If you look at the attendance numbers from around the SJHL on opening weekend, you would think that hockey is alive and well in Flin Flon. After all, 1,226 people took in last Friday’s home opener.
Across the league, only the Yorkton Terriers had a higher attendance. They brought in 1,508 people. Not bad for a city of 19,000.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Notre Dame Hounds had 437 people at their game and the La Ronge Ice Wolves 603.
A quick scan of the entire league shows that average attendance on opening weekend was 903.
So why am I concerned about the Bombers?
Many of the 1,226 tickets purchased for Friday’s game were part of the Tickets For Kids program. It’s a program where businesses and organizations purchase tickets for the school kids.
Where there are kids, there are usually parents, so a free ticket for the child is likely to bring in a couple extra adults as well. Great for the kids, great for the Bombers, but it creates a little bit of a false impression, as that number isn’t going to be sustained for the entire season.
Now, the same could be said for the rest of the teams. Most teams won’t see numbers like these until the playoffs, so good on the Bombers for being among the leaders right out of the gate, regardless of how they get the fans in the building.
If you take a look to the 1999-00 season, the Bombers had 1,200 season ticket holders. In an unprecedented move, the Bombers dropped ticket prices to $100 in order to fill the rink that year. If you do the math, that’s $120,000 to work with before the season even starts.
There are a lot of factors that have contributed to the decline in attendance ever since. For starters, the population has shrunk.
But mainly, people will point to the fact that the cost has gone up. Way up.
The Bomber board will tell you that they can’t afford to sell tickets at $100 anymore, and they are right. The cost of running a team in the North is almost unbearable, and it could be only a matter of time before teams like Nipawin, La Ronge and Flin Flon are in serious trouble.
When Weyburn and Melville play each other, the teams could almost car pool. When the Bombers play their nearest opponents, it still costs them thousands to travel.
When fewer fans bought season tickets, the team had no choice but to raise the price, which has got us to where we are today.
An early-bird season ticket would have cost a person $350 this year, which is still a savings of $70 at the door.
Unfortunately, many fans see this as too much money up front, and choose to pay the $15 at the door.
How much is too much? Early-bird prices for SJHL teams range from $275 to $350. Yes, Flin Flon is at the high end.
So what does this mean? Well, if the team has a good year, you can expect an average attendance to be somewhere in the 800 range. If they have a bad year, it will be 600.
Strong base
Even at that, Flin Flon still has one of the strongest fan bases in the league. Unfortunately for the team, 600 doesn’t pay the bills anymore. So the real question is, how much is it worth to you to support the team?
The Bomber board has worked extremely hard to keep this team in the black, or at least not so far into the red that it can’t recover. I’ve sat on the board for a number of years, the last four as an appointee by the City of Flin Flon as a city councillor. I’m amazed that they’ve been able to keep the team afloat.
Maybe more people would buy tickets if the prices were lower. Maybe some day the team will try another bargain ticket blitz.
The reality of the situation is that right now the board should be commended for doing what needs to be done to keep this team on the ice. After all, there aren’t a lot of people lining up to take their place, but that is a discussion for another day.
I don’t want to think about what Flin Flon would be like without the Bombers.
