[Canuck]

I have been looking through the attendance numbers for most of the games played this season for every team and I have noticed that a few american citys are having troubles putting people in the seats.

As usual all the Canadian teams are selling out almost every game. But some of the teams that suprised me this year that have high attendance are Anaheim, San Jose, St. Louis, and NY Islanders. Anaheim and San Jose are consistently bringing more than 15,000 people to thier games all year.Its great to see considering these teams are located in California and you wouldent think California would be a very hockey interested kind of state. St. Louis who was having tons of troubles last year getting over 12,000 have been consistently bringing around 18 - 19,000 people to thier home games. And the Islanders are finally bringing more than 15,000 people to thier games compared to last year were they rarely would have more than 14,000 people at each game.

Some of the disapointing attendance numbers are in cities like Chicago, Phoenix, Columbus, Nashville, Atlanta, Washington, and Florida. Chicago has come to the point where they are barely getting over 10,000 people to the game. I really love Chicago and now that they got 2 incredible young talents on the team, hopefully they can attract fans because chicago used to be one of the loudest arenas to play in. Phoenix is having trouble with attendance but who can really blame them with the location of the team and the team isnt that great. Columbus suprisingly hasnt been attracting much attendance at all to many of thier games and have stayed under 12,000 in thier last 2 games. Nashville has been staying around the 12,000 area night in night out right now and needs to start attracting some people. Atlanta isnt doing all that bad they just need to keep consistently bring in more than 15,000 people. Washington and Florida on some nights have tons of people in the arena and other nights barely over 10,000.

The other teams like Boston, Carolina, Detroit, Colorado, Los Angeles, and Dallas are all staying steady with thier attendance numbers bringing in well over 15,000 people a game.

Teams doing really well in attendance numbers are the 6 Canadian teams, Buffalo, Philly, Pittsburgh, NY Rangers, Carolina, and Minnesota.
I know it isnt really fair to judge all the teams the way I did because it is barely into the season and some teams have only played a few games at home (in New Jerseys case none) but will any of these teams see a rise in attendance?

I was just wondering everyones opinion on why you think some teams are doing so poorly in attendance numbers and other teams are doing so great in attendance numbers. Do you think any of these numbers will improve.

[WingsFTW]

i find it weird that california has high attendance rates. i live in southern california im the only one out of all of my friends that has watched a hockey game within the last 4 years....

[nossagog]

You may have to compare numbers for teams at the same time last season. Some us markets are traditionally slower at the beginning of the season. Professional and college football tend to eat into the dollars that sports fans can spend so attendence starts out slow. The slow teams that you mentioned(Nashville,Florida,Washington and pheonix) are traditionally bad draws, and not really surprising. It will be interesting when the Devils get into their new digs on the 27th. They usually don't draw well, but with a new arena, I'm sure that their attendance numbers will be up this year.

[Maple Leaf]

I guess I'll break it down for each team

Chicago- They've been out of the picture for so long that not everyone comes anymore. They're pretty good this year, look for attendance to slowly improve through the year. A playoff appearance would be a huge help.

Phoenix- Hey, the're in the middle of the desert, and the team hasn't really done anything great.

Columbus- The team is fairly new, and they're just starting to be competitive

Success in LA- Well, the cup was just there, which explains Anaheim's numbers.



Just wondering, where do you get all these stats?

[Canuck]

Originally Posted by Maple Leaf

Just wondering, where do you get all these stats?

I go to NHL.COM and you click on the scores. Once you get to the scores page you click Game Summary for whatever game you want and it it will show you all the games stats and at the top of the page it tells you how many people were in attendance.

For Columbus I thought last year they were consecutively getting more than 15,000 people to a game, this year it seems like nobody is showing up at all to watch them

[Rids]

Originally Posted by Maple Leaf

Columbus- The team is fairly new, and they're just starting to be competitive

This is the seventh year of the Blue Jackets. If you don't have a ticket base by 7 years it's a very bad sign. Doesn't help them that they've had fairly poor teams over that time and that the Ohio State football team has been fairly strong during the same time.

[Habs4Life]

One thing to note, St Louis may have huge attendance, but I remember seing somewhere how they are doing a promotion that basically give tickets away, so that may influence a little bit. Anyways, im not surprised there's all these problem, what do you expect when there are teams where hockey isnt even the main sport

[Back Of The Net]

Attendance is actually up compared to last year at this point. That is impressive because, Detroit is not at there usual 20,000 mark, they are at 17,000+ and Colorado is still below there usual, both good markets. Chicago can help really boost if they keep it up, cause their arena holds 22,000. Not that they will get that, but 17-18 thousand is not out of the norm.


And to the original poster..Nassau Coliseum only holds 16,234 people. If the Isles can average about 15,000 this year that will be close to 95% capacity which is pretty good.

Here are the numbers
ESPN - NHL Attendance Leaders - National Hockey League

[subby13]

Originally Posted by Rids

This is the seventh year of the Blue Jackets. If you don't have a ticket base by 7 years it's a very bad sign. Doesn't help them that they've had fairly poor teams over that time and that the Ohio State football team has been fairly strong during the same time.

I'm too lazy to go looking for links, but I seem to recall that the Jackets were selling tickets like crazy for their first few year, selling out on a regular basis.

I don't think the problem is that they're new, or that they're a poor market... the problem is that after 7 years they're still delivering expansion-team results. Loyal fans will sometimes weather a drought, but new fans can only take so much punishment before they walk away.

[Canuck]

Originally Posted by Back Of The Net

And to the original poster..Nassau Coliseum only holds 16,234 people. If the Isles can average about 15,000 this year that will be close to 95% capacity which is pretty good.

I didnt know the Nassau Coliseum only held that many people. Now that you mention that the Islanders are getting alot better attendance to thier games than I thought they were, + they are winning games this year. Hopefully the Isles can get more than 15,000 people to most of thier home games this year.