Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Updates

[Chris]

3rd and final preseason game against foreign opposition, this time it's Tilburg Trappers!

IceTime will be covering these games with a webcast, and all the details can be found at https://www.icetime.tv/

There will be no MNL coverage for this game, we're still trying to work out if it will run at all this season, details can be found on this thread: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9812

Another chance to see our team against some pretty good opponents, before we start the preseason games against the Blaze!

 

[Temme]

Re: Devils v Trapper - 27/08 @ 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upd

Fingers crossed people bother turning up for this one else the entire pre-season format has been wasted by our fans :?

Attendances have been absolutely dire & tbh I can't see us looking to bring international opponents over again.

 

[Angusdevil7]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

You can't have a go at people for not forking out over £80 for pre season games on top of £400+ season of tickets, it may be easy for some but not everyone

 

[osh]

Re: Devils v Trapper - 27/08 @ 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upd

Fingers crossed people bother turning up for this one else the entire pre-season format has been wasted by our fans :?

Attendances have been absolutely dire & tbh I can't see us looking to bring international opponents over again.

I'm assuming you have been fortunate enough to attend the 4 pre season games so far. I've managed to go to 3 of the 4 games and its cost me £96 ( my wife and I )
Your phrase " people bother turning up" is very sarcastic to say the least. I spoke with someone the other night and it was costing him nearly £80 to attend with his family who "bothered to turn up"
There are many reasons for the poor attendances for these games, holidays etc etc, however, I think the management - whilst praising them for arranging such high profile games - got things wrong with the pricing structure for these games. If tickets had been perhaps £5 or so cheaper I think more people would have attended and created a better atmosphere. Maybe some deals should have been on offer for families especially with parents allowed to bring in kids free? Those kids are the future fans after all. I think blaming the fans is not the thing to do !

 

[benh84]

Re: Devils v Trapper - 27/08 @ 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upd

Fingers crossed people bother turning up for this one else the entire pre-season format has been wasted by our fans :?

Attendances have been absolutely dire & tbh I can't see us looking to bring international opponents over again.

I'm assuming you have been fortunate enough to attend the 4 pre season games so far. I've managed to go to 3 of the 4 games and its cost me £96 ( my wife and I )
Your phrase " people bother turning up" is very sarcastic to say the least. I spoke with someone the other night and it was costing him nearly £80 to attend with his family who "bothered to turn up"
There are many reasons for the poor attendances for these games, holidays etc etc, however, I think the management - whilst praising them for arranging such high profile games - got things wrong with the pricing structure for these games. If tickets had been perhaps £5 or so cheaper I think more people would have attended and created a better atmosphere. Maybe some deals should have been on offer for families especially with parents allowed to bring in kids free? Those kids are the future fans after all. I think blaming the fans is not the thing to do !

Spot on. The organization have done an incredible job of putting these games together but can only reiterate what's been said above.

I saw earlier that Belfast are offering children to go for a £1 on the weekend with a full paying adult. You can't really argue with that. I know it's going to cost the club money to bring these teams over but was it maybe one game too many?

I myself have only managed one pre season game but that's purely to the fact I have one year old twin boys and need to arrange help for their bedtimes as it's hard enough to do it with two people and I want to save some weekends for when the league starts.

 

[Ocko]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

I had no problem with the pricing initially however having seen how bad the crowds were I think we've missed a trick not giving the best deals we can.

We've essentially lost out on around 1.5k customers on the first few games in IAW. Once it was obvious that ticket sales weren't great despite the opposition the club should've looked for some good deals, be it tickets for juniors, extra free tickets for any paying season ticket holders to bring a friend, anything is better than seeing a half empty rink.

 

[matbur]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

Seeing the arena half-full for most games has been disappointing but it's not cheap to attend pre-season games, especially back-to-back. I've been fortunate to go to three of the four games, but that's just me and my girlfriend. If I'd had my children with me during these weekends then I just wouldn't have been able to go to as many. It's hard to expect fans to afford and commit to attend both nights back-to-back.

I love the idea of seeing new opposition at the arena and kudos to Todd et all for making it happen, and they've made no secret of just how beneficial it's been to them in terms of coaching etc which is great.

Since I've been following the Devils, I don't think they get much wrong but perhaps next time around make reduced weekend tickets available, or reduce child prices perhaps?

 

[James]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

I was away last weekend and it had been organised long before the game was announced. It's an early start to preseason this year and lots of people will still be on holiday.

 

[Temme]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

I agree the pricing of these games has been, in hindsight, costly for most.

To charge full price (or near to...) for these games is harsh on fans.

However from the clubs perspective:

Fans complain year on year about how the dreaded Coventry game is coming up pre-season (personally I think this is one of the best games of the season as it's on my bank holiday birthday weekend) :lol:

This year the club has arranged a fantastic pre-season, which as you can probably imagine is costing significantly more than normal.

If next year we go back to the 'boring' Coventry game, I wonder how many of those fans that haven't attended these games this year will complain next year about the poor pre-season games??

This isn't a dig or a rant, but what can the club do?

 

[Wannabe2]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

I was away last weekend and it had been organised long before the game was announced. It's an early start to preseason this year and lots of people will still be on holiday.

I agree, I think the low attendance was due to multiple reasons, as has been mentioned lots of people are on holiday, two games on the trot is expensive for many, also Saturday suits some Sunday's suits others. If we played two league games at home on the bounce in the BBT I am not convinced we would have sold out twice, it obviously looks worse in the new gaff having 8/900 more seats, also next to no away fans didn't help. Possibly lots of casual fans arent aware that we are back and playing. Hopefully come the season proper we will see the attendances that this club deserve, so keep spreading the gospel folks, every little helps.

 

[Devil_Abroad]

Todd and the owners will of course be disappointed at the crowd numbers, not only for revenue but also for atmosphere and the feel good factor for the amazing quality of opposition.

However, I think they'll understand from a team perspective it has been immense and invaluable. Even our coach was benefitting first hand from KHL coaching experience. We now have a team 2 weeks into training having played and held their own against top notch opposition so they'll have a grasp on how well they have recruited over the summer.

I really do hope they do this again next year. Whether they try and address the level of support from fans by lowering the cost or maybe even go away to Zagreb for a week's training camp the benefit to the team against the cost might be too good to pass.

Big applause to the ownership for even attempting such a massive pre-season.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[osh]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

I agree the pricing of these games has been, in hindsight, costly for most.

To charge full price (or near to...) for these games is harsh on fans.

However from the clubs perspective:


If next year we go back to the 'boring' Coventry game, I wonder how many of those fans that haven't attended these games this year will complain next year about the poor pre-season games??

This isn't a dig or a rant, but what can the club do?

It's ok just to look at it from the club's perspective, we have all praised them for arranging such great opposition. However, you are not attempting to look at it from a fans perspective, what can the club do you ask? Here's are a few things ;-

Knock £4 or £5 off the higher price tickets. Let season ticket holders bring along a guest at half price. Let season ticket holders bring 2 kids free, let a non season ticket paying spectator bring a kid at a reduced price. Offer a package for families at reduced costs. And finally, much more citywide, area wide publicity. Set up a stall in one or two of the main thoroughfares in the city centre advertising the games and encourage those who haven't seen a game to come along and see what's on offer. Also, have some action videos on the stalls or on the big screens in the area. I'm sure the club wouldn't be short of regular fans dong a 4 hour stint on the stalls either, especially if some of the players attended the stalls as well. just a few ideas for you, I'm pretty sure others will think of more.

 

[danhall76]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

I have to travel a fair way to watch the games and tbh I can live without exibition games. It's great for the team to play superior opposition but the games really don't matter and I'd rather save my money for the regular season/away days. I always used to go to the Blaze games however as it would be feisty and teams would set down markers.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[Finny]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

It does appear the club probably overestimated the crowds we would get for these pre-season games. Attendances for those opening games in IAW last season were very impressive and in the two years under this management pre-season games in the BBT were well attended too.

Previous to that though they were rarely well attended, and that was when we only had one or two games. We've never had a pre-season like this involving 3 foreign teams and a total of 6 games at home. It's still the school holidays and for a family to attend all 6 games is not just expensive but also unlikely as there are other options open to them.

Of course, in terms of preparing the team it's been absolutely fantastic. Playing against high quality teams should prepare us for the jump in quality of the EIHL this season, plus it's given them extra games to get used to the bigger ice of IAW compared to the BBT.

In the future I guess the club will have to consider if such a pre-season is financially viable. A reduced price pre-season bundle might attract more fans, but would that cover the costs of bringing these teams here? I guess there is the possibility of working with other EIHL teams to share the costs and allow the visiting teams to do a mini-tour of the UK.

Or it could end up financially cheaper for the club to go on a tour itself. The feedback from these clubs seems very encouraging so perhaps we'll eventually build up a network of European teams who take it in turns to run mini tournaments with each other.

A long weekend of hockey in Croatia or Slovakia in mid-August would be something I'd certainly be interested in!!

 

[Devil_Abroad]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

Think tonight we might see a fair few of our players finding the back of the net. Could we make double figures I wonder.....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Finny]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

Think tonight we might see a fair few of our players finding the back of the net. Could we make double figures I wonder.....

Just been thinking the same myself. The last two occasions we played Tilburg our teams were pretty evenly matched. But that was over 20 years ago when we played with only 3 or 4 imports.

Tilburg still have only a small number of imports. Last season they joined the German 3rd Division, finished 2nd in the regular season and won the playoffs. But they weren't allowed to gain promotion to German 2nd Division (presumably because they're Dutch?) which is a shame as that is a similar level to ours.

A couple of their players are Dutch Internationals, but I think we could well get close to double figures if we play with intensity all game. Which after two weekends of focussing on defence, might be nice for the offensive lines who haven't really had a chance to shine yet.

 

[Angusdevil7]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

Is this looking like it's going to be a blowout then? I don't really know anything about Tilburg but it's taken a bit of the excitement away if it's going to just be one sided

 

[KaneDevils]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

If they gained promotion to a league equal to ours, why are we predicting an onslaught?

 

[BostonBart22]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

Think tonight we might see a fair few of our players finding the back of the net. Could we make double figures I wonder.....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

might get double figures attendance ... :lol: 4..2 to devils

 

[august04]

Re: Devils v Trappers - 27/08 19:00 - Exhibition - Chat/Upda

I think the club need to step up advertising/marketing also and not just assume fans will turn up at IAW. Take a look at the website today - on the home page, you'd be hard pressed to know we were even playing tonight (only mention of the game is in the small 'next home games/book tickets' section). No match preview as the headline story. That website should be screaming out that there's a game on tonight. That needs looking at in my opinion.