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Sunday, September 12, 1999
On the edge
FLAMES FACE CRUCIAL YEAR ON AND OFF ICE
SUN: Is this a make-or-break season for this franchise in this city?
BREMNER: I don't think you can classify any year 'make-or-break.' But it's unquestionably a very important year for us. It's not as if the sky is falling or anything. But it's important our team makes the next jump, into the playoffs.
SUN: Season tickets have plummeted to 9,000, interest is lagging. It all seems to have gone south -- so to speak -- in such a short time.
BREMNER: We wonder why a team in Calgary should, in season ticket sales, be so far behind one in Edmonton. We've sold 4,000 less than up there. That's troubling. This city certainly feels just as strongly about hockey as Edmonton does. I suppose there are a number of factors.
First off, we haven't make the playoffs for a while. Second, there are a lot of things to do in Calgary; many options on how people spend their money.
Thirdly, the demographics of the game are changing. That core of fans we started out with here, 45 to 55 are now 65-75 and retired. They live in Scottsdale or Palm Springs or they're in Hawaii eight weeks a year.
There are different dynamics involved. We're trying to draw a different audience. As I recall, though, the Oilers had to hit bottom -- 6,000 to 7,000 in the building every night -- before they started to make an upswing.
SUN: Does the situation have to get to where it did in Edmonton -- life or death -- for people to take notice.
BREMNER: I hope not. Dropping down to 9,000 season ticket should be enough of a clarion call to let hockey fans in this city know this is a critical time for us. We need to enlist their support. Those 4,000 season tickets we lost this year translate into $6-8 million for the club, in food, beer, parking, what have you. We need to be able to tap into the small-market
assistance program set up by the league, and that's determined by revenues. And with Vancouver involved, the pie's going to be split four ways instead of three.
SUN: Being from Winnipeg, what really bothered me about the reaction of Calgarians to the Jets move south was its outright dismissiveness, like 'Oh, it's only Winnipeg ...'
BREMNER: You have to be aware of the warning signs. In fact, I had someone from Winnipeg come in to see me last week, shake my hand and tell me 'Thanks, a lot of what you're saying needed to be said in Winnipeg and wasn't.'
SUN: The public perception of the team is that it's cheap; that it won't spend money to bring in quality players to win or keep quality players here.
BREMNER: We're trying to run this like a business. That doesn't mean we're cheap. It means we're careful spending our money. And we should be. But I think that the acquisition of Grant Fuhr proves we're willing to spend money to improve the team. Being prudent is not a synonym for being cheap.
In the newspaper business, do you spend more money than you bring in? Of course not. You spend money as fits your marketplace. I mean, do the TV stations here go out and hire Tom Brokaw? Do the newspapers lure away the top columnists from the NY Times? Anybody who's willing to spend $4,000 on his Visa card with only $3,000 in the bank will be in trouble -- and soon. It doesn't make sense. It's suicide.
"We simply do not have the funds that the New Yorks and other teams in major U.S. cities.
SUN: So that means that the Flames can never be competitive again?
BREMNER: Not at all. Money doesn't guarantee a winner. We've all seen that a lot of other teams, who've spent money hand- over-fist, haven't got near the results they wanted, or expected.
SUN: True enough, but isn't it tough to argue that while money can't guarantee a team will win, without it you can guarantee the team can't win? I mean, the last four Stanley Cup winners were Detroit, twice, Colorado and Dallas. Big, big spenders.
BREMNER: How much is enough is the key question. Ottawa's a great example of what you can do in this league without an enormous budget. They aren't going crazy and blowing a lot of money but they've been shrewd and put together a good, competitive hockey team. They're kind of a blueprint for what all the small-market Canadian teams should aspire to do.
SUN: You can only sell the Young Guns pitch so long.
BREMNER: It's unquestionably time for the young guys to step up to the plate. Al Coates and the hockey people in this organization have put a lot of faith in these players; and it's time that faith was repaid.
SUN: Would you agree that public apathy is the single-most-pressing problem in the health of this franchise? After all, whether people love you or are upset with you, either emotion underscores that they at least care. It's when people don't care, when they just shrug and say 'So what?' that you're in dangerous territory.
BREMNER: I wouldn't use the word 'apathetic.' I'd call it more of a wait-and-see approach. I think they want to see us make that next step -- reach the playoffs again. They want to see reasons to come back. It's up to us to provide those to them. We have great hockey fans in this city. We all know how exciting playoff hockey is. Our goal is to get there and re-ignite the enthusiasm.
SUN: What are the latest developments in the Mills Commission of interest -- if any.
BREMNER: The government is looking at various options of alleviating some of the burdens particular to operating NHL teams in Canada. There's really nothing specifically new.
I just want to say this: in Commissioner (Gary) Bettman, we really do have someone on our side.
He's been very vocal around the table. It's unfair the way some people in this country see him. From being on the inside, it really is unfair. He's been so supportive. He's done very positive things like the small-market assistance program and currency equalization when matching a Group II free-agent offer. He's increased the TV rights packages, which we all share in. Many, many things.
People don't seem to realize that in a lot of ways, he and the league have their hands tied by the U.S. anti-trust laws.
SUN: It has always been rather amusing that the Players Association -- in trying to deflect criticism about ridiculous salaries -- rips the teams for not having their act together, being of a common voice and plan; yet if those teams did get together to try that, the PA would be hollering "Collusion!' at the tops of their voices.
BREMNER: Well, in Canada it's perfectly legal for businesses to talk and work together. In the States, it's not.
SUN: What about television revenue? It drives pro sports in the U.S. It was written that the Yankees don't have to put a single person in the seats to make money because of their cable-TV contract. I believe the Leafs were for a time looking at such a vehicle when Cliff Fletcher was there as president and general manager.
BREMNER: If you look at the population of Canada, 80% lives within 150 miles of Toronto. There were, if my memory serves me correctly, some Vancouver Canucks games on pay-per-view. But I don't know how they did. So as an individual organization, you'd have to study numbers of cost in relation to revenue generated. I'm not convinced, quite frankly, that it would make sense here.
SUN: In closing, from a broad perspective, how healthy is this franchise at the moment?
BREMNER: Well, if I were giving the team a physical, checking its blood pressure and cholesterol ... I'd say there are definitely some things we have to pay attention to; to monitor. We're going back to basics. Clearly, we have to get more people out to see the product and enjoy it. We need to enlist the support of the NHL fans, the hockey fans, in this city. We've got a hard-core base right now of 9,000. That has to be expanded.
SUN: Doesn't it all come back to winning. A lot can be forgiven if a team wins games. If Grant Fuhr plays the kind of goal we've come to expect of him, if some of the kids kick in and start putting up better numbers, if you make the playoffs, don't those things go hand in hand with the mid-to-long-term viability of an NHL franchise here?
BREMNER: I believe in giving the fan full value for the dollar. And that takes in everything in our building. In my mind, no detail should be too small. But there's no question winning is a very, very important part of the equation.
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