Has the move to Jobing.com Arena hurt the 'Yotes attendance?

The commute issues aren’t bad enough to sink the team’s chances entirely, but I do hope to see the organization reach out to fans somehow on this front. Maybe encourage people in Apache Junction or other far flung locales to attend games with $10 gas vouchers, carpooling discounts for groups, something along those lines. Even if we can get a thousand more fans to show up who wouldn’t make the drive ordinarily, our attendance figures would be more representative of our actual fan base.

good read as well. I’ve made this argument (not so eloquently) in the past simply with my own case. The move did not impact me much from a distance standpoint based on where I live (basically 101 and 51), but the 101 West was terrible prior to about last month. I noticed the=at it only took me about 25 minutes in traffic with the new HOV lane open on the 101… Driving to downtown on the 51 was quite simple, and something I was willing to do on a regular basis, but the 101 was very irritating during rush hour. I would get home from work around 6, and find that I miss about half of the opening period by the time I reached the rink. I have to go home prior to the games (I have dogs), but even if it didn’t stop home it would take about an hour from my place of work, so all in all, it was not a fun drive.

Basically, I think the drive time is actually much better now that the freeway expanded, you will still see some brake lights on the way,. but atleast your average speed is over 25 mph now… I have made it to more games this year, and have been able to make it on time to each game this year as well. Not something I could say last year… I feel for the Mesa and Gilbert fans though, that would be awful…

over Phoenix, and I live in Gilbert. Anyone who says that the Coyotes should have never left US Airways Center NEVER SAT in the obstructed seats. The entire zone was only viewable on little TV monitors (twice defended by the Coyotes). US Airways Arena would not have been remodeled to accomodate hockey. Jobing.com Arena’s sightlines are great for hockey. There really isn’t a bad seat in the house and you have the open concourse where you can see the ice unlike US Airways.

I takes about an hour on Saturdays to get to Glendale from Gilbert (unless there is an accident). Also, Glendale parking is paid for in the ticket. You have to shell out another 12 bucks downtown to park.

The Saturday 6:00 p.m start times are great. Get out at 8:30 p.m. and hit the bars right afterwards. There really isn’t an excuse for small Saturday crowds. I do sympathize about the weekday night traffic. It’s tough fighting rush hour traffic across town, but it is a good excuse to leave work early…:) Because I can’t leave work early, I attend the Saturday nght games instead of on weekdays.

Above all, the product on the ice is MUCH better than in the AWA days. The players are more skilled overall, there is more depth on the bench, and the coaching is now top notch.

Getting good ownership of the franchise will be the key. The City of Glendale is likely the biggest stumbling block that could prevent the Coyotes from being successful in Glendale.

Thanks for the reasoned reply, I appreciate the comment. I watched many a Coyotes game at the old AWA, sitting in the obstructed view seats a few times as well, and I agree that from a viewing standpoint Jobing.com Arena is far superior. It was, after all, designed specifically to host hockey games. My point was not that the team should have stayed put, but that moving to Glendale in particular may have been a bad choice. I based this assertion on the sheer distance of Glendale from Phoenix proper, but I believe you have actually pointed out the real reason why Glendale may have been a mistake. Your conclusion that “The City of Glendale is likely the biggest stumbling block that could prevent the Coyotes from being successful in Glendale” is completely valid, which only makes me wonder even further if the team would have been better served by staying in Phoenix. Maybe an arena in Mesa, Scottsdale or Chandler would have worked?

My wife and I have had season tickets from the beginning, and Roadrunners before that. We actually had both teams in 96-97, which was a lot of hockey. Our brick at Jobing.com com says “Hockey is Life”, so I guess we’re hooked on the game, eh!

We sat center ice behind the radio broadcasters at AWA so we didn’t have the sight-obstructed issue. But, I did sit up there for a period one game just to see what it was like, and it was awful. I recall them making it a party zone with bands, et. al., but expecting to fill that area with STH’s would be a huge stretch. Unfortunately, those with limited budgets would gravitate to those seats, but who would want to sit there? I expect many of them who could have become diehard, fanny in the seat fans stayed home and watched on TV. Probably many of them still watch on TV.

It came out during the Los Arcos debacle that 75% of the STH’s lived in the East Valley, which is why it would have made sense to put the arena there. If this was today, would the Pima or Gila River tribes be interested in constructing an arena? I bet they would, as it would be a wonderful companion to their outstanding respective casinos. But I digress…

We would have bought our two season tickets no matter where the new arena was located, as I generally left work early, drove home to pick up my wife, then off to the game, which was a lot of driving anyway. Glendale is better than Sun City, but I can’t say there are many other places in the Valley that would be a worse location for us.

We generally leave home around 5:45 for a 7PM game. Expectations are that I will arrive after my 37 mile drive at 6:30 – 6:40, but I rarely see the teams hit the ice for warmups, so 6:30 isn’t very often. Traffic is always unpredictable, especially the tunnel area (or the 17 south of downtown. During the week there is always a bottleneck at the stack, to the point that sometimes I will take Van Buren out to 43rd or 51st Ave just to avoid the stop-and-go frustration. An accident or a police car on the side of the road will always bring the action to a halt. Weather, rare as it might be, also slows everything down. My worst experience was a 2 hour drive where I missed the entire first period, and I’ve missed the start of several games. The drive home is always the same unless there is construction or an accident.

Does the drive really matter? Yes, it does. So does age, as we’re in our 60s, and frankly, some nights we’re too tired to make the drive, so we stay home. Were the arena closer I doubt we would ever stay home, but since we’re STH’s, the money is already spent. If we can’t make a game we generally give tickets to someone who will use them, hockey fan or not, hoping that they enjoy it so much that they’ll want to come back to see more games. I guess that’s our contribution to marketing the Yotes!

We enjoy the free parking, but it seems ridiculous to not be paying for parking. Not complaining, but couldn’t that be a revenue stream in a more team-favorable lease agreement? $10 would be fair I would say.

The arena is quite nice, what more can I say.

Being in a half full (optimist) arena is a complete bummer. The upper middles are usually pretty close to full, and the north uppers are usally okay at the very bottom and very top. I cannot see the south uppers. The middle lowers are so-so, as are the ends, but the price cutoff sections in the lower circles are always pretty full. What would I conclude from all this? The economy is definitely at play, and those who are die-hards are sitting upstairs in the best seats they can get. The more affluent and the corporate types are staying away, and this is exemplified by the number of empty suites.

Would getting a dedicated owner who pushed the marketing help? Gosh, I would think so. I completely understand those who choose not to get attached to the team (and to buy tickets) assuming they will be leaving. I get it so much that the thought has also entered my mind, though I did renew for this year and next. Do I think we will have the Yotes next year? I only hope so, but I have to admit that as each day goes by, I feel less and less hopeful. We are way beyond fan support in the seats being the saving grace, as a good owner is the only way to eventually get the attendance up to near capacity.

Without rehashing the legal mess, I condemn Goldwater for what they did, but I also condemn the CoG for not forcing GW to actually put their proposed lawsuit into a court of law. I would also hazard a guess that Westgate would go pretty much dark without the Yotes, so CoG, have you actually done an economic analysis of team vs. no team? Common knowledge says that the current lease agreement is pretty stiffling to a deal (with anyone) getting done, so why not loosen the terms to where the CoG breaks even or still makes some small profit? The NHL could also lower their asking price by $43.5MM, which would amount to $1.5MM per each of the 29 teams.

Gee, I just mentioned the NHL! I would recommend that if Gary Bettman ever gets introduced in our building ever again that he be given the loudest standing ovation in the history of sports. This man has done above-and-beyond to keep our team here, and should it all work out, deserves our collective thanks. Gee, and I never thought I would ever compliment the guy, but I just did. Yeah, scheduling us for the All Star Game in the year of the strike (and not giving it back 2 years later) stunk to the high heavens… yes it did.

That’s about it, as I typed a whole lot more than I intended when I started this, but there is a certain passion that exists for our team in many of us, and for sure those who follow the blogs. Just wind us up and off we go……….

Go Yotes!

I absolutely think that the move to Glendale has hurt attendance and the possibility that the Yotes will be able to make it in the valley. As a season ticket holder living in Chandler, it takes a lot of dedication to be able to make every weeknight game, which is pretty rare in the general population of sports fans in the valley. When the arena was built, they knew the majority of hockey fans were in the east valley and were hoping to attract enough of them to keep the team afloat until the west valley population grew to a point where they could support the team as well. I remember infomercials targeted at east valley fans where f’n Chris Gratton (sorry, still bitter about Briere) was doing the “15 minute” drive from downtown to Gdale to show how “close” it was. I’m not sure of the current breakdown in STH’s between east and west valley, but the recession definitely hampered the swell in west valley $ and fans, and so they’re still in a place where they are depending on a lot of fans being willing to spend that much time in traffic to make the games.
I think above all else, the move to Glendale really hurt the potential for walk up ticket sales. I can’t help but wonder how many ASU students we could get to fill the empty seats with the $10 game day ticket promotion if the arena were at or near Los Arcos. I know they had this promotion for a while in Glendale, but again, not worth the drive for a fringe fan. While these cheap tix would not dramatically improve the bottom line, it would help improve the atmosphere in the arena as filled seats are a lot louder than empty ones, which would make the experience more fun and could translate into more passion among prospective season ticket holders. Unfortunately, it’s all water under the bridge at this point, so here’s hoping a new ownership group can navigate the backwards world of Gdale politics and spark some new interest across the entire valley for the best team in town!