Van Sun Article: A frustrated fan makes a tough decision and says so long to the Canucks

[Jacare]

its hogwash. you dont give up seasons tickets in the lower bowl because of a lockout, the only one who gets shafted in that situation is the ticketholder. with a waitlist extending into 2020 the canucks and the nhl simply dont care. there's more going on here as to why she gave up the tickets; either financial or the fact that they got tired of having to deal with the tickets every year. if the lockout ends in the summer and next season starts up as per usual and these people want season tickets again they're going to spend 10-15 years trying to get back into the lower bowl, unless the canucks go through a 5 year rebuild, so it just doesn't make any sense to give them up purely for ideological reasons. comically they'd be pensioners by that point. so they just didn't want them anymore and used it as a soapbox to get feelys for the fans, or worse yet its fiction and the sun is pandering for pageviews lol.

[CookieCrumbs]

So there are open lower bowl tickets?

[dirk diggler]

Actually, this kind of protest is more important than people think and in many ways, more important than voting. Money rules and the only way to get people to listen is to hit them where it hurts: In their pocket.

[TmanVan]

For all the people saying boohoo one person giving up seasons tickets isn't going to make a difference are missing the point, it's her mindset that's important. If this lockout drags on and on, how long until sponsors, broadcast companies etc feel the same as her?

Bettman and his huge ego may think the nhl is untouchable and will be unphased moving forward after this lockout, but what about after a phone call from NBC saying they are pulling the plug on nhl broadcasts as they feel it is an unstable business model? What about if he receives a call from budweiser, and any other beer company for that matter saying sorry.... but we have enough options will the NFL, UFC, NBA etc that we will not be investing our money in your league any more.

I, like a lot of other people, am not nearly as upset about this whole thing as the last time it happened in 2005. In 2005, I wasn't interested in the NFL, did not follow the CFL that closely, didn't even know what the UFC was really about, didn't have a pvr and premium cable chanels to fill free time in my evenings, and couldn't stream free sports on the internet like I can now. I am actually very surprised as to how unphased I am by the lockout as I thought the lack of NHL hockey would drive me crazy heading towards the winter months.... not so much.

The funny thing about this lockout is how greedy both sides are with the revenue stream they have built up, that they don't realize how much of it they have already lost by losing the interest of fairweather fans in the states that have already moved on and will never come back. The NHL wants to hang around with the "big boy" leagues like the NFL? Then maybe they should look at how they do their business. When the NFL lockout was impending, both sides realized how much revenue would be lost, as well as how much fan interested they would lose and quickly came to a resolution without missing ANY games. Maybe the should try to follow their example instead of the two sides fighting like school kids on a playground over a chocolate bar.

[enterin]

From Brad Ziemer at the Vancouver Sun:

http://www.vancouver...7889/story.html

Meredith Stevenson wanted a voice in the National Hockey League lockout and to get it the lifelong fan made what she described as a gut-wrenching decision.

She and her husband Dean cancelled the pair of Vancouver Canucks season-tickets they had held for 14 years.

“The last lockout (in 2004-05) didn’t seem to bother me as much,” the North Vancouver resident said Thursday. “Now that this is kind of the second time around and we are faced with the same old argument, I just found myself feeling increasingly frustrated.

“My husband and I have been evaluating how we can be heard in all this because we are just a little bit fed up with it. Even though we are huge fans — we never miss a game — it just got to be the only way we felt we could have a voice.”

So late last week, Stevenson called her account representative with the Canucks and told him they were giving up their cherished lower-bowl seats at Rogers Arena. And as difficult a decision as that was, Stevenson said she found it almost liberating.

“I felt like I’ve done all I can to make my point,” she said. “As a consumer there’s nothing we can do other than not consume the product. So I just thought if that’s the only way, that’s what I’ll do. It’s going to be painful. What if the Canucks next year win the Stanley Cup and I am not going to have tickets. It’s going to be devastating for me, but it feels really good to do it. It feels good to have a voice and be able to say, you know what, I’m not going to consume it, I don’t agree with this any more.”

Hockey has always been a big part of Stevenson’s life. She plays twice a week and was the first and only female producer at EA Sports on its NHL team. The 38-year-old mother of two young children now owns and operates an event planning company.

Stevenson said she and her husband really don’t have sides in the NHL dispute, which began Sept. 15 when the league locked out its players.

“I am too angry to sympathize with either side right now,” she said. “I’m really tired of the bickering back and forth. I know the players probably got a little bit screwed in the last contract and they want to come back and make sure the same thing doesn’t happen again. But to be honest, as everyone says, it’s the millionaires bickering with the multimillionaires. It just doesn’t sit well with the majority of people.”

When she cancelled her tickets, Stevenson’s account rep with the Canucks asked her to send an email that he could pass on to Canucks management. She did that, outlining her reasons in very passionate terms.

“This is not the sport I fell in love with at the age of 4 and have been so dedicated to my entire life,” Stevenson said in her letter to the Canucks.

“I’m not a season-ticket holder who makes 250K a year. Having these tickets is not merely a drop in our financial bucket — it is a significant investment and expenditure for our family. I’ve watched the Canucks grow into an amazing team and I love them with every ounce of my being. BUT, I really feel like I need to make a stand here. The incessant greed of players and owners alike has left a very bad taste in my mouth.”

Stevenson has not yet received a response from anyone in Canuck management, but general manager Mike Gillis said late Thursday he understands the passion of the team’s fans.

“I think people are frustrated, not unlike us, we’re also frustrated,” Gillis said. “I think everyone around the game is frustrated to a certain measure. It gets played out in a variety of different ways.

“Our season-ticket holders are extremely important and we value their opinions at a very high level. It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances, but we have passionate fans and passionate people will display their emotion in a variety of ways.”

Gillis said Canucks, who have a lengthy season-ticket waiting list, have had “a limited number of season-ticket cancellations.”

Stevenson said the tickets were costing her family nearly $11,000 a year, plus as much as $8,000 for playoff tickets. They had put down roughly $3,700 towards this season’s tickets, which will now be refunded.

“Our season-tickets are a big investment for us,” Stevenson said. “It always hurt a little bit when those payments came due. I think that’s also why it feels a little bit liberating to be honest.”

She’s not sure what her family will do with that extra money.

“I don’t know,” she said. “It will probably all be going on our line of credit.”

Stevenson knows she and her husband have lots of company in being frustrated fans. One of her friends, West Vancouver video game producer Steve Rechtschaffner, on Wednesday started a petition that asks fans to boycott the NHL and all of its products for three years unless hockey is being played by Christmas.

Like Stevenson, Rechtschaffner feels like fans just don’t have a voice.

“I guess the word would be frustration,” Rechtschaffner, himself a former Canuck season-ticket holder, said when asked why he started the petition. “I think a lot of people feel like they are frustrated by the whole situation and have no leverage, don’t have a dog in the fight.

“And I thought I am willing to commit to the idea that if these people really don’t make an effort to get it solved and get it going by Christmas I want to let them know that I am willing to commit to not spending any money on their product for three years.”

His petition only had a handful of signatures on Thursday, but Rechtschaffner thinks numbers will swell with some media exposure and word of mouth.

“If you’re a fan of NHL hockey and are feeling disrespected and taken for granted, this is a way to let the owners and players know that there will be long- range damage to them, that they should take into account before blowing this entire season up,” Rechtschaffner’s petition says.

Here's a link to the petition:

http://www.change.or...he-next-3-years

[enterin]

From Brad Ziemer at the Vancouver Sun:

http://www.vancouver...7889/story.html

Meredith Stevenson wanted a voice in the National Hockey League lockout and to get it the lifelong fan made what she described as a gut-wrenching decision.

She and her husband Dean cancelled the pair of Vancouver Canucks season-tickets they had held for 14 years.

“The last lockout (in 2004-05) didn’t seem to bother me as much,” the North Vancouver resident said Thursday. “Now that this is kind of the second time around and we are faced with the same old argument, I just found myself feeling increasingly frustrated.

“My husband and I have been evaluating how we can be heard in all this because we are just a little bit fed up with it. Even though we are huge fans — we never miss a game — it just got to be the only way we felt we could have a voice.”

So late last week, Stevenson called her account representative with the Canucks and told him they were giving up their cherished lower-bowl seats at Rogers Arena. And as difficult a decision as that was, Stevenson said she found it almost liberating.

“I felt like I’ve done all I can to make my point,” she said. “As a consumer there’s nothing we can do other than not consume the product. So I just thought if that’s the only way, that’s what I’ll do. It’s going to be painful. What if the Canucks next year win the Stanley Cup and I am not going to have tickets. It’s going to be devastating for me, but it feels really good to do it. It feels good to have a voice and be able to say, you know what, I’m not going to consume it, I don’t agree with this any more.”

Hockey has always been a big part of Stevenson’s life. She plays twice a week and was the first and only female producer at EA Sports on its NHL team. The 38-year-old mother of two young children now owns and operates an event planning company.

Stevenson said she and her husband really don’t have sides in the NHL dispute, which began Sept. 15 when the league locked out its players.

“I am too angry to sympathize with either side right now,” she said. “I’m really tired of the bickering back and forth. I know the players probably got a little bit screwed in the last contract and they want to come back and make sure the same thing doesn’t happen again. But to be honest, as everyone says, it’s the millionaires bickering with the multimillionaires. It just doesn’t sit well with the majority of people.”

When she cancelled her tickets, Stevenson’s account rep with the Canucks asked her to send an email that he could pass on to Canucks management. She did that, outlining her reasons in very passionate terms.

“This is not the sport I fell in love with at the age of 4 and have been so dedicated to my entire life,” Stevenson said in her letter to the Canucks.

“I’m not a season-ticket holder who makes 250K a year. Having these tickets is not merely a drop in our financial bucket — it is a significant investment and expenditure for our family. I’ve watched the Canucks grow into an amazing team and I love them with every ounce of my being. BUT, I really feel like I need to make a stand here. The incessant greed of players and owners alike has left a very bad taste in my mouth.”

Stevenson has not yet received a response from anyone in Canuck management, but general manager Mike Gillis said late Thursday he understands the passion of the team’s fans.

“I think people are frustrated, not unlike us, we’re also frustrated,” Gillis said. “I think everyone around the game is frustrated to a certain measure. It gets played out in a variety of different ways.

“Our season-ticket holders are extremely important and we value their opinions at a very high level. It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances, but we have passionate fans and passionate people will display their emotion in a variety of ways.”

Gillis said Canucks, who have a lengthy season-ticket waiting list, have had “a limited number of season-ticket cancellations.”

Stevenson said the tickets were costing her family nearly $11,000 a year, plus as much as $8,000 for playoff tickets. They had put down roughly $3,700 towards this season’s tickets, which will now be refunded.

“Our season-tickets are a big investment for us,” Stevenson said. “It always hurt a little bit when those payments came due. I think that’s also why it feels a little bit liberating to be honest.”

She’s not sure what her family will do with that extra money.

“I don’t know,” she said. “It will probably all be going on our line of credit.”

Stevenson knows she and her husband have lots of company in being frustrated fans. One of her friends, West Vancouver video game producer Steve Rechtschaffner, on Wednesday started a petition that asks fans to boycott the NHL and all of its products for three years unless hockey is being played by Christmas.

Like Stevenson, Rechtschaffner feels like fans just don’t have a voice.

“I guess the word would be frustration,” Rechtschaffner, himself a former Canuck season-ticket holder, said when asked why he started the petition. “I think a lot of people feel like they are frustrated by the whole situation and have no leverage, don’t have a dog in the fight.

“And I thought I am willing to commit to the idea that if these people really don’t make an effort to get it solved and get it going by Christmas I want to let them know that I am willing to commit to not spending any money on their product for three years.”

His petition only had a handful of signatures on Thursday, but Rechtschaffner thinks numbers will swell with some media exposure and word of mouth.

“If you’re a fan of NHL hockey and are feeling disrespected and taken for granted, this is a way to let the owners and players know that there will be long- range damage to them, that they should take into account before blowing this entire season up,” Rechtschaffner’s petition says.

Here's a link to the petition:

http://www.change.or...he-next-3-years

[enterin]

its hogwash. you dont give up seasons tickets in the lower bowl because of a lockout, the only one who gets shafted in that situation is the ticketholder. with a waitlist extending into 2020 the canucks and the nhl simply dont care. there's more going on here as to why she gave up the tickets; either financial or the fact that they got tired of having to deal with the tickets every year. if the lockout ends in the summer and next season starts up as per usual and these people want season tickets again they're going to spend 10-15 years trying to get back into the lower bowl, unless the canucks go through a 5 year rebuild, so it just doesn't make any sense to give them up purely for ideological reasons. comically they'd be pensioners by that point. so they just didn't want them anymore and used it as a soapbox to get feelys for the fans, or worse yet its fiction and the sun is pandering for pageviews lol.

[enterin]

For all the people saying boohoo one person giving up seasons tickets isn't going to make a difference are missing the point, it's her mindset that's important. If this lockout drags on and on, how long until sponsors, broadcast companies etc feel the same as her?

Bettman and his huge ego may think the nhl is untouchable and will be unphased moving forward after this lockout, but what about after a phone call from NBC saying they are pulling the plug on nhl broadcasts as they feel it is an unstable business model? What about if he receives a call from budweiser, and any other beer company for that matter saying sorry.... but we have enough options will the NFL, UFC, NBA etc that we will not be investing our money in your league any more.

I, like a lot of other people, am not nearly as upset about this whole thing as the last time it happened in 2005. In 2005, I wasn't interested in the NFL, did not follow the CFL that closely, didn't even know what the UFC was really about, didn't have a pvr and premium cable chanels to fill free time in my evenings, and couldn't stream free sports on the internet like I can now. I am actually very surprised as to how unphased I am by the lockout as I thought the lack of NHL hockey would drive me crazy heading towards the winter months.... not so much.

The funny thing about this lockout is how greedy both sides are with the revenue stream they have built up, that they don't realize how much of it they have already lost by losing the interest of fairweather fans in the states that have already moved on and will never come back. The NHL wants to hang around with the "big boy" leagues like the NFL? Then maybe they should look at how they do their business. When the NFL lockout was impending, both sides realized how much revenue would be lost, as well as how much fan interested they would lose and quickly came to a resolution without missing ANY games. Maybe the should try to follow their example instead of the two sides fighting like school kids on a playground over a chocolate bar.

[badbeatjackpot]

This strategy doesn't work very well when there are thousands on the waiting list for season tickets ...

[aGENT]

Why do people get on their high horse and tell people what they should spend their money on. If I wanna blow my life's savings on an 8 month blow bender, what business is it of others.

[Westcoasting]

It saddens me that you don't know the difference between "spending your life savings" and spending money you don't have (ie: credit line).

By all means if you have $20,000 dollars of actual money to spend every year on blow benders and Canucks tickets...be my guest. If however, you have to take on debt in the form of a credit line and/or credit cards to do those things...your priorities are WAY out of whack and you have problems.

[aGENT]

When you are in business your credit line is being used all the time for stuff.... i think this whole line has been misunderstood. Mine gets used for golf membership and NFL games in Seattle. There are tax benefits to doing it that way rather than paying yourself a wage and then buying the tickets.

[VanCityScout]

I'm just thankful I live in a city with a Junior Hockey team..going to all the Kamloops Blazers home games have really taken the lock out sting out of my arm..

I really don't think that woman should have given up her season tickets!!

but on the other hand

she has made the people that get those seasts..very, very, happy Canucks fans

Go Blazers

[Li'l Fra]

She can still go see games without having season's tickets.

Her protest is awesome. She is putting her money where her mouth is. Her family may come back and watch more Canucks games, but for 15-20 years the Canucks won't be making $20,000 per year off her.

The organization can fill her seats with other behinds, but her point is made.

This lockout is causing bad blood and ill will. If one family does this, other families are doing this. They won't get excited about the Canucks and their children won't be excited about the Canucks or maybe even hockey itself. It effects the way the fans feel about the team going forward. I guarantee you if I wasn't such a big Canucks fan, my children wouldn't give a hoot about them.

It wasn't too long ago that Vancouver was in danger of losing our hockey team altogether. It's hard to believe the owners, and the players, are so shortsighted.

They are doing damage to their sport for years to come because they can't figure out how to share record profits?

It's been said already, but I'll say it again. This is the stupidest lockout in sports history!

[Westcoasting]

Fascinating!

So you`re just assuming this is applicable to her?

[Scoobydooby]

Oh, boo hooo. One less person and an opening for more tickets, I hope some of these wish wash fans get bored and move on. That way tickets will be open more to the public, maybe I'll actually get to go to more than a few games. She may not be rich, but she certainly is well off if she can afford $19,000 on hockey a year.

Don't blame the Canucks on the lock out, blame the NHL. So far not one player has given up on hockey that is on our team, they've all remained @home. Some of these people with their powerless feelings need to just cry me a river.

EDIT: I hope half of you realize that when the puck drops and hockey does eventually start up again and you come back, you're gonna look like idiots. And for those of you that do leave? Good riddens.. lol I know I'll definitely be happy with some of these "fans" finally gone.

[Primus099]

my mom finally GOT her season tickets this year after being on the waitlist since 2002 lol so of course there has to be a lockout, she's not going to be giving them up anytime soon though

[SNACanuck]

Not buying/turning in your tickets is one thing and doesn't do any harm in a lockout, but for those saying your not going to buy merchandise your heart is in the right place but I would argue your doing more harm than good. There are plenty of people that work at the Canucks store or other places that sell Canuck merchandise. Those are the average folks who depend on their store making money to keep them working. Sure it hurts the league when merchandise doesn't sell, but it sure hurts that low paid person more when their hours are cut back because of poor sales.

[Mauii]

Not buying/turning in your tickets is one thing and doesn't do any harm in a lockout, but for those saying your not going to buy merchandise your heart is in the right place but I would argue your doing more harm than good. There are plenty of people that work at the Canucks store or other places that sell Canuck merchandise. Those are the average folks who depend on their store making money to keep them working. Sure it hurts the league when merchandise doesn't sell, but it sure hurts that low paid person more when their hours are cut back because of poor sales.

[NP-4815162342]

I bought a canucks jersey two days ago :/