We Have The Power To Force Change..we Are The Heart Of The Rangers
Read the entire post in its entirity before you begin to tear it to shreads.....
Anyone who is a diehard fan of any team knows that their everyday life and mood is effected by their respective team's performance. As all die hard blueshirt fans are aware of our lives suck right no. Our GM is dragging our team back to the future, we are wasting young talent(although we have an overaverage group of budding players backed by Lundqvist in his prime, dragged down by horrendous veteran leadership, contracts, and accountability in our front office. We as the fans have a voice, and especially in New York it will be heard. I propose that if in 18 days on January 19th, against the Tampa Bay Lightning on versus(pretty much national tv) as a collective fanbase we do not go to the game. That would be a bigger statement to
Dolan than any media source. We are the revenue, we are what allow the franchise to exist. If the blood stops pumping the body wont work. For one day lets cut the flow of money to Dolan and leave the organization with a little temporary brain damage. I think it is a legitamite statement and a right as fans that we should contemplate making. If this can't get enough attention in 2 weeks than lets pick the Rangers vs. Penguins game on January the 25th on versus. I refuse to watch this mess be covered up, when everyone and their mother knows the issues this team has. Let's take action Rangers Faithful because if Sather or Dolan are not smart enough to figure out what is wrong themselves we can sure as hell let them know.
good idea in spirit. but how will you influence the 18,200 or so people who would otherwise attend the game? there might be a few hundred people you can reach here...but that would hardly make a dent in the overall attendance.
Pretty much what broadwayblue is saying. It'll be hard to reach the whole attendance and most of all to convince the majority. You can still chain up yourself in front of the building and start a hunger strike. You never know...
Constant "Fire Sather" chants, refusal to buy tickets or any merchandise and the encouragement to all other fans you know to do the same and continue doing so until change is made. It's harder for season ticket holders, but at least you can let your seat be empty if you're dedicated.
Someone living in New York who has a little feeling for organisational work should call the police department and get a clearance to have a street march. Don't forget the important media, preferably nation wide. The message? Fire Sather. I'm not exactly living there myself, I think you could calculate the best route for maximum exposure.
The Cigar Donkey has to go. Enough is enough, he's a terrible GM. Having a six sided dice taking all the decisions would be more effective than him. If the NYR fans uproar, Dolan is forced to make change, unless he wants a team without fans. If the Knicks fans could, the Rangers fans can.
If I lived in New York, I would've helped you out in whichever way I could. I'm pissed.
This mantra was a lot more relevant before the lockout than it is now. Your talking about a franchise that has made the playoffs four straight years, and now has two of the top players in the league at their respective positions under warps for the next five years, a continued infusion of youth since the lockout, and one of the deepest prospects bases in the league since it's gotten it's act together and handed over the reigns to Gordie Clark. Yes, Sather has handed out at least six mind-numbingly asinine contracts in the past three years, but, he's turned one of them into a fruitful opportunity. (And just imagine if he was able to trade Higgins for Mueller...we'd essentially be talking Mueller and McDonagh for Scott Gomez.) That is hardly the evidence Jim Dolan will use to can Sather. At best, Sather moves out of the GM slot into a retirement position, and allows his hand-picked replacement to take over (most likely Messier.) If Sather wasn't dumped in the years prior to 2004, (and was allowed to run the rebuild/renovation that began at the trade deadline in 2004), he isn't being hung from the MSG rafters as many of the fanbase so desire.
This mantra was a lot more relevant before the lockout than it is now.
He opens by talking about his "respective team's performance." This team's performance is not good, and although it's easy to cite 4 years of playoffs, it's just as easy to cite that merely making the playoffs is not a spectacular achievement in the NHL. (MLB it ain't.) It's easy to cite that these playoffs have come on the backs of only two players rather than on a team that has been constructed; that the GM has to keep going through one coach after another; that this year's team is no better than any of the last four playoff teams and thus that we're stalled in a state of "playoff also-ran."
In other words, although I agree that Dolan will not listen and can find plenty of excuses to keep Sather, the "mantra" is no less relevant now than it was before the lockout. If management is ineffective, it's ineffective. I suspect, though, that the louder fans scream, the more intransigent James Dolan will become. He wants to be right and he wants to establish a legacy NOT built on daddy's name. Obeying the howlings of unwashed masses appears weak. Best hope that Sather runs into a sex scandal.
Hmmmm ... about that cigar, anyone know what Monica Lewinsky is doing these days?
Constant "Fire Sather" chants, refusal to buy tickets or any merchandise and the encouragement to all other fans you know to do the same and continue doing so until change is made. It's harder for season ticket holders, but at least you can let your seat be empty if you're dedicated.
Someone living in New York who has a little feeling for organisational work should call the police department and get a clearance to have a street march. Don't forget the important media, preferably nation wide. The message? Fire Sather. I'm not exactly living there myself, I think you could calculate the best route for maximum exposure.
The Cigar Donkey has to go. Enough is enough, he's a terrible GM. Having a six sided dice taking all the decisions would be more effective than him. If the NYR fans uproar, Dolan is forced to make change, unless he wants a team without fans. If the Knicks fans could, the Rangers fans can.
If I lived in New York, I would've helped you out in whichever way I could. I'm pissed.
I would give the "Fire Sather" chants a little more credibility, but... The chants were far more frequent and angry the year before the lockout.
But the biggest joke about the chant is that they start only when the Rangers get scored on. And when the Rangers score everyone cheers and all is forgotten. Until the "real fans" can be consistent with their message, they have no chance of making an impact.
The thing that no one seems to understand is that the Rangers are a huge machine and the vocal minority can never make an impact that will force a change.
liv4socr you pretty much said exactly what I've been thinking over the last few years about not only the Rangers but the Knicks as well. Unfortunately the Dolans do not care as much about their sports franchises as they do about ripping people off on their cable bills.
Hey it worked a few years back when Knick fans chanted "fire Layden" at the NBA draft. He was canned at the end of that season. Hopefully the Dolans will listen to us this time.
I will support my hockey team through the good and the bad. I will not boycott an experience I enjoy to try to force political change. This is entertainment, not something important like civil rights or national politics.
He opens by talking about his "respective team's performance." This team's performance is not good, and although it's easy to cite 4 years of playoffs, it's just as easy to cite that merely making the playoffs is not a spectacular achievement in the NHL. (MLB it ain't.) It's easy to cite that these playoffs have come on the backs of only two players rather than on a team that has been constructed; that the GM has to keep going through one coach after another; that this year's team is no better than any of the last four playoff teams and thus that we're stalled in a state of "playoff also-ran."
In other words, although I agree that Dolan will not listen and can find plenty of excuses to keep Sather, the "mantra" is no less relevant now than it was before the lockout. If management is ineffective, it's ineffective. I suspect, though, that the louder fans scream, the more intransigent James Dolan will become. He wants to be right and he wants to establish a legacy NOT built on daddy's name. Obeying the howlings of unwashed masses appears weak. Best hope that Sather runs into a sex scandal.
Hmmmm ... about that cigar, anyone know what Monica Lewinsky is doing these days?
It would appear that the only time Dolan is willing to cut bait on his GMs is when there is open disagreement between coach and GM - Smith/Muckler and Grunfeld/Van Gundy come to mind.
I will support my hockey team through the good and the bad. I will not boycott an experience I enjoy to try to force political change. This is entertainment, not something important like civil rights or national politics.
I already said I wasn't gonna go to anymore games this season whether they are doing good or bad, it's the least I can do even if it's not much. Also don't plan on buying any new Ranger merch.
look guys, I dont even want to discuss the individual contracts because its what we all talk about. While Sather might be a decent hockey mind he is horrendous with his financials and there always is evidence proving he dishes out top money of Dolan's bilions to 2nd and 3rd tier players who don't deserve it. It's not like Sather's trends will change he can't manage the free agent market and in the cap era developing talent and making smart free agent signings is the secret to success. We have done the former successfully but Sather will never be good at the latter always limiting our success as a franchise. It's not a new trend and if Dolan is willing to waste money and not hold accountabiility than it is our job as fans, to hit him where he will be forced to do something. I agree with the above posters, if we don't have Lundqvist Jagr/Gaborik over the last 4 years we are as bad as the lowly Islanders have been hands down. We should be in a position to win the cup with Hank but instead we waste his prime and our chances of a dynasty. Thats why we need to force change because through all our mush mosh were not that far away from elite with Hank and Gabby and our young players they are that good. So even if it is 200 fans at first tell your friends, copy and paste these links. Dolan does not deserve our money if Sather is not going to spend it correctly. And trust me Dolan can afford to let 30 million slip away. We had the highest cap for howevermany years before the lockout...It sucks but those contracts and players still have a chance to be made into some assets or even if it wastes. I don't want to see us waste the best chance we have ever had to be dominating I really have that much faith in Hank lets just put a winner in front of him.
This will not work. The New York Rangers are the most popular hockey team in the largest market in America. They have so many people to draw from as a fan base, that even if .001 percent of the city goes to the game, it's a sell out. The demand far outwieghs the supply. The only thing that would happen if you so called "die hards" that can afford season tickets stop going would be that other people who normally don't get to see the games would go instead. The only thing close to effective, IMO would be to go to the games and make a statement while at the game. Get the entire crowd to stand up and turn their backs on the game. Maybe get everyone to exit the game while it's still going. Throw hats down on the ice when the other teams player scores a hat trick. It would have to be something visual that they could not pan away from, ignore, or drown out the sound from. But if you just don't buy tickets, somebody else will be happy to scoop them up, and if you don't go and waste your ticket by staying home, you've still bought the ticket so I don't see how you're hurting anyone but yourself.
It'd have to be something disruptive. If you can get 1000 people to throw things onto the ice while chanting fire sather and do it consistently enough, something will happen. At that point the NHL will get involved since it'd be a serious delay of game every time it happens.
Perhaps someone needs to start an unofficial Rangers fan club. Perhaps over time it could have enough of a voice to reach the organization. At the very least, it could coordinate the actions of quite a few fans.
Read the entire post in its entirity before you begin to tear it to shreads.....
Anyone who is a diehard fan of any team knows that their everyday life and mood is effected by their respective team's performance. As all die hard blueshirt fans are aware of our lives suck right no. Our GM is dragging our team back to the future, we are wasting young talent(although we have an overaverage group of budding players backed by Lundqvist in his prime, dragged down by horrendous veteran leadership, contracts, and accountability in our front office. We as the fans have a voice, and especially in New York it will be heard. I propose that if in 18 days on January 19th, against the Tampa Bay Lightning on versus(pretty much national tv) as a collective fanbase we do not go to the game. That would be a bigger statement to
Dolan than any media source. We are the revenue, we are what allow the franchise to exist. If the blood stops pumping the body wont work. For one day lets cut the flow of money to Dolan and leave the organization with a little temporary brain damage. I think it is a legitamite statement and a right as fans that we should contemplate making. If this can't get enough attention in 2 weeks than lets pick the Rangers vs. Penguins game on January the 25th on versus. I refuse to watch this mess be covered up, when everyone and their mother knows the issues this team has. Let's take action Rangers Faithful because if Sather or Dolan are not smart enough to figure out what is wrong themselves we can sure as hell let them know.
What young talent has sather and the organization wasted?? Because I think this organization has handled the development of their prospects very well since when we had Lundmark and Maholtra. No one has ever been rushed in their development and we've obviously given the young talent opportunities as now our defense consists of 4 out of the 6 being homegrown/young.
I know people are angry with sather for the contracts. I understand that. But it hasnt all been bad. The team has made the playoffs every year since the lockout and granted I am not one who is satisfied with just that, making it and losing in the 1st or 2nd rounds, but at least we've had a competitive team to watch. And in a couple of those years we came close, (Buffalo series 2nd round 06-07?, and last year vs the caps 08-09). So we have a bad year. I'm not going to boycott the team and not go to any games or not support the team. Thats ridiculous. I'm sorry it is. As Fitzy said, you stick with the team through the good and the bad. There are players on that team that we'll keep me watching aka gaborik, mdz, staal, dubinsky, cally, lundqvist, etc.
It'd have to be something disruptive. If you can get 1000 people to throw things onto the ice while chanting fire sather and do it consistently enough, something will happen. At that point the NHL will get involved since it'd be a serious delay of game every time it happens.
Don't know about that. Then we'll be trying to can an idiot by being idiots
I'm pissed.
