No Press Release This Season: ESPN Ranks Senators 92nd out of 122 Teams in Ultimate Team Rankings

Last year when the Senators were ranked by ESPN as the ninth highest professional sports franchise amongst the 122 combined teams that come from Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association, the Senators promoted the hell out the distinction.

Considering the offseason turmoil created by the loss of their captain Daniel Alfredsson and the organization’s appeals to the City of Ottawa for placing a casino on property adjacent to the Canadian Tire Centre so that the organization could improve their revenue base, they needed some positive PR.

So the Senators milked the shit out of these rankings, trumpeting it as recognition of how much bang for the buck its fans get. The organization even sent out a news release plugging how it was “named No. 1 Professional Sports Team in Canada by ESPN the Magazine’s Ultimate Standings”.

Well, suffice it to say, the Senators won’t be issuing a similar press release this year.

The Senators have slipped in ESPN‘s rankings going all the way from their top ten position to the 92nd overall ranking.

According to ESPN, the rankings were developed using a three-pronged approach:

First: Consulting firm Maddock Douglas surveyed 1,002 North American fans to form 25 criteria for what you want most in return for the emotion, money and time you invest in the 122 MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL teams. Second: Teaming with NetReflector, an opinion research firm, ESPN.com asked fans to rate their home teams in each area; more than 101,000 of you did! We grouped grades into the categories below. Royals fans, for example, ranked Kauffman Stadium much higher (29) than owner David Glass (112). Third: Our final measure, bang for the buck, uses calculations developed with Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center to figure how well teams turn fans’ money into wins. FINALLY We combined each team’s score across all categories into a weighted average. For example, since fans ranked players as more important than ownership, the former counted for 13.9 percent of a team’s final score versus 11.3 percent for the latter. The result? Fan opinion combined with an objective gauge of the cost of winning. Ultimately, everything counts.

Teams were then ranked by the following categories:

1. Affordability – price of tickets, parking and concessions
2. Coaching – strength of on-field leadership
3. Fan relations – courtesy by players, coaches and front offices toward fans, and how well a team uses technology to reach them
4. Ownership – honesty; loyalty to core players and the community
5. Players – effort on the field, likeability off of it
6. Stadium experience – quality of venue; fan-friendliness of environment; frequency of game-day promotions
7. Bang for the buck –  wins in the past year, per fan dollars
8. Title track – championships won or expected within the lifetime of current fans

Now here’s a table displaying how the Senators’ ranking in these categories changed from last year:

Obviously these results mean sweet fudge all in the greater scheme of things. There’s no question that last year’s results were skewed somewhat because the data was captured before the Alfredsson situation and pleas for a casino took place, but have the dynamics or circumstances surrounding this team really changed all that much from last year?

I certainly don’t think so. Hell, it’s even more suspicious when the placement of the Toronto Maple Leafs as the 122nd team reeks of being nothing more than a well designed attempt to provoke a large response thereby generating those sweet, sweet, delicious page views.

Even if we downplay the significance of the rankings, you cannot downplay the fact that a lot of optimism surrounding the Senators organization has evaporated over a short period of time. That’s not to say that all hope or excitement is lost, there are still plenty of reasons to be excited about this team. From watching Erik Karlsson skate out of pressure in the defensive zone and then stickhandle his way through the opposition like they’re atom players, to the anticipated growth of players like Mika Zibanejad, Mark Stone, Patrick Wiercioch and Robin Lehner, not to mention the arrival of Curtis Lazar, there are still reasons to be excited for the 2014/15 season.

At the same time, the Senators dropped 83 spots in the rankings and even if you don’t buy into the methodology used to calculate the rankings, it is worth recognizing the fact that this drop was the largest by any team on the list. In fact, the second largest drop belonged to the Denver Nuggets and they only fell 55 spots. Keeping in the same vein, the Senators also dropped from 18th in ownership to 116th. This 98 point difference was more than double the next highest drop of 48, again belonging to the Denver Nuggets.

Relative to the rest of the teams on the list, the change in opinion of the Senators was quite substantial.

So what to make of this?

Most hockey fans will dismiss it outright because it’s ESPN or because they simply don’t care about some completely subjective survey results. For others, it reaffirms what they’re already feeling or know. Given what’s taken place over the course of the past number of months, it’s difficult to ignore or dismiss the fact that a lot of the buzz generated by the commitment to rebuild in 2011 has dissipated and fans now are beginning to grow weary of the comments and actions of management and ownership.