American cities will always support a winner, or even a team that looks to be on the way up. There are hockey fans all over the country now, though they will never equal the numbers in traditional markets or Canada. I believe the Coyotes drew fans when they were a playoff-team, though I don't have the numbers in front of me. Now they're a serious failure as a franchise, and probably should get the hell out of the desert. The other "frontier-openers" of the south and west have had varying levels of success.
I wonder how the Wings will draw this season. The economy around here has never been worse, and the team is perceived as having slipped a bit from last year's flashy model, by the general public. Me, I think the team is fine, though I'm concerned about the toll taken by these long playoff-runs on some of our core-players. Also, the goalie-situation is a bit of a question, if Ozzie gets off to another slow start, and Howard doesn't deliver.
Posted on Oct 5, 2009, 9:08 PM from IP address 24.208.249.158