Bowman talks about the crowd at the Joe
Last week, former head coach and current team advisor Scotty Bowman talked on WXYT-FM. He addressed the top line’s success and how he makes his first evaluation of teams each season. He also discussed the lack of sellouts at the Joe this season, which you can see below thanks to the Detroit Free Press.
On how to get people back to the Joe: Well the first way is to continue to play the way they have. The excitement they have, very two blue chip players, more than two but everyone knows Lidstrom and Rafalski have been terrific for a long time and Chelios, but in Datsuk and Zetterberg, they’re exciting players, the team as long as the team can get its wins together. I know, October, we had three games it’s not easy to sell them with the baseball and football and the college football, there’s a lot going on right now. I think we get rid of October, I know in other years we’ve sold out and everything else and people found their way to watch the Red Wings. Times are changing and we didn’t have the Tigers drawing 3 million people five years ago, but the only thing the players and coaches can do is continue to play a winning brand of hockey and I think they will.
On whether he’s been involved with talks about the crowd within the organization: I haven’t been included in that because I’m not in Detroit on a regular basis but I do know thay they’ve had a lot meetings starting with ownership, Ken Holland, Jim Devellano. They’ve had these different ideas, they’ve had coaches participate and the players participate and they’ve gone after season ticket holders who’ve given up there tickets and they went on a big process of why is the situation the way it is. I haven’t been on that side of it, but I know that they’re not just sitting back thinking that people are going to walk in to the Joe because they’ve came before. That’s not their attitude, it’s a different playing field… for probably 12-15 years there hasn’t been many tickets available. That’s why they didn’t in other years sell every ticket, season ticket, you have got to keep some for the turnover, now the test will be to market the team and it’s a new level of a field.
Honestly, I don’t think the Wings could do anything but lower ticket prices to get a sellout. I mean, the product on the ice is great so you can’t improve that. The team could make its players more available, but will that really make the team sellout? I think it all goes back to ticket prices and people either can’t afford the current prices or simply aren’t willing to pay that price. All the $9 and I believe even the $22 seats sell out, it’s the $44 and $54 seats that don’t.
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