The Ultimate Rankings (FTF Poll For ESPN The Mag)

To quickly address the accessibility of the players, I have yet to meet anyone who had a bad experience spotting a Shark in the wild. I ran into Cheechoo at Target and he was very nice despite doing my best to make an idiot out of myself. I’ve heard most of the Sharks are very approachable and will happily acknowledge fans outside of the Tank.

I’ll try to add more later.

• The ownership has proven, as far as I am concerned, that they are dedicated to providing a top-notch team with a top-notch coaching staff. Our general manager has consistently surpassed our expectations, which are already high on account of previous successful transactions. Bringing in top-flight players such as Joe Thornton and Dan Boyle tells the fans that the Sharks are pursuing the Stanley Cup with all their might. Perhaps it is as simple as providing a consistently competitive team – but that in of itself is far from simple.

• I don’t have particular examples, though my overwhelming conviction is that they are here for us, not us for them.

• The HP Pavilion (aka the San Jose Arena) is a highly comfortable place to enjoy a game – the atmosphere is raucous yet family friendly, novel without being gimmicky (even the shark head out of which the players skate). I’ve personally traveled to almost a dozen other NHL arenas, and with the possible exception of the brand-new Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, the HP Pavilion is absolutely the best of the lot in terms of a facility (gotta love the cushioned seats, for starters). However, the Devils’ arena can’t hold a candle to the Sharks’ in terms of being a cultural experience. In all seriousness, the HP Pavilion is the nucleus of San Jose. Forget Silicon Valley – to modify Roch Carrier’s “The Hockey Sweater” = “We lived in three places – the office, the highways, and the HP Pavilion – but our real life was in the HP Pavilion.”

• The players are out and about in the community – though I personally haven’t spotted them except at official functions, plenty of my friends have run into them at shopping malls or stores (Cheechoo at Oakridge, McLaren at Target, J.R. driving 90mph on Highway 17 out of Los Gatos…). When the players sign autographs, they will often stay past the official closing times to accommodate everyone.

• Though prices rose somewhat in the past season, the top brass seemed sympathetic to our desire to keep the cost from skyrocketing in the future (this was brought up by many at the State of the Sharks open forum in May 2008). However, even with the raised prices considering the team’s great success, San Jose is a far more affordable hockey destination than, say, Canada or New York. Furthermore, the “nosebleed” seats ($20) provide a better view than the $50-$90 equivalent in the aforementioned markets. Considering that the prices were set for this season before the economic downturn, the real answer to the question will be seen in this offseason.

Hope that covers everything!

A few days ago, someone said something along the lines of “Joe Thornton could walk down Market Street in SF and not be noticed.” Most people in the Bay Area couldn’t recognize the team’s biggest star, much less someone like Joe Pavelski or Dan Boyle. So (it seems to me) these guys aren’t worried about being mobbed every time they want to do a little shopping at the mall. Also, every week or so you see them doing some charity work, and it’s not just attending some dinner, they’re making deliveries for the food bank or what have you.

In terms of the atmosphere at the Tank, Mr. K nailed it. No matter what you’re doing before or after the game, no matter who you’re with, when you’re in there it’s all about the Sharks.

The ownership group did very well in the polling. Why do you think that is? What have they done to build trust with fans? Is it as simple as producing a consistently competitive team?

The ownership group seems to be most interested in winning games consistently without mortgaging the future just to make the playoffs, acquiring good players for ‘reasonable’ contract figures, and putting people who know a lot of about hockey in the positions where hockey-related decisions are made. That puts them ahead of about 20 NHL teams.

Building trust is lots of times about not insulting fans’ intelligence. Accumulating tons of high-prices free agents is just as foolish as selling off all the assets for draft picks. The Sharks organization seems to have a consistent plan, and execute that plan while being mindful of the players the fans care most about.

What makes the experience at the arena (which also rated very high) so unique? Is there something particular to watching games in San Jose that helps bring fans together? (I’ve only seen NHL games in St. Louis, Anaheim, and Los Angeles, so I don’t have first hand experience.)

The fact that the fans are loud, excited about hockey, and loyal to their team. For myself, there’s also a bit of the “in the know” vibe that you get from being a California fan of a sport that gets almost no pub on major outlets.

What kind of personal connection do you feel to the players? Are they out in the community? Do they seem accessible?

There’s some personal connection there. But in my opinion, the loyalty and affection the fans have for Sharks players is mostly due to the contrast fans feel between them and athletes in other sports. Sharks players are like most hockey players- they are largely humble, considerate, and grateful for the fans. That fosters fan loyalty more than Marleau going to a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new nail salon.

Do you feel like the organization has been responsive to you as fans during what are some pretty brutal economic times?

I’m not under the illusion that the team prices tickets according to how good the team is. It’s a purely economic exercise- they will price the tickets according to what the market will bear, and outraged fans create bad public relations. I certainly feel they are responsive as one could hope for.

Bizjournals.com just released something similar, though they just focused on winning games and making money — much more objective than what ESPN’s doing.

The Sharks ranked 12th out of all 122 “major league” teams.

In the NHL, only the Canadiens (4), Red Wings (7), and Penguins (10) ranked higher. Take that, “non-traditional market teams always fail” assholes!

The Sharks were also the best in Northern California (unsurprisingly*), beating out the Warriors (49), 49ers (72), Giants (85), Raiders (100), A’s (105), and Kings (109).

* the ranks were for the 2008 season only.