Thanks to digital video and inexpensive editing software, it's safe to say that just about anybody can get into the documentary film business -- which means that stories that wouldn't normally attract the attention of film school students now actually have a chance to get told. Toss in the Internet and some marketing moxie into the mix, and you've got a better than even shot for your story to find an audience.
In recent years, that's meant that American hockey documentaries like In The Crease and Ice Kings, have been able to find hockey fans online through positive word of mouth. And now it looks like the next film in line to travel that same path is Bleeding Green, the story of the Hartford Whalers and the fans that love them -- almost 11 years after the team abandoned the city and relocated to North Carolina.
There's something undeniably sad about seeing a fan base, no matter how small, have its team torn from them forever. And for Whalers fans, it has to be doubly frustrating to see that same team move to North Carolina, make a pair of appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals and finally win it all in 2006.
Yet through it all, there seems to be a core of die hards committed to bringing the NHL back to Hartford, even though the city can barely draw better than 4,000 fans per game for the AHL's Wolf Pack:
That tune you hear in the background is "Brass Bonanza," which became the team's theme song in the mid-1970s. Listening to it now, it's safe to say it would seem at home playing under highlights from the team's heyday. Click here if you're interested in more.
HT: Battle of Alberta.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. AHL teams never draw like an NHL team. They just don't. I can't use an AHL team as a benchmark for the fan support of an NHL team.
That's a "no offense" comment, but the comparison is only somewhat fair. The NHL has so much more going for it, as far as marketing, visibility, and following a team when it's away (to name only a few).
Still, it's one of the only benchmarks available, but it still leaves a lot to be desired.
I have talked to fans in Hartford who refuse to go to a Wolfpack game, because it is not the Whalers. They are not doing themselves any favors.
Posted at 1:52PM on Mar 18th 2008 by Tapeleg
2. To that end, I remember going to a Bulldogs game in Hamilton. People talk about Hamilton being an NHL town (from all the visiting Torontonians, I suppose), but Copps Coliseum was only about 1/3 full, and attendance for Hamilton games hasn't blown the roof of of anybody's head.
Posted at 3:40PM on Mar 18th 2008 by Jes Golbez
3. The NHL is missing out on so much revenue by allowing Peter Karmanos to hold onto the rights to the Whaler's logo and name. I went to the NHL store recently and they had throwback and vintage stuff of the Nordiques, Jets, St. Pats, etc. and nothing for the Whalers.
The Whalers are that lovable loser living on that particular fringe of pop culture that college kids and hipsters would embrace, bringing a new base of support to the team. Not having Whalers memorabilia at the NHL Store (powered by RBK) is nothing short of criminal, and I blame Peter Karmanos.
Unfortunately, Hartford is a shit-hole, and hosting the team at the casinos would make the NHL appear as irrelevant and uncredible as the WNBA.
Posted at 3:06PM on Mar 19th 2008 by Memories of Verbeek