10.15.2007

Early Attendance Figures

I have been hearing a lot of concern on the Team 1260 over the attendance records of some NHL teams this year. So I thought that I would take a look at the attendance through the league and found some interesting things. But, before we get to the points here is the break down ranked according to average attendance. (Note: I did not calculate the percentage of Los Angles or Anaheim because of the games played in London)

Rank

Team

Games

Total

Average

Percentage

1

Montreal

1

21,273

21,273

100.0

2

Philadelphia

1

19,714

19,714

100.1

3

Toronto

5

96,913

19,382

103.1

4

Calgary

2

38,578

19,289

112.4

5

St. Louis

2

38,300

19,150

91.2

6

Tampa Bay

3

57,214

19,071

96.5

7

Ottawa

4

75,721

18,930

102.3

8

Buffalo

3

56,070

18,690

100.0

9

Vancouver

3

55,890

18,630

101.1

10

Minnesota

3

55,704

18,568

102.8

11

Carolina

2

36,496

18,248

97.4

12

New York Rangers

3

54,600

18,200

100.0

13

San Jose

1

17,496

17,496

100.0

14

Los Angeles

4

69,948

17,487

-

15

Anaheim

2

34,585

17,292

-

16

Dallas

3

51,793

17,264

93.2

17

Detroit

4

68,848

17,212

85.8

18

Pittsburgh

2

34,138

17,069

100.7

19

Edmonton

3

50,517

16,839

100.0

20

Washington

1

16,741

16,741

89.7

21

Colorado

3

49,516

16,505

91.7

22

New York Islanders

3

47,763

15,921

97.7

23

Atlanta

3

47,064

15,688

84.6

24

Florida

3

45,898

15,299

79.5

25

Columbus

2

29,796

14,898

82.1

26

Phoenix

3

43,974

14,658

83.8

27

Nashville

4

54,749

13,687

80.0

28

Chicago

3

40,758

13,586

66.3

29

Boston

0

0

0

0

29

New Jersey

0

0

0

0

Being a couple games into the season I thought that I would do a preliminary report of the home attendance record of the teams in the NHL. Let’s look at a few key points from the chart that I have complied thanks to ESPN and Sportsnet:

  1. The Oilers are off to a great start and really I expect them to sell out each of their home games this year. However, it really shows that we might need a new building because we are selling Rexall out and still are ranked 19th in the league. Too bad none of the mayoral candidates want the new arena

  1. A couple teams have surprisingly low attendance currently.

    1. Detroit being one of them. I guess hockey is struggling in hockey town. Most sports writers chalk this up to a declining economy, however, when you look that the Michigan State Wolverines sell an average of 110124 tickets at an average of 58 dollars. That means there is more than enough money to go around. I think the real reason is fans are sick of losing in the first round and that the lockout really hurt hockey in established markets in the United States. All you have to do is look to the attendance before the lockout and Detroit was #2 right behind Montreal.

    1. Colorado being another. At one point Colorado had a near 11 year and 487 game sell out streak. Now this year they are only selling 91.7% of their tickets. Again I would say this is due to the lockout and fans waning interest in the United States towards the NHL.

  1. That three of the top four teams in the league attendancewise are Canadian teams. As well as, Canadian teams have sold out each home game and that half of the teams with a 100% attendance rate are Canadian teams.

  1. I would have to assume that some of the American team’s attendance figures will start to drop soon as the home opener seems to draw better than the later games. However, that could work the opposite way if a team is in a playoff race.

  1. Had the Balsillie sale of the Nashville Predators gone through we would have a 7th Canadian team next year as there attendance is below 14,000 and I do not see how it will ever get above that mark.

With those points being raised I would not be disappointed to see a team located to Canada, where it seems a sure thing it would do well. I just hope that the NHL soon realizes that its bread and butter is Canada and stops attempting the relocated to places that are almost certain to fail. Just look, 5 of the bottom 6 teams to have played a home game are from the “recent” expansions or relocations.

4 comments:

Backhand said...

Wow, really putting the blog up on your shoulders. Nice post again. About the Oil: don't they have the 2nd oldest building in the NHL behind Pittsburgh who is about to get a new one? Lease on Rexall runs out in 7 years, by then we should have a new one.

Jon G said...

You would definitely hope so, but that might not be the case with no one to finance it and city council making it a dead issue in the campaigns

Backhand said...

With that whole Katz fiasco and him willing to pay a large part of the new arena the EIG were forced to step up as well. I believe during the press conference where they officially turned Katz's offer down they made a similar if not better commitment to it then Katz did.

I feel pretty confident it will get down, there may be some bitching and complaining similar to Pittsburgh's scenario but the city knows how important this team is.

Anonymous said...

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