But many Steelers fans did attend, and thank you to both Alan, and Samantha Dale on Twitter for keeping us all updated.
The main points of the evening:
- The new coach will be announced at 6AM Thursday 27th Feb. Within 5 minutes of that being announced, the Star Sport's Twitter feed leaked a preview of an interview with "New Steelers Coach" Gerad Adams. Dave Simms responds to being told about this mid-meeting: "don't believe everything you read." At the end of the meeting, Tony Smith said "We all know what's going to happen, I just can't tell you." The new coach (who may or may not be Gerad Adams....) will be given a contract to the end of the season, where their performance will be evaluated.
- Season ticket prices, and walk up prices, will remain as they are next season.
- Attendances have, apparently, doubled since Smith took over from Paul Ragan. Far fewer free tickets are supposedly being given out, but there are being offers run for reduced rates at schools and the like.
- There are plans to do a fundraiser for Randy Dagenais, and it will be organised whenever possible. There won't be any collection buckets at games though as people may feel forced into giving.
- Referees are being sent on training courses in America. He also described Mike Hicks as a great man. Its good that he has a sense of humour...
- Doug Christiansen's budget was 20% higher than Ryan Finnerty's, and will remain that way for the new coach, whoever that may be...
- On DC, Smith said that the club weren't playing the brand of hockey that fans demanded...A lot of people wanted him but sadly it just didn't work out, hence his removal. ..wouldn't like to call it a mistake but instead will learn from it because it wasn't the right fit for the club...Nottingham game was the game that broke the straw on the camels back." He released DC when he did to save the season essentially.
- The playoff game will be played on April 1st (I can see the headlines already) at the Arena, but is not on the season ticket. However, tickets will be priced at £10 adults and £5 concessions.
- The two new teams were mentioned. London was mentioned as a definite, but no details given. He also said of the other team: "New teams to the league are "still developing"...it's not PC right now to reveal any more than that. We'll find out in time."
- The most intriguing part of the meeting though was the following: "Tony would love new arena could be possible if attendances up"
A lot to digest there, and I've left some more trivial stuff out.
Some obvious stuff, some not so obvious stuff. I'll get to G tomorrow, when its official from the Steelers website, like it should have been before now to stop this circus. Anyway...
Its this new arena talk that's got me hooked. Do we have the money to afford a new arena? Could we get enough people involved to bring the cost down enough to afford it? Where would it go? Would we have the same arguments we had when Bob Phillips wanted to move us to the Rother Valley? How many would it hold? So many questions, is it a pipedream, or could it one day be reality? I'm keen to find out.
The one thing that sticks out from the answers that Smith gave, not just from my opinion from tweets but from people who were there, is that he just comes across as a genuine guy who cares about the club. There's not enough of those. Just think, we could still be suffering Ragan.
What's your opinion on all this then? Get in touch at the usual.
Liam
@IAmMcCausland
@TomWalkeden
@AwkwardGinge
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