Photo credit: @itsjdphoto

By Regan Bartel

Fandom foreign in 'Cougar Country'

Time for hockey fans to stand up

Aug 3, 2023 | 11:00 AM

This article, which first appeared on October 1st, 2022, rattled more than a few chains. It received a lot of attention, to the point it is ranked as the second most-read article since RocketFAN launched last fall.  

This is roughly my 48th trip to Prince George. By season’s end, I will have witnessed over 100 games played at CN Centre.

One thing perplexes me every time I arrive in Prince George during the hockey season.

Why haven’t sports fans fallen in love with the Prince George Cougars?

What are people doing in a northern community where fall comes early and winter doesn’t go away?

Notes, one quote and anecdotes

Things that make me go hmm...

Oct 08, 2024

Notes, quotes and anecdotes

Things that make me go hmm...

Sep 13, 2024

Notes, quotes and anecdotes

Things that make me go hmm...

Aug 27, 2024

The team is young and exciting. The ownership group is committed. The GM/head coach, Mark Lamb, is savvy and accessible.

The events surrounding the on-ice product are as solid as you will find on the WHL circuit, yet empty seats remain.

Are 2,497 patrons good for opening night in a city of 75,000?

If the bar is set low, you are happy, but it shouldn’t be acceptable.

The arena where the Cougars play, CN Centre, is excellent. It isn’t a dump. The city-run facility is kept up to speed and doesn’t look anywhere near its age, opening in the fall of 1995. The sight lines are solid. No seat is a bad seat, in an arena that isn’t large, yet isn’t small with a capacity of just over 5,900.

As Goldilocks in the tale of The Three Bears put it – ‘it’s just right’!

The concessions are top notch and the hockey club has bent over backwards to bring in local craft breweries in an effort to quench a patron’s thirst. You can still order what I would call ‘tap water beer’, but if you are a beer snob like me, the good stuff for a premium price is available.

The video screen at CN Centre is above average for spectators to enjoy. The team’s mascot – ‘Rowdy Cat’ – is busy mingling with kids and hard work and attention to detail is clearly evident in the game night presentation.

Trust me, no one is mailing it in, yet the fans stay away.

I can tell you the broadcast location in the arena is terrific. From the sight lines, to the high speed internet and the use of a PA system, CN Centre is equipped with all a broadcast needs. Did I mention a washroom is easily accessible in the media location for a quick pit stop?

Don’t tell me Prince George isn’t a sports town. I’d suggest it is one of the best. Just look at the 2015 Canada Winter Games or the 2022 BC Summer Games as an example. Volunteers come out of the woodwork to make those events a tremendous success. The love for sports in that city is clearly evident.

I’ve heard the excuses on why fans stay away.

The community was disenchanted with ownership. For years, as an outsider, I was told Rick Brodsky was the culprit when he moved the team from Victoria to Prince George in 1994. You would think Brodsky would have been hailed a saint not a villain, before eventually selling the team, to local businessmen including Greg Pocock, along with ex-NHLers and former Cougars Dan Hamhuis and Eric Brewer.

The sale of the team was eight years ago. Eight!! Whatever, supposed colossal damage Brodsky did to the business community while the owner of the franchise has to be forgotten. Surely by now the wound has healed?

If not, get over it!

At one time, the Prince George Cougar fan base was the envy of the league. The Cougars played to full-houses, yet now attendance has dwindled to one of the smallest in the league.

If it is all about winning, the team has let the local hockey fan down.

Winning 24 games last season won’t cut it. In the last four seasons (excluding the bubble season where the WHL played just 24 games), the Cougars have finished with 24, 19, 20 and 24 wins.

That will indeed leave a sour taste in a hockey fans mouth. I get it. Everyone wants to support a winner.

As the team turns the corner on the ice with what can only be considered one of the most talented, young teams in the Western Conference, it is time for the fans to step up. If they can’t get excited with this group of players – now – they never will.

Is it a wait and see attitude in Prince George? Maybe. What have you done for me lately is often the mindset of ‘on the fence fans’.

For now, let’s blame the small fan base on a lack of success by the hockey club on the ice, but if the Cougars are near the top of the BC Division standings, yet the fans continue to stay away, I am calling them out.

It isn’t the organization’s fault for apathy in the city.

Sports fans in Prince George will have to take a hard look, not at the team, but at themselves.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]