“Sacco is like the PR guy from the latest cruise line to strand its customers in a feces filled stink barge, bobbing like a corpse out in the Mediterranean. Firing Sacco is akin to putting a band-aid on a gushing circular saw wound – and something he’d welcome like the sweet embrace of death.”
The fundamental difference between suffering through an Avalanche game and suffering through a Rockies game comes down to one thing: Location. You may ultimately see some bad baseball played at Coors Field this summer but going to that beautiful ball park is a joy. If they win, it’s a bonus. But if they don’t, you still get to spend a day in the sun with friends and family. The Pepsi Center is a nice facility but it’s a cold, enclosed space and the horror show currently going on in there is like stumbling onto your grandparents fucking. And while the crowds will keep coming out to Coors because of a positive experience no matter what, the Pepsi Center will continue to echo with the ghosts of fans who’ve abandoned the franchise.
I’ve abandoned the franchise. At least for the time being. Since the Avalanche came to Denver in 1995, I’ve poured my heart and soul and a moderate amount of my income into a team that once was so great, but is now just a joke on ice. And not a “Blades of Glory” kind of joke on ice.
So it’s with a heavy heart that I must renounce my Avalanche fandom. I will no longer be a fan of the team until one thing is done: Pierre Lacroix must be shown the door.
When the Broncos hit the skids at the tail end of the Josh McDainels Experience, fans let the Broncos know they weren’t going sit in the stadium, paying a premium for tickets and even higher price for beer as long as McDaniels was allowed to continue to run the team into the ground. Pat Bowlen sniffed this out immediately and when he saw rock bottom coming up fast, he pulled his parachute and let McDaniels’s coaching career in Denver dash itself on the rocks below. Fans bought back in immediately and the team made good on its promise to right the ship.
The Kroenkes had better do the same because I won’t be the only fan handing in his burgundy and blue at the conclusion of this particularly dismal season. A complete delousing of the Avalanche franchise needs to happen before I’ll be back. It will be the best thing for the team and the best thing for fans who are growing increasingly bitter towards a once beloved Colorado team. But here’s what will happen: the team will fire Sacco, replace him with yet another cost effective coach who won’t be able to do anything with the current crop of players, and Lacroix will buy himself another year while ironically not buying anyone worth a damn to help the team. But if there’s any justice in the world, the glaring light of truth will finally coming around to shine directly on Lacroix’s mismanagement and the Kroenkes will have no choice but to pull their heads out of the sand and deal with it. But by then it may be too late. Fans are already leaving in droves.
Sacco should go, but that’s more of a mercy afforded someone who didn’t create the mess – but has had shovel it down night after night. Sacco is like the PR guy from the latest cruise line to strand its customers in a feces filled stink barge, bobbing like a corpse out in the Mediterranean. Firing Sacco is akin to putting a band-aid on a gushing circular saw wound – and something he’d welcome like the sweet embrace of death.
And they shouldn’t stop there. Because while Sacco should be getting a real estate agent lined up, Greg Sherman should be sprucing up his accountant resume because he needs to go as well. Sherman’s only crimes are that he learned everything he knows about the business of hockey from Lacroix and he’s been nothing but his puppet the whole time as GM of the Avalanche. I believe anyone can learn how to be good at something, but if you’re just a worse version of the person you replaced, you may be one of the reasons for the organization’s sad demise.
So those are my terms. You can keep Sacco for all I care, but if Lacroix isn’t cut loose, the Avs can count me out. He’s the main reason this once proud team is digging in the trash along Colfax and if he’s not shown the door, I will refuse to participate any longer. The Avs are dead to me as long as Lacroix is allowed to have any say in running the franchise and I will not root for the team or give them a dime of my money until he is set free to pursue the very worthy task of extinguishing the embers of Celine Dion’s career.
If you don’t go to the games, the owners of a particular team will have to react won’t they? Not necessarily. As we’ve seen, the Rockies don’t need to but Broncos did at just the right time and it saved them from becoming the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Avs need a major overhaul and just firing the coach won’t do. They may be too out of the loop now but the Kroenkes need to be nudged in the right direction and a mass exodus of fans and ticket buyers will be the only thing that gets through to them. But there’s a positive: if you renounce your Avs fandom, you won’t have to watch these horrible games anymore. Think about it and get back to me. I’ll be at Coors Field.
Written by John Reidy
