The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

No I'm not talking about their dismal start as they are in the bottom of the basement in the NHL. I'm talking about the intangibles of being sandwiched between the two largest fan bases in pro hockey, Toronto and Montreal. I guess when Bruce Firestone and the gang first thought up the plan to bring the NHL back to Ottawa after a 60 year absence, they may have thought fans would embrace a hometown team to call their own, and for the most part, there are plenty of Senators fans. But not as many as there could be.

When I was growing up, I actually liked all the Canadian teams. I'd cheer for both Toronto and Montreal depending on what CBC was showing on Saturday night, and when the playoffs rolled around, I'd cheer for whatever Canadian team was still standing.

Times have changed a great deal.

A large contingent of Canadiens fans and Leafs fans, who live in Ottawa, have decided for the most part they are not going to support the Senators. I noticed this trend early when the team first started to play. I thought perhaps they wouldn't abandon their favourite team, but would have team a and team b to fall back on when they weren't playing each other. But that hasn't happen for a fairly large amount of hockey fans in Ottawa.

If it were baseball, I'd sort of compare the Senators current situation to an equivalent of say, being the Minnesota Twins being sandwiched right between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox (minus any recent world titles, of course). A rabid, loyal fan base who would forsake having a championship parade, right down their own street, for teams located elsewhere outside of their city.

I'm not going to sit here and try to figure out why this is the way it is, but despite the unique nature of Ottawa's fan base, the fans still show up to see the team play. Yes, there are ups and downs in attendance, and it's better in winning times than losing times of course. But if you consider Ottawa is about 1/3 the size of Montreal, a 1/5 the size of Toronto, it's a government town without nearly the amount of corporate money floating around, the team is a young 17 years old...well, Sens fans are doing their part to support their team.