All Is Quiet

Posted 2:13 PM ET | Comments 4

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<strong>There was a time</strong> when MyHockeyBuzz and HockeyBuzz were littered with posts about the Preds from both Pred fans and those who hated the fact that a team was deep in Dixie. Where though, I ask, has it all gone?

For fans of the franchise I think there is some fatigue for sure. For a couple of months now we have been living in this unknown, grasping any news that seemed the least bit positive. Many fans spent hours posting and defending our right to a team to Canadian patriots who hunger for more hockey north of the border. When the 'Save The Preds Rally' arrived on the heels of news that local ownership was making a real push to keep the team in Nashville you could almost hear the Nashville hockey community exhale...ahhhhhh. We were tired. It's tough fighting for and defending your teams survival each day.

Fans hoping for a Music City Failure I believe also find themselves a bit tired as well. For just as long fans in Canada (especially in Hamilton) have been hoping that these Preds would find their way north. Posts were written about how Nashville did not deserve a team and why this team belonged in Canada. For these fans I think much wind went out of their sails when current Preds owner Craig Leipold broke off talks with Jim Balsillie. Follow that up with a successful ticket rally (heck even Eklund came for that one!)and a real chance that local ownership rescues the team and you have these fans looking to expansion or elsewhere as their next target.

<strong>What is next?</strong> Unfortunately it's more waiting. I have been desperately trying to get someone to talk to me about the potential sale to the local group but if there is one thing they are doing well it's staying quiet. So we wait. Both fans and not. Waiting to see what the future holds for the team here in Nashville.

Come October though we will have hockey and the thought of that makes this writer very very happy.

Filed Under: predators eklund hamilton leipold balsillie schedule s

mayorofangrytown

July 30, 2007 3:13 PM ET | Delete
I think the rally is the reason for the silence. It looks like all the emotion blew itself out that day then slowly ebbed to nothing. For all the Pred's fans in Nashville they waited and built toward the rally and now probably need to take a bit of a break. For all the detractors I think they, and some others who are not detractors like myself, see the rally as a failure. I know this is going to make everyone who loves hockey in Nashville angry at me but keep in mind I don't care whether the team is in Nashville, KC, Hamilton or Fairbanks, Alaska. I know what I hear. I spend a lot of time streaming radio stations during the day at work looking for hockey talk and many of the Canadian stations openly ridiculed the ticket drive while streaming it live doing voice overs. It was like a sitcom to them. To a lot of people who follow hockey, selling 800 season tickets in a day isn't that impressive. The only way that becomes impressive is if ticket sales continue to come in after the rally. Many, myself included unfortunately, think that the rally that day was the blowout of potential season ticket holders and that expectations were set really low. Add to that that the local buyers have really upped the ante by extending the goal to 16,000 per to make their bid a money earner. I think the team as constructed will struggle to pull 14,000 as some fans feel abandoned and some probably will turn their back on the team because of what they may feel is an inevitable move away from Nashville. For your sake I hope I'm wrong.

OneTimer

July 31, 2007 10:38 AM ET | Delete
Canadian media. Canadian radio. Please don't base any kind of belief on what you hear from those guys. We will never have their approval even if we sell out every game and win the Cup every year. The fact that there is an NHL team in Nashville and not in one of the glorious Candaian cities will make them continue to bash us.

Section106

July 31, 2007 2:57 PM ET | Delete
It has crossed my mind that it is too quiet around here, including hockey's friend George Plaster. I would like to know what corporate selling continues in the background and how successfully, how many additional sales have been consumated since the rally and how many tickets did www.savethepredators.com purchase for the Boys and Girls Club?

Section106

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