Monday, January 12, 2009

DiPietro Injury Conspiracy

I am becoming increasingly skeptical about how management is handling DiPietro's injury status...and perhaps more to the point, how they are announcing this to the press and fans.

Consider two facts: (1) The Islanders rank LAST in the league in average per game attendance at somewhere around 13,300, and many of these season/partial/group plan tickets were sold prior to the stock market implosion which can be traced to about September 15, 2008. (The issue of crowd inflation / turnstile manipulation can be addressed separately.) (2) Islanders sole owner Charles Wang is reported to have lost at least $15 million each season that he has owned the team, and that's before we account for any losses he sustained in the great real estate bust or stock market bust of the last few years.

Proposition: The Islanders must do anything to boost ticket sales for the rest of this season, and next.

Theory: If the Islanders make fans think DiPietro -- perhaps their sole drawing card -- will return soon, they can get some more tickets sold. (I mean, does anyone here think that anyone will amble up to the ticket booth, in the middle of a deep cold wave that's approaching, and buy tickets because Nate Thompson has come off the IR?

~ MooseJawDixon

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