Sports teams in Ottawa

Ladies and gentlemen,

As you know, I like to attend sports games of all kinds. I simply wanted to summarize the matches I attended over the past month in and around Ottawa and add a few pictures.

The Ottawa Senators are my favorite NHL team along with the Arizona Coyotes which I also support. That's why it made much sense to me to attend the game between the two teams. A few days earlier, I had been to the game between the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Canadiens which Ottawa won in a shootout. I was disappointed with the tame crowd in Ottawa, especially since the supporters of the Montreal Canadiens were much louder. Even though I was in the Senators fan section, there were only a handful of fans including me who were regularly cheering for the home team. Attending the game between the two Canadian rivals is always a great experience but the great atmosphere was mostly due to the loud Montreal Canadiens supporters.

A few days later, I attended the game between the Arizona Coyotes and the Ottawa Senators which the home team won 7-4 in a highly entertaining experience. Guess what the attendance was that night? 11,061. That's very disappointing. There would have been a bigger crowd if this game had been played in Glendale and many people, particularly Canadian hockey fans, keep making fun of low attendance stats in the southern parts of the United States. Such a number reminds me indeed of attendance stats from Raleigh or Sunrise. Now you could say that the Arizona Coyotes aren't the most popular team in the league but last year, 17,270 people went to the same game. Maybe the fact that last year's game took place on a Saturday and this year's game on a Tuesday might be considered a factor, but definitely not a factor to justify a difference of far over 6000 people in the crowd, especially when it's only the third home game of the season. People should support local hockey more if they want to keep it. The league will notice those decreasing numbers. With the Canadian economy being on a negative streak on one side and other Canadian markets such as Quebec City desperately wanting a NHL team on the other side, nothing shall be taken for granted!

Over the past two years, I have become an American football fan. I never cared much about that sport until I gave my local team a chance because many of my students are involved in their high school football team as well. Even though I still prefer soccer and hockey, American football has pretty much become my third favorite sport to watch along with Formula One racing competitions.

The Ottawa Redblacks played against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (or as I call them: the Hamilton Pussies) and it was a very intense duel. The home team blew an advance and the result was 33-33 after regular time. Both teams scored three points in first overtime. Finally, the Hamilton Tiger Cats scored three more points in second overtime while the Ottawa Redblacks didn't manage to get any points. The final result was 36-39 for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. In total, the match lasted for about four hours and the crowd really got some value for money.

The weather was really bad that night. It had been raining all night long which added to the tension on the pitch. I was lucky enough to have a covered seat in the upper stands but it was still rather brisk due to strong winds.

After the match, I bought some Ottawa Redblacks gloves, an Ottawa Redblacks scarf and an Ottawa Redblacks toque. That was a quite good decision because I desperately needed these two weeks later during the game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers because winter's coming closer in Canada. 

In addition to the last Ottawa Redblacks home game of the regular season against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, I also attended the last Ottawa Fury FC home game of the year. It was also the last game in the NASL since the organization is going to join the USL next season.

Even though I really like soccer games, I must admit that most of the Ottawa Fury FC games I have attended were rather underwhelming. A positive exception was the stunning win against the MLS team Vancouver Whitecaps FC in the Amway Canadian Championship last summer. Sadly, the final home game of the season against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers was also quite disappointing. The opponent had one single chance to score and capitalized on that occasion. The Ottawa Fury FC only had two or three solid chances during the game and didn't make anything out of it. The organization's last NASL game ever ended in a boring 0-1 loss.

Since this game was also declared the fan appreciation game of the season, I decided to buy a pennant that I put underneath my Montreal Impact FC pennant at home. I already have a jersey as well as a lumberjack / flannel shirt from last season.

After the game, the fans were invited to a meet and greet with the team on the pitch. Some fans won signed jerseys and were able to take a few pictures with a few players. Since the performances of the team had been underwhelming all season long apart of one single game mentioned earlier, I decided not to congratulate the team. Still, I will at least attend one game of the team's first season in the USL next year. Let's hope that next season will be much better than what the fans had to endure this year.