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  #321  
Old Posted May 4, 2022, 6:46 PM
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Originally Posted by wags_in_the_peg View Post
I'm away for next few weeks, otherwise I'd go to some of those games as well. Hopefully next round I can make it out.

How Woo looking? not bad for a 15 year old, eh?
Woo is unbelievable for a 15 year old. He is playing like a vet, he got big minutes in the first round, like 20 minutes some games... sure it was against PA, but still... it gave him a chance to really get his feet wet when it comes to WHL playoff hockey. Also, according to the stats pack his goal was only the seventh underager playoff goal since the WHL began keeping stats on that (not sure how far back that goes). Sometimes he creeps into Ben Zloty playmaking defenseman mode but he is normally cautious defensively. This kid has amazing potential based on his current trajectory.

It feels like the ICE's defensive game has improved tremendously since January. Getting Tanner Brown, putting Jonas Woo into action and a more defensive mindset overall has made a huge difference.
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  #322  
Old Posted May 7, 2022, 4:17 PM
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  #323  
Old Posted May 7, 2022, 4:21 PM
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  #324  
Old Posted May 10, 2022, 2:36 PM
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Well, I went to the first two games of round two vs. Moose Jaw. Total domination by the ICE. I guess it's possible they could slip up on the road but I expect them to sweep the series, or win it in 5 games at most. They look ready for the big showdown with Edmonton that looms in round 3.

That said, I was curious to see how the community would respond to a playoff run. To date, I'd say the levels of fan interest are pretty soft. There is a small hardcore of fans showing up to every game (including myself, ha), but it seems to me that the ICE struggle to some extent to fill their building. Even at this stage, not that many people are aware of who they are. The only playoff game that looked really packed to me was game 1 vs. Prince Albert. Not coincidentally, that was a bobblehead giveaway game which always draws a crowd. Since then there have always been some empty seats, and the team has been resorting to giveaways, group deals and discounts. Not a great sign when your arena only holds 1,800.

I for one would love to see the financials for the team. They can't be good, I'm sure the team is doing OK when it comes to sponsorships but the box office and other revenues (merch, etc.) must be a disaster. When your building has 1,800 seats and you only ever sell out for the odd game vs. Brandon and the first game of every playoff round, things can't be too great. I wonder if the WHL regrets approving the team's relocation from Cranbrook without shovels in the ground for a new arena and seemingly no plan to get one started... the team is trapped in a weird kind of no-man's land where they can't really succeed in their current venue but don't seem to have the ability to get a new one built. The club never talks about a new rink anymore and the media never asks them. It's all very strange. But in the meantime, the team is doing great on the ice, probably the best season by a major Winnipeg hockey team since Bobby Hull was zipping around at Winnipeg Arena.
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  #325  
Old Posted May 10, 2022, 3:34 PM
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There's basically zero talk about the ICE around town. There's some radio spots and such. But it feels like there's no connection to the team. I don't really know any of the players. I've never been to a game. And I love hockey. I guess not enough to get down to the university to watch some games.

I find my self less interested in travelling that far even for Bomber games. I get out to a coupe of those per year. More inviting since the games outside during summer, mostly.
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  #326  
Old Posted May 10, 2022, 3:39 PM
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The uofm is such a dead zone for activity in the evening that arena is killing them off. They need to be in an area with surrounding pubs and activities and foot traffic.
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  #327  
Old Posted May 10, 2022, 3:42 PM
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I think what really hurts the ICE when it comes to establishing a fan connection is that there are no games on TV. Even though the CFL is basically a rounding error compared to the NFL from a financial perspective, it has a wildly disproportionate grasp on the attention of many Canadian sports fans in large part due to the fact that all games are on TV and people bond with the team that way... little old ladies like my mom who would rarely actually go to a game at IG Field still watches every game on TV, knows the players, and talks about it with her friends at brunch, some of whom do buy tickets. That does not exist for the WHL.

So if you're not on TV, it's a tough slog. You are basically reduced to marketing the outdoor food court, drink beer and have a good time aspect of the product (i.e. the Goldeyes) or you're going after the hardcore fans of the sport (i.e. Valour and the ICE... but Valour at least has the luxury of being the only game in town for soccer fans).

It's kind of fascinating to see how it's all playing out. I will say though, from an actual hockey perspective, it is five stars, pure excellence. It is so refreshing to watch a Winnipeg hockey time firing on all cylinders and shredding everyone in their path, haha.
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  #328  
Old Posted May 10, 2022, 3:48 PM
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I would love to watch games. You can pay $110 to watch the games online.
https://winnipegice.ca/article/whl-l...through-chl-tv

I think that is the biggest issue Esquire. Just not being connected to the team. TV would be awesome.
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  #329  
Old Posted May 10, 2022, 3:57 PM
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^ Yeah, I watch the odd ICE away game during the regular season via WHL Live, and all the playoff games (there's one tonight!!). But it's something that only people who are already hooked like me will shell out for. 99.9% of people will simply watch the game on the sports channels that they're already paying for (TSN/SN), which makes perfect sense.

TSN did put on a CHL game of the week during the regular season but they never featured the ICE... I wonder if there is an issue with broadcast capabilities at Wayne Fleming?
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  #330  
Old Posted May 11, 2022, 12:22 AM
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Originally Posted by esquire View Post
Well, I went to the first two games of round two vs. Moose Jaw. Total domination by the ICE. I guess it's possible they could slip up on the road but I expect them to sweep the series, or win it in 5 games at most. They look ready for the big showdown with Edmonton that looms in round 3.

That said, I was curious to see how the community would respond to a playoff run. To date, I'd say the levels of fan interest are pretty soft. There is a small hardcore of fans showing up to every game (including myself, ha), but it seems to me that the ICE struggle to some extent to fill their building. Even at this stage, not that many people are aware of who they are. The only playoff game that looked really packed to me was game 1 vs. Prince Albert. Not coincidentally, that was a bobblehead giveaway game which always draws a crowd. Since then there have always been some empty seats, and the team has been resorting to giveaways, group deals and discounts. Not a great sign when your arena only holds 1,800.
In other words, the ICE are the Toronto Argonauts of Winnipeg.
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  #331  
Old Posted May 11, 2022, 1:06 AM
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In other words, the ICE are the Toronto Argonauts of Winnipeg.
Moreso an oversaturated hockey market for our size with nhl ahl and whl.
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  #332  
Old Posted May 11, 2022, 4:24 AM
DavefromSt.Vital DavefromSt.Vital is offline
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Hey esquire (and other Ice fans), my son and I may go there for a game. Any tips or tricks for seating?
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  #333  
Old Posted May 11, 2022, 5:57 AM
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A new building in a good location will help the Ice immensely in my opinion , Wayne Fleming Arena just doesn’t have any of the amenities you need now , the improvements they made were good but it’s just not what you need for junior hockey anymore , at some point to survive in Winnipeg they will need a modern facility and the Ice owners are smart guys they know this .
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  #334  
Old Posted May 11, 2022, 12:24 PM
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Originally Posted by DavefromSt.Vital View Post
Hey esquire (and other Ice fans), my son and I may go there for a game. Any tips or tricks for seating?
You might enjoy sitting in the loge... it's a pretty cool experience, you are basically sitting over top of the boards so you get a somewhat unique (for this level) perspective on the game. You can hear a lot of what is being said on the ice too which adds to the fun.

There are party lounges at ice level... those are OK if you have a seat right along the glass but I'm not sure how much of the game you can actually see from the pub tables.

Beyond that there isn't a ton of variety as it's a pretty small arena. I find a lot of the regulars tend to congregate near the top of the rink (there are only 6 rows plus one standing room row). You can often see NHL scouts (dozens on some nights) huddled around the standing room rail.

Whenever you do make it out, I'd be curious to hear your take on a somewhat unorthodox major junior hockey environment

Quote:
Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy View Post
In other words, the ICE are the Toronto Argonauts of Winnipeg.
Haha, it's not that far from the truth.

Bad news for the boys, they lost in MJ last night which means back to Winnipeg for game 5 on Friday.

I'm not sure what happened to the ICE, they had several extended PP chances but just couldn't get anything going after that first goal. MJ had more success boxing out the ICE from the slot area, and they started Unger in net who had a better game than Tetatchuk did in games 1 and 2. The ICE just looked a little off last night much like they did in game 4 vs. Prince Albert. Hopefully it's just an aberration and they can get back on track tonight in game 4!

Last edited by esquire; May 11, 2022 at 2:01 PM.
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  #335  
Old Posted May 14, 2022, 3:09 PM
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On to the conference finals for the ICE! The time has come for the big showdown with the dreaded arch-rivals from Edmonton.

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  #336  
Old Posted May 14, 2022, 5:27 PM
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Originally Posted by thurmas View Post
The uofm is such a dead zone for activity in the evening that arena is killing them off. They need to be in an area with surrounding pubs and activities and foot traffic.


This.

I have been to so many cities where the university neighbourhood is the liveliest and most interesting place.

In Seattle the 'U-District' is where the University of Washington is located, it has miles of bars, restaurants, parks, theatres, museums, dedicated bike paths, retail, high-density housing, an LRT station and is filled with people on the street at all hours.

How did we end up with this cold institutional place on prime riverfront land that is completely dead after 4 p.m. and can barely support a single bar?
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  #337  
Old Posted May 14, 2022, 6:20 PM
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Originally Posted by Only The Lonely.. View Post


This.

I have been to so many cities where the university neighbourhood is the liveliest and most interesting place.

In Seattle the 'U-District' is where the University of Washington is located, it has miles of bars, restaurants, parks, theatres, museums, dedicated bike paths, retail, high-density housing, an LRT station and is filled with people on the street at all hours.

How did we end up with this cold institutional place on prime riverfront land that is completely dead after 4 p.m. and can barely support a single bar?
Yeah big oof
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  #338  
Old Posted May 25, 2022, 9:52 AM
DavefromSt.Vital DavefromSt.Vital is offline
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Was at the Ice game on Saturday. As esquire has said, it is a "unique" experience. I have long-since been to all 20 OHL arenas (the WHL equivalent) and many others so I have seen many things.

The idea of having a lot of fans on one side and few on the other is reminiscent of the Ottawa 67s who currently play under the north stands of the Ottawa football stadium. The small number of rows on the larger side reminds me a bit of Flint (ugh!)

However, the best comparator that I have been to is Owen Sound. They are the last OHL team that still plays out of the big rink at a community centre that holds a couple of thousand people with a lot of people standing in the concourse. Every other team has built a 4-10K arena.

Everyone at the game was into and it was a good time. There were only two concession areas, but the food was normal for a junior game - hot dogs, burgers, poutine, tacos in a bag and a carvery station. $5 tall cans before the game is almost unheard of in Ontario. While the seats are benches with a row-long back, the seats are steeply raked so you really don't need to worry about sightlines.

Two quibbles, one minor, one major. Some of the in-game promos were bizarre in that there was virtually no chance of the contestant answering correctly. It is OK for contests to leave a possibility of failing, but having no chance is just weird. A far bigger problem is brand recognition. My teenaged son and I were asked by numerous people around town why we were there for the weekend. I always said a Winnipeg Ice game. Every single person responded with with some version of you mean the Jets or their arena. I would respond, no the Winnipeg Ice. Every single person said oh you mean the Moose, and I would say no, the junior hockey team the Winnipeg Ice. The only time I would get through to people was if I mentioned the Brandon Wheat Kings were in the same league. I realize with limited seating capacity there is little upside to going all out in promoting the team, but the word needs to get out to the average person in Winnipeg that there is an actual WHL team in town.

As an aside, good to see Kevin O and Munz working sports again.
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  #339  
Old Posted May 25, 2022, 2:04 PM
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Thanks for sharing the review, that was an interesting take on your experience watching the ICE.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DavefromSt.Vital View Post
A far bigger problem is brand recognition. My teenaged son and I were asked by numerous people around town why we were there for the weekend. I always said a Winnipeg Ice game. Every single person responded with with some version of you mean the Jets or their arena. I would respond, no the Winnipeg Ice. Every single person said oh you mean the Moose, and I would say no, the junior hockey team the Winnipeg Ice. The only time I would get through to people was if I mentioned the Brandon Wheat Kings were in the same league. I realize with limited seating capacity there is little upside to going all out in promoting the team, but the word needs to get out to the average person in Winnipeg that there is an actual WHL team in town.
On the team recognition thing, I feel like the team has wrongly assumed that everyone knows that they are in the WHL, or even what the WHL is. The WHL was gone from Winnipeg for nearly 40 years... people know the Brandon Wheat Kings, but not everyone knows ICE are part of the same league. I feel like they should have started there. So much of their advertising is simply a gameday ad in the Free Press or on an electronic billboard with an ICE logo, a Medicine Hat Tigers logo, "GAME TONIGHT!" and a QR code. That's it. A lot of people will have no idea what any of that is.

I honestly think the assumption was that with Wayne Fleming Arena being so small, they could just open the doors and it would fill right up with hockey fans. It hasn't worked that way. I've been to most of the home games the team has played and it is only a handful that have been truly full houses. It's funny because when the team first moved to Winnipeg, they tried to hype the demand levels by claiming that all the seats were snapped up by season ticket holders... I assumed that I wouldn't be able to get single-game tickets so I pretty well tuned out the team until my kid's team went to a game in November of 2019 and I realized it was not a tough ticket, so I kept going back. Now I'm a season ticket holder. I do see some of the same faces in the stands game after game, but the trouble for the team is that there aren't that many regulars.

In some respects the timing of the move back to Winnipeg was not great. It coincided with a period of extended Jets-mania when the Jets were just a year off of their conference finals run and they still seemed like contenders, and of course the Moose are a well-known brand that appeals to both families and hard-core Jets fans who want to see the prospects. It's a crowded market. Any other time in the 20 years prior to that would have been a better time to move the team here, and that's not even getting into the unfortunate timing of covid. I kind of thought that this current playoff run might get the city into it, but I haven't seen any signs of that happening. The playoff games have just barely sold out, with many tickets available right up until game day. It shouldn't be a struggle to sell 2,000 tickets to a playoff game for a highly successful team, but it is.

It does feel like this team has a very low ceiling in terms of ticket sales and brand recognition in their current venue. I am curious to see what will happen... do they find a way to get an arena built and become a permanent fixture on the local sports scene, or do the owners simply give up and move the team yet again? It's hard to see how they continue to exist for the long term in their current venue.
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  #340  
Old Posted May 25, 2022, 2:07 PM
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In related news, the ICE have a critical game 4 at Edmonton tonight at 8 pm. They dropped two games in overtime this series to the dreaded Oil Kings and are down in the conference final 2-1. It's pretty well a do or die game tonight for the ICE as it's unlikely they would come back from a 3-1 deficit against a team as good as Edmonton.

You can watch the game on CHL TV for a cool, crisp tenner, or listen on 1290 for free.
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