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Friday, December 10, 1999
The Flames need you.... now
Forget the federal government.
Forget the NHL and NHLPA.
YOU can save the Calgary Flames.
How? Buy a ticket.
For no matter how much you read about the latest federal government scheme to provide tax or lottery dollars to struggling Canadian teams, no matter how much money the NHL has pledged to those same teams in currency equalization support, there is something Calgarians have to do to save their team.
They must sell an average of 3,000 more tickets per game.
If Calgary doesn't get that support, the Flames will not qualify for league money.
Flames co-owner and NHL chairman of the board Harley Hotchkiss is not Rod Bryden. He won't call a daily press conference to threaten a city of hockey fans that they will lose their NHL team.
But the time has come in Calgary for NHL fans to ask not what their team can do for them, but what they can do for their team. The answer is simply 3,000 more fans per game.
At 9,000 season tickets, the Flames have fallen below what is required to qualify for the roughly $4 million in league currency equalization funds.
The requirement is in place to ensure the team and city are doing enough to justify the aid.
Right now, Calgary isn't doing enough.
Hotchkiss doesn't want to get up on a platform and imitate Bryden's threats.
But make no mistake -- what's at stake here is the ability of the Flames to compete and yes, ultimately, their ability to survive.
"This is critically important," said Hotchkiss upon his return to Calgary from the league meetings where the NHL committed to continue currency equalization, contingent on government support.
"We are committed to stay here -- we have been for 20 years.
"That hasn't changed and we are committed to being an integral part of this community, that's always been a priority for us.
"But it's critically important that we get fan support that allows us to do that, that lets us compete and survive.
"Calgary is a pretty vital city. And we think the Flames belong here and we would like the fans to give us the support to continue to be here."
No one is arguing that the Flames perhaps don't deserve the level of support they did in the glory days of the 1980s.
But economic reality has dictated the only prudent course of action is rebuilding. Hotchkiss didn't want to do it. None of the owners did. But they simply didn't have the revenues to support the wildly-escalating salaries.
It was either maintain control on salaries, or lose the franchise. They did what they had to do to preserve your team, and, yes, preserve their investment.
Now, it's up to Calgarians to do what they can to save their NHL team.
Edmonton did it. Can you, Calgary?
"I know there has been criticism of our team and how they are doing, but we are rebuilding," Hotchkiss told the Sun.
"If you look at the young players in our system, people would rank us up in the top half dozen or maybe higher in the league. We are building and some of those players are coming into the system -- look at Derek Morris and Denis Gauthier. We have Rico Fata and Daniel Tkaczuk and Oleg Saprykin and others. We are playing pretty good hockey, keeping in mind we have acted responsibly. We are not going to play that irresponsible game (of bidding up contracts) because it is wrong for our team and wrong for the league.
"Long term, clearly we have to deal with that issue and we are not going to be one of the teams that contributes to the problem. I think fans should understand that and realize that what we are trying to do here is in the long-term best interests of the game, and for the Flames in this community. They have to recognize that is the only way we can go, and give us the support to get there.
"This is a great city we live in. I think it has everything going for it to be a world-class city. Our economy is strong, we have good government, the city has a lot of entrepreneurial people so I feel good about this province and city and I just want to see the Calgary Flames a part of it.
"We need to deal with this issue, to somehow convince our community that we need support, to justify that support, and we've got to let them know we are aware of the longer term issues.
"I guess they have to judge whether having the Flames in Calgary is a worthwhile thing in our community.
"I believe it is."
Do you, Calgary?
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