“Get them out into the community…“

[SDS]

I’m too lazy to look up the exact words, but I think the title is close to correct.

I think this is an interesting statement from Adams, coupled with the mantra of signing players who want to be here. I don’t know what this looks like in the age of Covid, but I expect to see a concerted ramped up community goodwill effort on part of the Sabres and the players. 

Expect to see a lot of pictures, with a lot of kids, participating in a lot of community activities.

[SwampD]

Ugh.

[dudacek]

Sabrespace has been saying they want a team they can love again.

Adams appears to be listening, he’s just not taking the most obvious path to get there.

[Derrico]

1 minute ago, dudacek said:

Sabrespace has been saying they want a team they can love again.

Adams appears to be listening, he’s just not taking the most obvious path to get there.

What would be the obvious path?  Eichel is a pretty polarizing player (especially the past few months).  I can see them really pushing Cozens, Dahlin (Power when he's here) etc. to be involved in the community.

Let's be honest, this may be one of the most hated Sabres teams ever.  There's no question they have to rebuild their relationship with the community.

[SwampD]

4 minutes ago, Derrico said:

What would be the obvious path?  Eichel is a pretty polarizing player (especially the past few months).  I can see them really pushing Cozens, Dahlin (Power when he's here) etc. to be involved in the community.

Let's be honest, this may be one of the most hated Sabres teams ever.  There's no question they have to rebuild their relationship with the community.

Do you really not know?

[dudacek]

5 minutes ago, Derrico said:

What would be the obvious path?  Eichel is a pretty polarizing player (especially the past few months).  I can see them really pushing Cozens, Dahlin (Power when he's here) etc. to be involved in the community.

Let's be honest, this may be one of the most hated Sabres teams ever.  There's no question they have to rebuild their relationship with the community.

Winning.

[Doohicksie]

8 minutes ago, dudacek said:

he’s just not taking the most obvious path to get there.

This is an obvious step, if you ask me.  The other obvious step is to build a winner, and he seems to be taking a different path than recent previous GMs who wanted to Win Now but didn't have the resources "now".  He understands that and is looking to build for 2-3 years ahead.  Getting the players out among the fans to generate good will toward the team and hopefully build attendance is a pretty obvious step.

[bob_sauve28]

I went to a Sabres game once with this woman from work. She had season tickets but her son couldn’t make the game. She was a BIG fan! So big that she just sat there talking the whole game, did not pay attention to game and had a great time, even though she could care less about the game itself. She would love this type of out reach. Would love getting pictures taken with players and buying tons of merchandise. But the product on the ice was a total after thought. 
 

She might be a pretty common type of fan. 

[dudacek]

To elaborate, not bothering with the reset and the scrubbing clean, just trading Jack and Sam for Tkachuk and Jones, signing Coleman, etc. - doing what @Thorny has been asking for for three years and most teams do, trying to win now.

Edited July 30, 2021 by dudacek

[Sabres Fan in NS]

4 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Winning.

But until that starts happening and it seems like it won't be soon this is a good idea, IMO.

[Doohicksie]

4 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

I went to a Sabres game once with this woman from work. She had season tickets but her son couldn’t make the game. She was a BIG fan! So big that she just sat there talking the whole game, did not pay attention to game and had a great time, even though she could care less about the game itself. She would love this type of out reach. Would love getting pictures taken with players and buying tons of merchandise. But the product on the ice was a total after thought. 
 

She might be a pretty common type of fan. 

Those kinds of fans are called Chets and Muffys.

[Derrico]

9 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Winning.

 

9 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Do you really not know?

How are the Sabres expected to just start winning?  What is Adams suppose to do?  I think he is trying to take that path but it's obviously not going to happen over night....

[Eleven]

People were pretty excited when players would deliver their season tickets a decade or so ago.

[Stoner]

7 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Those kinds of fans are called Chet's and Muffy's.

Fixed.

[Eleven]

2 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Fixed.

Y u do this?

[SwampD]

10 minutes ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

But until that starts happening and it seems like it won't be soon this is a good idea, IMO.

What parent is paying to take the next generation of Sabres fans to the arena to watch this trash. They are barely even watching on TV.

It’s a good idea because “out in the community” is probably the only way these kids would even learn their names.

[Stoner]

5 minutes ago, Eleven said:

Y u do this?

HOT DOG'S. Duh.

[Stoner]

21 minutes ago, Let's Go B-Lo said:

They just got a new head of marketing too IIRC. It's what you need to do because the product on the ice isn't breeding future Sabre fans and hasn't been for a long time and that's bad for the organization in the long run.

I don't see it as an issue of traditional marketing. People see through photo opps. What if it was more of a guerilla marketing strategy? Would our young stars agree to pop in unannounced at youth hockey practices, for example? Beer league games? In this era of social media, the photos will make it out there, obviously.

[Weave]

5 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

I don't see it as an issue of traditional marketing. People see through photo opps. What if it was more of a guerilla marketing strategy? Would our young stars agree to pop in unannounced at youth hockey practices, for example? Beer league games? In this era of social media, the photos will make it out there, obviously.

That’s friggin brilliant actually.

[Stoner]

1 minute ago, Weave said:

That’s friggin brilliant actually.

Would you expect less?

[Weave]

2 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Would you expect less?

Occasionally.

[SDS]

No one person speaks to every style of fan. But I have heard it from more than a few people that all they want to see is a team give effort. I think if you sign young, fast guys that work hard and immerse themselves into the community, you’ll see the sentiment soften for a certain portion of the fans.

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, Let's Go B-Lo said:

They just got a new head of marketing too IIRC. It's what you need to do because the product on the ice isn't breeding future Sabre fans and hasn't been for a long time and that's bad for the organization in the long run.

Back in the day, the Sabres players actually did get out in the community.  Still have great memories of Luce & Ramsay hanging out with our Cub Scout Troop for a couple of hours.

Rob Ray spent a lot of times in pediatric wings of hospitals without the cameras on.

Doubt they'll get the players doing those sorts of things.  If they could/would it would be great.  But most likely this will simply be another hamhanded attempt at staged publicity and it'll backfire.  They come up with a lot of good ideas for things they can do to improve relations with the fans, but they implement those ideas so poorly it isn't even humorous oftentimes.

[SDS]

2 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Back in the day, the Sabres players actually did get out in the community.  Still have great memories of Luce & Ramsay hanging out with our Cub Scout Troop for a couple of hours.

Rob Ray spent a lot of times in pediatric wings of hospitals without the cameras on.

Doubt they'll get the players doing those sorts of things.  If they could/would it would be great.  But most likely this will simply be another hamhanded attempt at staged publicity and it'll backfire.  They come up with a lot of good ideas for things they can do to improve relations with the fans, but they implement those ideas so poorly it isn't even humorous oftentimes.

That seems rather cynical. I’m going to give the new guys an opportunity to succeed or fail. It doesn’t cost me anything.

[sabrefanday1]

Up here in Ontario at Casino Rama where I worked for 16 years before my heart attack and where we attend concerts all the time, they have "meet & greet" with many of the bands. They could do the same thing here. We use to drive down a lot to see Sabre games but with how the team is these days even after it al opens up again no way we'd bother until they have at least a chance of winning again on a regular basis. I think the team needs to get out into the community as they are having difficulty selling tickets now compared to a few years back. When they had Briere & Drury etc, we went to a bunch of games. They use to be so exciting, win or lose.