2011 attendance in non-traditional markets

[jyoung]

According to ESPN:

http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance

By percentage:

Quote:

19. Predators - 93.5% 20. Lightning - 84.9% 21. Ducks - 84.8% 22. Hurricanes - 83.0% 23. Avalanche - 82.5% 24. Stars - 81.0% 25. Devils - 80.6% 26. Panthers - 78.9% 27. Blue Jackets - 73.2% 28. Thrashers - 69.3% 29. NY Islanders - 62.0% 30. Coyotes - 61.2%

By average attendance:

Quote:

19. Lightning - 16,772 20. Predators - 15,999 21. Hurricanes - 15,540 22. Panthers - 15,182 23. Stars - 15,012 24. Avalanche - 14,858 25. Ducks - 14,569 26. Devils - 14,204 27. Blue Jackets - 13,283 28. Thrashers - 12,848 29. Coyotes - 10,716 30. NY Islanders - 10,111

The Preds played in front of 8,000 fans last night in Phoenix, so no surprise to see the Coyotes at the bottom. I am surprised, though, that the NHL seems intent on keeping that team in Phoenix.

Tampa Bay seems to be having a huge surge this year with Yzerman coming in and turning around the franchise.

Nashville is having another strong year in fan support. Predators are up into the 90% now in terms of filling the arena, which is a smaller one compared to other NHL rinks.

When I lived in Georgia, I went to a few Thrashers games, and they were just totally dead compared to what I've experienced with the Predators.

[DrJones]

Quote: Originally Posted by wEEman33

According to ESPN: http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance By percentage: By average attendance: The Preds played in front of 8,000 fans last night in Phoenix, so no surprise to see the Coyotes at the bottom. I am surprised, though, that the NHL seems intent on keeping that team in Phoenix. Tampa Bay seems to be having a huge surge this year with Yzerman coming in and turning around the franchise. Nashville is having another strong year in fan support. Predators are up into the 90% now in terms of filling the arena, which is a smaller one compared to other NHL rinks. When I lived in Georgia, I went to a few Thrashers games, and they were just totally dead compared to what I've experienced with the Predators.

The attendance numbers for most of these markets are worse than they seem because the ticket prices tend to be much lower than in traditional locales. Except for New Jersey, which has ridiculously high prices.

Canadians in particular pay absurd prices. My favourite example, which I previously mentioned in another thread, is this.

2009/10 Edmonton Oilers (finished 30th overall): sold out every game, total attendance 691K in 41 regular season games.

2009/10 Chicago Blackhawks (finished 3rd overall): sold out every game, total attendance 854K in 41 regular season games.

Which team made more money on regular season ticket revenues? Edmonton did, despite drawing 160,000 fewer fans than Chicago, because of much higher ticket prices.

[Money99]

Quote: Originally Posted by DrJones

The attendance numbers for most of these markets are worse than they seem because the ticket prices tend to be much lower than in traditional locales. Except for New Jersey, which has ridiculously high prices. Canadians in particular pay absurd prices. My favourite example, which I previously mentioned in another thread, is this. 2009/10 Edmonton Oilers (finished 30th overall): sold out every game, total attendance 691K in 41 regular season games. 2009/10 Chicago Blackhawks (finished 3rd overall): sold out every game, total attendance 854K in 41 regular season games. Which team made more money on regular season ticket revenues? Edmonton did, despite drawing 160,000 fewer fans than Chicago, because of much higher ticket prices.

Not only that, but those numbers also include tickets given away for free.
I've heard that Coytoes give anywhere between 3000-5000 tickets a night. So even if those people don't show up, it goes in the books as tickets consumed.

The funniest thing I've heard in a long time was when Bobby Ryan recently commented that they need to get a quick goal to take the "crowd out of the game" early. Hahaha!
Of course, the Coyotes spanked the Ducks that night, 6-2. But still, that was a pretty funny comment.

What would really help these teams is if more traditional teams came to town a little more often.
I have a hard time believing that the Coyotes attendance wouldn't be a lot stronger if you saw Philly, Pitt, Boston, Montreal or Toronto coming in every other night.
Sure, the travel would stink, but maybe that's where the beauty of a shorter season comes in.
If they only played 70 games, those extra days could be used for travel downtime allowing teams from the east to visit the west more.
I love my Wings, but I have to say it gets boring watching teams like the Wild, Coyotes and Predators on a nightly basis.
I miss the days when every game seemed to be played against an old-school hockey market.

[slickdtc]

It hurts me when a competitive team isn't even drawing fans. I can give the Thrashers a pass because they've been mostly garbage since their inception a decade+ ago, but the Devils, Stars, Coyotes, Ducks, and Avs not drawing anyone despite success this year or last year just angers and saddens me.

They need to get these teams out of these markets. Not all of them, because not every market is going to sell out game in and game out, but ones that have struggled, even with a successful team in place, need to go. Then again, it's the NHL's money, if they don't want to get as much as they can, that's on them.

[Money99]

Quote: Originally Posted by slickdtc

It hurts me when a competitive team isn't even drawing fans. I can give the Thrashers a pass because they've been mostly garbage since their inception a decade+ ago, but the Devils, Stars, Coyotes, Ducks, and Avs not drawing anyone despite success this year or last year just angers and saddens me. They need to get these teams out of these markets. Not all of them, because not every market is going to sell out game in and game out, but ones that have struggled, even with a successful team in place, need to go. Then again, it's the NHL's money, if they don't want to get as much as they can, that's on them.

Stars and Avs really surprised me too.
Maybe Denver really is a bandwagon hockey town. They've only had one bad year and since then they're attendance has dropped.
And it's not like they don't have stars or aren't exciting. Matt Duschene is one of the best, and most exciting, young players in the league.
I'd soil myself if the Wings had a young star like him.

[jyoung]

I think Atlanta and Phoenix are in the worst shape right now.

I've been to Atlanta games, and that arena is a ghost town. One of the games I went to against Carolina couldn't have had more than 2,000 - 3,000 people there.

Remember, these attendance numbers are just in terms of seats sold, not number of people actually showing up when the puck drops.

[Money99]

Quote: Originally Posted by wEEman33

I think Atlanta and Phoenix are in the worst shape right now. I've been to Atlanta games, and that arena is a ghost town. One of the games I went to against Carolina couldn't have had more than 2,000 - 3,000 people there. Remember, these attendance numbers are just in terms of seats sold, not number of people actually showing up when the puck drops.

A friend of mine took in a Thrashers game sometime last year and he said the same thing.
At some point the NHL needs to step in. It's embarrassing to a league when you see more fans at a Junior B game in Flin Flon than in an NHL building.

[DrJones]

Quote: Originally Posted by Money99

I have a hard time believing that the Coyotes attendance wouldn't be a lot stronger if you saw Philly, Pitt, Boston, Montreal or Toronto coming in every other night. Sure, the travel would stink, but maybe that's where the beauty of a shorter season comes in. If they only played 70 games, those extra days could be used for travel downtime allowing teams from the east to visit the west more. I love my Wings, but I have to say it gets boring watching teams like the Wild, Coyotes and Predators on a nightly basis. I miss the days when every game seemed to be played against an old-school hockey market.

The number of games is never going to decrease; there's no way the potential gains in weak markets would be offset by 5-6 fewer home games for Toronto, Montreal, Philly, etc. I do want a more balanced schedule, however. I consider there to be only 9 marquee teams in the league (Original Six plus Philly, Pittsburgh, and Washington), and only 2 are from the West.

Assuming the number of teams/divisions stay the same, I'd break the schedule down as follows (using my Canucks as an example):

22 games vs Northwest opponents (4-5 games each)
30 games vs Central/Pacific opponents (3 games each)
30 games vs East opponents (2 games each)

In case someone's concerned about playing some division teams more often than others (or not having an equal number of home and away games against every opponent), the same thing happens every year in both MLB and the NBA, and I've never heard a complaint.