C’mon, Las Vegas. We’re not going to let Jerry Springer and Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods beat us, are we?
Jerry Springer used to be the mayor of Cincinnati; Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods one of its major music acts (but not as major as the Isley Brothers or Bootsy Collins of Funkadelic fame).
Today’s catchphrase: Billy don’t be a hero. But can we sell you a couple of playoff tickets in the mezzanine?
The Cyclones (that would be the Queen City’s ECHL hockey team) hosted the Wranglers (that would be ours) in the first two games of the Kelly Cup finals on Saturday and Sunday night.
The turnout was impressive. And it wasn’t even Joe Morgan bobblehead night.
Cincinnati is sort of a major league city, at least if you count the Reds as major league, which might explain why the minor league Cyclones were one of the least-watched teams in the ECHL this season despite their fabulous 55-12-5 record. Cincinnati’s regular-season average home attendance of 2,523 ranked 23rd among the 25 ECHL franchises.
But Dr. Johnny Fever must be beating the Cyclones’ playoff drum on WKRP in Cincinnati.
A raucous crowd of 8,676 was on hand Saturday to watch Cincinnati trim the Wranglers, 4-2, in Game One of the best-of-seven finals. Then Sunday night, the Wranglers eked out a 1-0 victory before another enthusiastic crowd of 6,897 at U.S. Bank Arena on the shores of the Ohio River.
It was the highest attendance for the first two games of the finals since 1998.
“It was one of the loudest events I’ve been to,” Wranglers President Billy Johnson said.
Some of the Cincinnati fans even threw things onto the ice after the Cyclones’ tough loss in Game Two. One of the Wranglers said he nearly got skulled by a plastic soft drink bottle.
That is shameful. Disgusting even. Anybody who orders a soft drink instead of a beer at a hockey game is not a real hockey fan.
All joking aside, Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan said he nearly got hit in the face with a Super Ball.
I didn’t even know they made Super Balls anymore. If the series returns to Cincinnati, the Wranglers had better watch out for Silly Putty.
Anyway, it could have been worse. It could have been a Who concert. Before U.S. Bank Arena got an influx of corporate dollars it was known as Riverfront Coliseum. Eleven fans suffocated or were crushed to death trying to get inside to see Pete Townshend and Roger Daltry in 1979.
Instead of projectiles, Johnson would prefer that Wranglers fans simply throw their voices at the Cyclones.
“Our fans can be louder,” he said. “There is no doubt Las Vegas will give our guys an extra push.”
Well, to be honest, there is a little bit of a doubt. Whereas Cincinnati’s playoff attendance is up 64 percent over the regular season, Las Vegas’ is down 25 percent. After attracting 4,970 paying customers during the regular season to rank eighth in the ECHL, the Wranglers are averaging 3,752 during the playoffs.
We’ve been down this road before — little time to promote, no season-ticket sales, warm weather, schedules that are crazier than Greyhound’s, etc., etc., etc. These are all factors that make it difficult to attract crowds to minor league playoff games, regardless of the sport.
Yet, they managed to draw a couple of big ones in Cincinnati. It can be done.
The Wranglers are billing Thursday night’s game at the Orleans Arena as “Red Sea in Game Three.” Sadly, Charlton Heston will not be available to drop the opening puck (besides that’s Carrot Top’s job). Wranglers fans are being asked to wear red to the game and form a red “sea” of hockey fans.
You wouldn’t have needed a very big staff to part the Wranglers’ sea during the first round of the playoffs. But attendance has picked up over the following two rounds, just as Johnson predicted/hoped it would.
As of Wednesday, about 3,000 tickets had been sold for Thursday and Friday night’s games.
“At the current clip I would guess we’d come in at 6,200 to 6,500 ... shy of sellouts,” Johnson said. “We’ve got 2 million people in this town, so there’s no reason we shouldn’t have a full house for these three games.”
Yes there is. This is Las Vegas. If fan support were breakfast cereal, we’d be Mikey. We won’t eat it. We hate everything.
We’re getting close to June, which is the month that one of the three or four arenas we’re allegedly getting supposedly was going to break ground. The Anschutz Entertainment Group, as far as anybody knows, still plans to build a modern sports and concert arena behind Harrah’s, and, as owner of the Los Angeles Kings, has a significant interest in hockey.
Insiders (which rules out the media who covered the Sabres vs. Penguins game on New Year’s Day) assume the NHL would beat the NBA to town if/when AEG puts a shovel in the ground.
Normally, this is the place where I’d climb upon my bar of Ivory (it floats better than a soapbox) and challenge Las Vegas sports fans to pack the Orleans for the Wranglers’ games, to show that we’re capable of supporting the Las Vegas Golden Seals or whatever NHL expansion/last-place team will one day make its home here and be needled by Don Cherry and Barry Melrose.
But that ain’t happening for a while.
Of course, you could still come out for the (relatively) cheap beer. Or, better yet, to make some noise for a bunch of hardworking guys from Canada and one or two from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula who certainly deserve to hear some.
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