans on the escalator, means no new fans period, hence the empty seats. A lot of fans got on that escalator in 94-95, but many have dropped off. Where the management team of this franchise failed was to keep the current fans on the escalator happy, and to try and draw new fans in.

Other WHL franchises (Such as Moosejaw and Saskatoon) have won diddly in the same time, but they somehow manage to move fans on that escalator. Winning does not always equate with full seats either, as proven by the many empty seats at the Joe Louis arena. To simply say winning draws in crowds is myopic and places the blame on the players and the coach. While the coach is glad to have a job, many of these kids have no choice but to come here and make the best of it.

My Solutions?

A) What Mr. Brodsky needs to do is quit treating the people of this city with such contempt. There are some incredibly knowledgeable hockey people in this city, many of whom have deep pockets. To think that you could treat them with such disrespect and not have it come back to bite you in the ass is crazy.

B) Hire the right people. Family run businesses are great, if your family are ideal employees. However, Brandi Brodsky is the worst business manager I've ever seen. I wonder if she knows what a public is, or even how to market to specific publics. Dallas Thompson is the worst GM in junior hockey, and a laughingstock among GM's. Just think, you're Brent Sutter. Like any Sutter you learned the value of hard work on the family farm with the values of getting the job done from sun up to sun down. Those values took you through a great NHL. Now you are the owner/GM/Head Coach of a great WHL franchise. YOu have earned your way and paid your dues in full. Do you honestly respect a guy whose only qualifications are that he sleeps with the owners daughter? I would also conclude that the head scout for this organization's qualifications are that he was the owner's drinking buddy from way back when.

C) Try to build a philosophy for your team that includes the pursuit of excellence and live by it. Know why players don't want to play here? Because it is a franchise that shows no commitment to excellence from the top.

D) Be an owner. Yes, you are a wealthy man and that wealth came from hard work and calculated risks. Just understand that it doesn't translate into everything. Lee Iaccoca was a genius for building car companies, but that doesn't mean he should try to pretend he knows how to run a hockey team. Hire the right people and let them do their job.

Maybe Mr. Brodsky can put a rather large size suggestion box at every exit. And take the time to read the contents. That is if you assume people will be polite and use constructive criticism when lending out their wisdom and hockey playing experience.