The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
By Jonathon Naylor I was in the sixth grade when the Flin Flon Bombers made their amazing playoff run of 1993, but I remember it like it was yesterday. Every home game was a thrill ride en route to what still stands as Flin Flon's last SJHL championship. The atmosphere at the Whitney Forum was electric. Old ladies screamed at the top of their lungs. Strangers gave each other high-fives. The crowd did the wave. To guarantee a decent seat, my friends and I had to get to the Whitney more than two hours before puck drop. We'd run home from school and wolf down supper to make sure we would be on time. During that playoff run, everyone in Flin Flon was a Bomber. Even people who didn't know a slapshot from a bodycheck got swept up in the excitement. It was incredible. I don't remember the exact attendance back during that magical spring, but the arena was packed. More packed than I have seen it at any time since. Fast forward 20 years and the Bombers this regular season are on pace to earn even more points than they did in 1992-93 _ with a schedule that boasts six fewer games, no less. That's no guarantee another championship is in the offing, but it is obvious as 2012 comes to a close that the Bombers are a major contender. No one, repeat no one, wants to face us in the post-season. Yet as has been reported in the pages of The Reminder, attendance is nowhere near its levels of just a few years ago. Less than 750 Through their first 15 home dates, which included just one loss, the Bombers are averaging a little less than 750 fans a game. It wasn't that long ago that 1,000-plus, even 1,200-plus, was the norm at the Whitney when the Bombers were in town. So what's going on? For one, we have to realize that Flin Flon is not the same community it was five or 10 years ago, let alone 20 years ago. We are smaller, older and, I regret to say, many of the die-hard fans of a generation ago are watching the Bombers from those cushy stands in the sky. We are not as well-off, either, with many well-paying jobs in mining _ both at Hudbay and associated contractors _ having disappeared. And we may not be as hockey-mad as we once were as other sports like soccer capture our attention. It should also be noted that it still feels somewhat early in the SJHL season. I myself, as an on-again, off-again hockey fan, usually don't pay a whole lot of attention until after Christmas. Of course none of this helps the Bombers, whose constant financial struggles are well known. Through good times and through bad, they need bums on bleachers to succeed. Unfortunately, the sense of excitement the Bombers themselves must feel about this season has not translated into sky-high fan support. It is incumbent on fans to get out and support the team, of course, but it is also incumbent on the Bombers organization to keep trying new things to draw people to the rink. Winning should be enough to bring the fans out, but that hasn't been the case this campaign.Let's hope this franchise, so vital to our community, finds what does work in the Flin Flon of 2012-13. Local Angle runs Fridays.
