Attendance may have more to do with the dismal performance of the Cougars on the ice than back to back games.

back to back games are a travel issue and we l have to cover even more of the costs to teams to travel this far. It isn't about back to back games....it's about people paying for quaility product. Get rid of the GM..get someone in place who knows hockey and will at least try and build a winner

Ya if the team actually won some games, Id go more often.

Yeah the income generated from the cougars surely does directly impact the bottom line. Such a shame the CN Center signed on for another 10 years of losing $$$$.

And Dave Wilbur obviously has little to no clue. The reason for the back to back games in PG is travel related. We are kind of out of the way up here in PG.

Back to Back games aren't a problem. Actually it pretty good especially the second game when the teams really don't like each other. Makes for good hockey. The problem is, is that the Cougars are terrible and have been for some time.

We are no further out of the way then Edmonton or Saskatoon. I think the back to back games comment is a valid one... Brodsky is too cheep to have it any other way nickle and diming on the travel expense as well as the product on the ice is probably the real problem here.

Back to back games is a valid issue. The Spruce Kings rarely (if ever) play back-to-back games. The only time I usually see that is a home-at-home series.

Maybe if the fans supported the team, win or lose, the moral and support would help them skate better, and feel better about themselves as a team. How would you feel if everyone told you that you suck and were a loser, and didnt't have support behind you. I thought PG was a Hockey Town. If you had a good friend that was feeling down and struggling, would you say oh I'll come back when your feeling better.

nothing to do with schedule. its about Brodsky's management style.

Wasn't the old coach no good either? What do you people want? It sure is easy to coach from the seat of the stands or away from the CN Centre, (not supporting the team or the franchise).

In the years that they were winning there was never an issue about filling the seats on back to back games. This is a sad excuse for city hall to come up with! Looks to me that they are afraid to put blame on our stellar management team at the Cougars.

Dave Wilbur is a great example of this city council.

Find some off the wall excuse, something to lay the blame on and pass off the problem to somebody else.

What a crock.

Want people in the seats? Win some games, offer some good entertainment.

no gen manager equauls no team equals no fans

Fire the coach and management of cougars!!!!!

Stompin Tom makes an excellent point in providing entertainment. The idea that winning = full stands is myopic in the world of sport. If it were that simple, the Red Wings would be drawing at full capacity every night (Which they are not) and the Oilers, mired in 30th place wouldn't be selling out the joint every night (which they do).

The key part is entertainment. People want good value for their dollars spent, so please Mr. Brodsky, invest in the entertainment value of your team. James Cameron spent $500 Million just to make Avatar, with the risk of knowing that if the movie didn't provide good value ($10 for a three hour movie) he would lose money.

A night out at a Cougars game is a drab night out. Always has been. The Brodsky's are too cheap to hire an effective marketing person, so no one sees the entertainment value of the Cougars. What makes the Cougars so special as a hockey team that folks in this city are willing to give up their bucks to watch? Why should anyone for that matter spend one red cent for any entertainment? As consumers we have a multitude of choices for entertainment in this city. Why do I want to spend those dollars watching hockey? What makes a Cougars game so much more entertaining than say a night out at an Art Space concert?

The idea that PG Is not a hockey town is a ridiculous point as the rinks are often overflowing with hockey games of all ages and skill levels and any rec player with half a brain will tell you that there aren't many things they'd be willing to do at 10:45PM on a Sunday night. The countless volunteers who spend hours and hours keeping the hockey scene in this town moving is absolutely staggering. The lack of support for two sub (and I mean SUB)-par junior hockey teams is not an indication of this city's status as a hockey town.

Lack of real promotions, or creative marketing is what has killed this team, not the poor product on the ice. The poor product on the ice is a result of Dallas Thompson's ineptitude as a GM. To think that in a five year period one could go from 4th line WHL goon to GM is a stretch. If Dallas wanted to provide part of that entertainment package, then he needs to make a plan and stick to it. Part of the reason the Canucks are so successful today, is because under Brian Burke's leadership, they played a fast up-tempo, exciting, offensive game which is their trademark to this day. Their former assistant coach, Mike Johnston told me that if he and Marc Crawford played the neutral zone trap (boring but effective), Brian Burke would have fired them. Once the GM sets the plan, find a coach who teaches the system and find the players who fit the system. It's all pretty simple, but not simple enough for an inept GM.

The lack of overall entertainment value, well that goes directly to the self-acclaimed, self-named Vice-President of the team, Brandi Brodsky, whose only pedigree for management is that she shares the same DNA as the owner. Until she realizes that she is in the entertainment business first and foremost, then those stands will continue to remain empty, no matter what the product on the ice is.

howard b may feel he is right but edmonton and detroit arent perenial rebuilders and they have a few banners in their barns

We need a Marketing and P/R person like Dane Mackinnon. He worked hard for the cougars and even won an award for Marketing and P/R for the 97/98 season. Not to mention he was also involved in a 'NHL Blitz' game for Midway Entertainment.

Those were the best seasons I've seen!!

The biggest problem is that Brodsky simply does not care. He has this team taxing our city to pay for his and his families life style.

The team has poor PR. It continues to think that we are a backwards gritty little mill town, who will accept anything that is on the ice. The team management needs to be reinvented. Take the family out of it. Let a real GM run the team, run it like a entertainment business in any other major city, not like a mom and pop, hamburger stand.

The players that end up here, the only thing that is on their mind is, how to get out of this trap. We are probably the worst team in all of Canada, (CHL). Not only for perfomance but especially for community support. I think fan support is waning but sufficient.

It all boils down to a arrogant attitude of the principal owner of the Cougars.

Perfect words Howard. Perfect. But the medias in this town will never every say such things as they want to keep themselves nestled nice and warm against the Cougar advertising budget.

90000 fans divided by 36 games, that is 2500 fans. I doubt that there are any more than 1500 people in the seats. Meaning the cougars are in trouble when a 1000 season ticket holders says, not this year, and they have a ten year lease. We got him, we can nail that Brodsky.

Hey, I wonder if the Cougars can even fill up the old coliseum.

Simple economics of supply and demand. The price of the tickets should be a lot lower to get more people in the seats.

If 900 fans paid $10 each and spent $5 each on concession/merch., that would generate $13,500.

If they could sell 3,000 tickets at $5 each and everyone spent $5, that would be $30,000 in sales.

The costs are almost the same if the place was full compared to empty.

I would go to more games if they were cheaper, more value for your buck.

Councilor Dave Wilbur's logic simply doesn't hold up. The Cougars play 36 home games a year. It doesn't matter if they are double headers, single games or played in a span of 50 days. The cost for attending a given number of games is the same regardless of the schedule. If you can only afford to attend 10 games, it doesn't matter if they are double headers or not.

Like other people have said, the Cougars have played double headers since they've been here. It's simply to accomodate the travel distances required for visiting teams to get here and it makes sense. The problem with the attendance comes down to the fact that the team is abysmal and there is little to no confidence from the people in PG that it will ever change. This is of course based on past experience.

The price of a ticket is about as low as it can get. I think when you average Seniors, Juniors, Regular, and Season Tickets, you get something like $12.00 per ticket. Thats pretty cheap.

Its nice to have someone to blame for the dismal turnout at these games but there is more to it than that.

A. In the beginning there were a lot of bandwagon fans. They are now gone.

B. There are many other areas of entertainment that want our money, not the least of which is the Casino.

C. To expect 5000 people to attend 36 home games is foolish.

D. Contrary to popular opinion Prince George is NOT a hockey town. We may have a large number of kids, who play the game, and their attendent parents, however that does not necessarily mean that they attend other games. In fact the numbers at the Cougers games, and Spruce Kings suggest otherwise. Many people in Prince George find Hockey **BORING** I realize this is hard for some hockey fans to understand.

E. Most of the so called **Hockey Fans** have found something else to do, and then they blame the team and the owners for their failure to go to a game and support the team. Its more likely they are sitting at home drinking a beer and watching Hockey on TV, or sitting in a pub, or at the Casino.

F. Some of us a number of years ago stated that there was not a sufficient hockey fan base in Prince George to support a WHL franchise, and we were laughed at. He who laughs last laughs best.

G. If all the whining and sniffling fans got off their respective asses and went to a game at the very least you would get the numbers up, and give the players some support. Whats the chance of that happening???

H. Even if the Cougers suck, you would be able to see some of the other teams, that do not **suck** play some good hockey.

I. Beasley can say what he wants, and can use his (and the Citys) Voo Doo Economics, however at the end of the day, we are in fact subsidising the Cougers to play in Prince George.

J. Prince George is continuing to slide into hard economic times, and the next few years are going to be tough for a lot of people. If you are out of work, with house payments, car payments, kids, school, etc;etc; I suggest that going to a Hockey game would be the least of your concerns.

K. Although the City signed a 10 year contract retroactive to 2008, the fact of the matter is the Cougers can leave at the end of any given year if they give the proper notice. So in effect what we signed was a revenue sharing agreement, not a lease, and we took a hit on the revenue.

L. Unless the CN Centre actually laid off some people in order to reduce the cost of the Couger games, then there is no decrease in costs. All they did was move the bodies around to some other area. Show me the lay off slips, or quit pretending that you are reducing costs.

Palopu, your points E through H are spoken exactly like someone who is COMPLETELY ignorant on the subject you are speaking of. Instead of making assumptions, why don't you instead talk to the people who have stopped going to the games and find out why that is?

I'll give you a hint, it has more to do with what everyone else in this thread is saying . . .

I think a people don't know that when we had better attendance it was in part due to corporate participation. I know of at least 3 different companies that used to buy a bunch of Cougars season tickets and make them available to their employees. With the cutbacks and slowing economy those perks disappeared. So those employees would support the Cougars as long as it was FREE!!!

It also helped that Cougars hockey was something new in this town for the first few years. Anything new in this town has a good run when it's new. Just like any new restaurant in this town.

And I agree, if they could turn out a decent product where they won a few games than people wouldn't mind going. But to watch them lose and hit last in the WHL.....why would we waste our time?

NMG. I have talked to a lot of fans and I agree with you that they state they no longer go to the games because of the poor team effort, and the Management. However I chose to beleive that, that is only half the truth, and the other half is, that they just cant be bothered going to 36 games a year on a regular basis.

The people who are filling the seats at the CN Centre on a regualar basis. ie; about 1500 are the real hard core fans. Those who sit at home and bitch, are fair weather fans. There is a significant difference.

My understanding is that you would support your team through both the good and bad times. Maybe Im wrong, maybe Prince George has a majority of good time fans only.