Keith Jones wanted Philadelphia Flyers fans to know that the team isn’t a Stanley Cup contender.
This is not candor you hear often from a team president, especially one that was just formally hired a few months before the 2023-24 season. Teams like to keep it hyper-positive and slightly delusional when they’re trying to sell season ticket packages and sponsorships.
But that’s been the problem in Philadelphia, as Jones sees it.
“I think that there was a perception that the team was a Stanley Cup contending team — even though it wasn’t. And that’s something that I think the fans in this city can sniff out pretty quickly,” Jones told ESPN recently. “That’s a well-educated fan base, and I think disappointing them does not serve you well.”
Jones was hired in May to take over the Flyers after a lengthy career as a broadcaster for the team and for nationally televised games on NBC and Turner. Philadelphia hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2019-20 season. The Flyers have one playoff series victory since 2012.
Yet the message to fans was always that the team could contend, even when the roster might have indicated otherwise.
“I do think there were folks that believed that the team was going to be repaired each summer in a way where they were going to be a playoff team the following year,” Jones said. “But it was more just filling in one leak and then creating another. And I think that didn’t benefit anybody.”
