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.

2. 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 18^th in league average there needs to be a change

3. 
   
1. Detroit rebounded nicely from 17^th 5 games into the season to 7^th overall.

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

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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?