I posted the following tweats today and thought I would post them here for anyone that didn’t catch them in their timeline or are Tweeters.
Through yesterday’s games compared to like games last year #NHLAttendance is up 5% #whatlockout
Only 3 teams have lower attendance this year: Leafs -1%, Rangers -5% and Blues -8% TOR & NYR reduced capacity & sold out every game
3 teams have 20% increase or more in 2013. Stars 94%, Devils 22% & surprise…Coyotes 23% Lots of room to improve over last year.
Next biggest increases YoY Attendance, Kings 19%, Panthers 16% & Hurricanes 15%
Columbus Bluejackets attendance is up 8% #NashWho
All Canadian teams continue to sell out every game. As does Bos, Buf, Chi, SJS, NYR, Pit, Was
The Nashville Predators & Tampa Bay Lightning have sold out every home game this year 3 for NAS, 6 for TBL
Bottom line is that NHL Attendance is up across the board. The St. Louis Blues are the only team that has a legitimate decrease year over year through their home games. Greate to see the Stars, Blue Jackets and Coyotes increase their attendance but they did have the biggest opportunity to improve. The Coyotes still hav ethe lowers average attendance in the league with 12,349 & Columbus is 3rd lowest with 14,047.
What is one of my posts with out graphs? Well I am glad you asked:
Tom Fulery
February 12, 2013 at 6:01 pm
Now that there’s stable and committed ownership in Big D, attendance is turning around, TV ratings are up, and the product on the ice is better (not yet great, but better and the future looks good).
Hopefully people can stop lumping them in with some of the “Hockey just doesn’t work in this or that market” talk. A Stanley Cup, two President’s Trophies, two conference championships and seven division championships (five of which have come despite the insane Pacific divisional placement they’ve been stuck with since 1998).
NHL hockey can work almost anywhere… and consequently can fail almost anywhere (see the Oilers and the Penguins in there recent pasts). What matters is good ownership, great management, and an intelligent arena deal, and just as important, arena location (see Glendale vs. the east valley in Phoenix).
Hopefully Seattle can get a team soon that aligns all of these factors. They did it with MLS amazingly well. No reason the NHL can’t follow suit.