4.15.2008

2008 NHL Attendance Figures

Well I thought that it would be time to do a follow up to a previous blog on attendance figures so as to compare and contrast the results. So let’s get on with it.

Rank

Team

Games

Total

Average

Percentage

1

Montreal

41

872,193

21,273

100.0

2

Buffalo

41

817,956

19,950

109.4

3

Ottawa

41

812,665

19,821

107.1

4

Philadelphia

41

801,797

19,556

100.3

5

Toronto

41

796,803

19,434

103.4

6

Calgary

41

790,849

19,289

112.4

7

Detroit

41

775,394

18,912

94.2

8

Tampa Bay

41

766,412

18,692

94.6

9

Vancouver

41

763,830

18,630

101.1

10

Minnesota

41

761,288

18,568

102.8

11

NY Rangers

41

746,200

18,200

100.0

12

Dallas

41

739,585

18,038

97.3

13

St. Louis

41

722,021

17,610

83.9

14

San Jose

41

713,863

17,411

99.5

15

Anaheim

41

704,932

17,193

102.6

16

Pittsburg

41

700,137

17,076

100.7

17

Colorado

41

690,552

16,842

93.5

18

Edmonton

41

689,949

16,828

98.4

19

Chicago

41

689,377

16,814

82.0

20

Carolina

41

681,962

16,633

88.8

21

Los Angeles

41

680,877

16,606

92.0

22

Atlanta

41

648,811

15,824

85.3

23

New Jersey

41

638,144

15,564

88.3

24

Washington

41

634,381

15,472

82.9

25

Florida

41

632,881

15,436

80.2

26

Boston

41

630,750

15,384

82.6

27

Nashville

41

611,328

14,910

87.1

28

Columbus

41

607,757

14,823

81.7

29

Phoenix

41

607,638

14,820

84.7

30

NY Islanders

41

559,247

13,640

83.7

So when we look at the statistics a couple of items jump out at me.

  1. The numbers on espn.com must be a little off because the Oilers have played over 100 consecutive sell-outs which means that they obviously played to 100% capacity rather than 98.4%, as well to further prove that the numbers must be a little out that the Flames played to 12% over capacity seems like it must be off.

  1. To reiterate the point the Oilers need a new arena because when you sell out your current one each and every game and you end up 18th in league average there needs to be a change


    1. Detroit rebounded nicely from 17th 5 games into the season to 7th overall.

    1. Colorado however did not rebound as greatly and ended roughly where they began in 17th place

  1. That all 6 of the Canadian teams played to sellout crowds each and every game of the year. As well, half of the teams with a 100% attendance rate were Canadian teams.

  1. Nashville fans actually decided to show up down the stretch run and pushed their overall attendance above 14,000 so even if Balsillie had been able to complete the purchase, he would not have been able to move the team to Hamilton.

  1. The easiest way for fans in western Canada to see Alexander Ovechkin would be to fly to Washington D.C. and buy one of the available tickets.

  1. When you look at the bottom 10 teams in the league what jumps out? How about that 6 of them are expansion teams or relocations. Which makes up about ½ of the expansion or relocation teams since the early 90s

Well you now know what I think does anything stand out to you?

8 comments:

Jonathan Willis said...

What's up with Tampa Bay? I mean, this team has been a disaster since the '04 Championship team, and they're on their 500th goalie, and finished dead last in the league. On top of that they're an expansion team in a non-traditional market. It just seems odd.

Backhand said...

Tampa has been mickey mouse since inception, from bad uniform/name to craptacular team to crazy owner comparing Lecavelier to MJ before he even played a pro game.

What helps them is a ton (I mean ton) of money in the area and a huge 21,000 seat arena.

I could only imagine a 21,000 seat arena.....

On a side note I was reading (long ago and don't want to start looking for a reference) that the Downtown arena in Edmonton would only have like 18,000 seats. I was a bit miffed as I believe this team could use a TBay like rink. Not to mention population growth over the life span of the arena.

Backhand said...

To Add:

NHL set an attendance record with 21 million. Thats over 17,000 per team, Edmonton is below the avg!

Article

GregO said...

Nice blog boys. Keep it up.

Regarding seeing AO from Western Canada, it was extremely easy to fly down to Florida at the end of March to see games in Tampa and Sunrise.

While standing in line at will-call, the number of complimentary tickets being handed out was beyond belief. I had already secured tickets, but from the conversations I was hearing a great number of the people in this line were getting in for free.

Jon G said...

That might be why Tampa finished 8th in the league, buying the tickets themselves and then giving them away at the door

slipper said...

I don't buy some of those numbers, ecspecially with regards to the sunbelt teams.

3 games after the Devils opened their new rink it looked like only half the lower bowl was filled.

How would they fudge these numbers, corporate tickets?

Jon G said...

Well there would be some corporate tickets that we just never used, the same way the some Oil companies give away Oiler tickets and then no one shows up. Or the team owner might be buying some of the left over tickets and just giving them away or just buying them to make it seem like more people are going then really are.

Rory said...

I think Detroits numbers are a little off for sure, every time I watched a game on TV or saw highlights there was a sea of empty red seats, no one can afford tickets there right now. Even in the playoffs I am seeing empty seats, it's like watching the Stanley Cup finals in Carolina, except it's sad because Detroit is probably the best hockey city in the US.