Oh, I totally agree that the games cost too much. I've only been able to go when the tickets were comped. And I would never give Spaulding the business.

At least the Jets won their game tonight. Winnipeg, now that's a city that sticks with its team through the bad times, even the nonexistent times!

_________________

It might even out better than you think in the future. It's been the thing to do the last few years for casual or corporate people. The kids born 2004 til say about 2010 will be fans. If prices come down a bit I think families will go back or they will go themselves in a couple years. Crazy to think my son will be driving in 3 years but I can see him going. The first game I went to in 08-09 was cheap.

Bears, Sox, and Bulls are all on the upswing, plus there's a Chicago sports media dying to bury the Hawks. Doesn't look good.

_________________

The Bears and Cubs are part of the city's blood and if you don't like the Bulls you're obviously racist trash from a trailer park in Hammond or Coal City.

But seriously, the real fans were energized and then quickly priced out after the first Cup. It doesn't help that the UC is pretty much the Pontiac Silverdome plopped in a good location. Hopefully Detroit's new arena has started a retro-arena movement for hockey that we can see here sometime in the next 20 years or so.

Meh. Who cares what the Bernsteins of the world think about the Hawks. I lived through the times when it felt like the Hawks were the number 3 HOCKEY team in town after the Wolves and Red Wings, and when people bitched about the Score cutting off a Packers-Eagles playoff game to go to a Hawks game. It'll never get that bad again.

WirtzDorf will sooner develop their parking lots into an actual neighborhood than replace a building they've already put so much money into. The United Center is here for the long haul.


Well, it's not good when the city's main sports talk station reserves outright hostility for one particular team in town.

_________________

Last time I went to a game in Chicago was about four years ago. Last time I went to any game was in Tampa three years ago, we got club seats in the corner at a reasonable price (about $200 each).

I can go to baseball games alone, i do it every year. It's especially easy when they're not full, and when the team I'm watching sucks I can usually get in and out for $40 including a beverage and a food item. But hockey in a sold out arena, alone... not enjoyable.

I was supposed to go to the Edmonton/Calgary swing two years ago, but my cousin got diagnosed with cancer (he's ok now) and we had to cancel the trip about two days before leaving. Cost us a fucking fortune, but we were able to easily unload the tickets the day before the first game for about 60% of what we paid for them, minus Ticketmaster reseller fees.

_________________
"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

It couldn't be thinly veiled blacklash or anything. That's never happened in the history of Chicago.

yeh yeh yeh everyone here says I hate the Hawks, you know I love you, fam, think ice skating's a little, hehehe, gotta be light on your feet to ice skate if you know what I mean, but I still got you, even if you, JOHN KRYSZLOWSKI ON TWITTER FIND HIM AT POLISH SAUSAGE JOHN, think I should be kicked out of Chicago for being black, but that's all good, we love the Hawks here, wish you guys loved the Hawks as much as we do if the ratings any indication, THERE IT IS

_________________

my guess is 670 is just pushing back because its the hawks that have all but blacklisted the score since their hockey and legal "experts" decided to shit all over Patrick Kane.

_________________
'Your AT&T Universal Card has arrived'? Oh God, Kick-fucking-ass, I got a Master Card! I don't believe it, man. Life is kinda cool sometimes.

October 2003, very white fans frolicking in the middle of Addison St. waving "Larry Horse too drinky" signs:
"Well the Cubs blew it, but hahaha, poor Dane Placko, those signs were up his scalp!"
"By cracky."

June 2010/13/15
"By the way, if you're going down to the parade, let us remind you that THERE. IS. AN. OPEN. CONTAINER. LAW. IN. CHICAGO. And if LeBron James signs with the Bulls, IT. IS. BIGGER. THAN. ANYTHING. THE. BLACKHAWKS. HAVE. EVER. DONE."
"zzzzzz....uh...mm-hmm!"

670's anti-Blackhawks stance goes waaaay back before the rape case, back when the Score inherited the brokered Hawks rights from WMAQ and openly complained about the Blackhawks' paid programming pre-empting Bears/Sox postgame talk. North ranted through 2006-07 about what a shame it was that the Bulls had to go to WCKG because they couldn't move the then-moribund Hawks off the Score.

I distinctly remember Dan and Terry being very pissed off in 2007 that they were being expected to opine on the Hawks' hiring of John McDonough. It was like Dan could imagine no greater imposition than having to devote a couple minutes to the ramifications of the Blackhawks poaching a longtime and successful Cubs executive (Senor had it out for the Cubs then, too).

Once McDonough started working his magic on the local media and getting them excited about the Hawks while the Bulls got Rose and embarked upon the Vinny Del Negro carnival of calamities, that's when Dan really hoisted the battle flag, because there was now a threat to his favorite winter pastime of going up his own ass about the Bulls.

_________________

Buffalo has that too

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

what is infuriating is last night is a game the Hawks should have won. With Crow out, they are lucky to have gotten the points they have since the break as Jeff Glass isn't a solution. He's an AHL back-up.

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

How is an expansion team this good?

What was the process? Classic draft of unprotected players?

My opinion is teams left players unprotected that were better than normal to drop cap money. Also more teams made trades with Vegas for same reasons.

_________________
Elections have consequences.

Top hockey site deadspin said they drafted and traded with year 3 in mind. Time to jump on the Vegas bandwagon now that the Hawks are bad.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

No, not classic. The NHL engineered the expansion draft to be the most generous in history, especially in contrast to the Columbus/Minnesota expansion drafts that gave both teams the absolute dregs of the league. It's no surprise that the warm-weather-obsessed NHL would make sure Las Vegas got much more favorable terms than Minnesota did. On top of that, the Panthers inexplicably exposed Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault, not great players but certainly very good ones (that the mega-genius Lightning quietly gave up on Marchessault before the Panthers did never gets much play, incidentally) and not only that, the wackadoodle post/pre-Tallon regime fired Gerard Gallant for not being enough of a numbers nerd, and now here he is coaching the hell out of a bunch of middle-sixers. But none of that explains why some Swede I've never heard of in my entire life named "William Karlsson" has like 20 goals at New Year's.

There's also the unavoidable truth that the team is not just unbeatable at home but dominant in many of those games, because -- surprise! -- spoiled rich white guys gonna spoiled rich white guy, and even though you can find strippers and blow anywhere, Las Vegas still holds such a mystique in the minds of white shitheads that they all feel required to get trashed before gameday and play like shit. I saw the Jets do it when they had their scheduled Vegas excursion like the Hawks would have on the circus trip, then they played the Knights and pissed all over themselves like twenty Nick Brophys. The Maple Leafs are a Cup contender, rolled into Vegas, and got their shit pushed in 6-0. It really makes me embarrassed to be an NHL fan, that an expansion team like this is owning the whole league at home because a bunch of douchebags can't keep their noses clean for one night.

_________________

Follow-up: here it is, for the Columbus/Minnesota draft, each team could protect 1G/5D/9F or 2G/3D/7F, while for Las Vegas, teams could only protect 1G/3D/7F or one goalie and any eight skaters. In some cases, that's the difference between exposing a fourth-liner and a second-liner. But the NHL has been beating off to the prospect of Las Vegas and Seattle teams for years now. God only knows what they'll do for Seattle. You want Patrick Kane? Take him! There's a "no protecting Patrick Kane" rule.

_________________

Twenty Nick Brophys, haha.

I say good for Vegas, if an expansion team does have a deep run the NHL is going to get mainstream attention. They're building a fan base in that market like they need to before the Raiders get there. And hey, if they do sustain this I'd rather they won a Cup than the Penguins, Blues or Preds among others.

Also count the lovely madam retard and me among last night's dead attendees. And seated 10 rows in front of us was none other than His Honor, Mayor Emanuel.

_________________
"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

This is quite funny. Gallant is coaching the hell out the Knights and they are getting a career seasons out of Karlsson. Plus, they have a deep defense and have had solid goaltending from a bunch of guys. I still say they will get stomped in the playoffs when teams bring their best every night, unless you're the Hawks.

_________________
Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.