Quote:
Originally Posted by westofyou
No, I don't
They love minor league hockey, but the cost plays in to how much they love it too, in short not enough of a hockey town to pay NHL prices would be my
Guess, I had seaon tickets to the Stingers in the 70s, and even then it was a hard sale as a game, Cincinnati is a huge college basketball town first in the winter, the interest isn't there too much in big time hockey.
That said I still think Columbus is not a hockey town either
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The miserable home venues for the Stingers and the other minor-league teams in Cincinnati over the years plays a role in keeping attendance down.
US Bank Arena, particularly before The Banks, was an island in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to do before or after games. Add in the long walks from riverfront surface lots at the time and it's no wonder people didn't go there to watch hockey. Heck, even when UC played there people stayed away. It's just a lousy venue.
And the Gardens is even worse. Way, way past its prime, it's located in a hard-to-get to part of the city, the parking situation is brutal, and the venue inside just isn't somewhere you want to be.
Give Cincinnati a palace like Nationwide Arena in Columbus and I think people would come. This is a corporate town, so the luxury boxes would definitely sell.
Look at most American cities that have the NHL outside of the northeast and Chicago and Minnesota: It's a tough sell if you don't win. Even Detroit, with its wildly successful franchise, has seen attendance slip slightly in recent years. So empty seats at a Cincinnati NHL arena wouldn't be indicative of non-support, it would reflect what we see in most U.S. cities for lackluster teams.