Forget All Else -- Here's Why JLA Isn't Filled Anymore

Lately around Joe Louis Arena, SRO has come to mean "Sitting Room Only."

Plenty of good seats still available at the Joe as the Red Wings embark on yet another season-long quest for the Stanley Cup. PLENTY of them.

It's gotten a lot of air time since Opening Night -- that the Red Wings can no longer sell out JLA, and not even close, really. Reporters say several thousand seats appeared empty throughout the home opener last week against defending Cup champ Anaheim, and even more went unsat in Monday against Edmonton. Talk radio, always looking for air-killing topics, tackled the issue yesterday. Even the Red Wings players themselves are using words like "disappointed" to describe the horror of playing before only 17,000 fans instead of 20,000.

Many reasons have been offered. The economy. Burn-out. The loss of stars like Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan (that's a laughable one). The arena itself.

All that is hogwash -- if you'll only listen to me.

You want to know the two biggest reasons the Red Wings can now comfortably satisfy thousands of walk-up customers on a nightly basis?

I'm going to give them to you -- Reason 1 and 1A.

1. The schedule. I've railed about this, as you know, ever since the league returned from its walkout/lockout. Put simply, the fans in Detroit are getting tired of seeing the same damn teams over and OVER again. Thanks to the wonderful unbalanced schedule, the fans here are weary of a steady diet of Western Conference teams. I appreciate the fact that the Ducks are defending champs. But they're still the Ducks -- no offense. The Red Wings have already entertained the Ducks and the Oilers, and tonight it's the Flames. Friday it's Chicago. Without even looking at the schedule, I can tell you that before long it will be St. Louis, and Columbus, and Nashville. Followed, I'm sure, by Colorado and Minnesota. And probably Edmonton again. Then another visit by Chicago. And so on.

IT'S BORING!!

There are 30 teams in the NHL, for goodness sakes. Yet fans in every city are force fed the same 14 or 15 ad nauseum, with only an occasional appearance by a team from the other conference -- almost sadistically, just to give fans a taste of what they're missing.

Unless this ridiculous schedule changes, you'll see what's happening in Detroit spreading throughout the league, like a fast-growing infection. I'm telling you, bring the Devils and the Maple Leafs and the Rangers in here more often, and you'll see those seats become occupied with fannies.

1A. The Tigers' success. How can a team that plays in an opposite season be a culprit?

I'll tell you how.

First, the baseball and hockey seasons do, indeed, overlap. They do so mainly in April and May -- and in the case of 2006, in October. With the Tigers' resurgence, and as they fill Comerica Park continually, there's a lot of the entertainment dollar and disposable income being spent, right there. It's reasonable to believe that as funds get diverted to the Tigers, there may not be as much available for the Red Wings. If you're wondering how that may affect the Pistons' crowds next month, I'm not sure that the Pistons share as many fans with the Tigers as the Red Wings do. Just an educated guess.

It is maybe even accurate, dare I say, that the Tigers are today's 1980s Red Wings: enjoying a franchise rebirth, awakening a sleeping fan base after some long-awaited taste of success.


Jiri Fischer finds a good seat moments before game time recently

Now, having said all that, I'm not quite sure what to make of the Red Wings players' disappointment over the crowds. On the one hand, I can appreciate wanting to play in front of a packed house every night. But I also feel a tad offended if their "disappointment" is in some way a jab at the fans. You know -- like how a parent is "disappointed" in his child for acting out. The fans have supported the Red Wings in droves since the mid-1980s. I think they're entitled to be cut some slack. What about all the disappointment heaped their way by way of early Red Wings playoff exits?

This is my story and I'm sticking to it: unless the NHL frees its fans from the shackles of the unbalanced schedule, then the combination of a soft Michigan economy and the perpetual appearances of Western Conference teams is going to keep JLA saddled with unbought, unclaimed tickets.

As Yogi Berra once said, "If people don't want to come to the ballpark, then nothing's going to stop them."