For the past decade plus, the New Jersey Devils have had a great team, but lousy attendance. Hell, the club even held a Stanley Cup 'parade' in a frickin' parking lot.
The excuse we were given for their low attendance was that the arena was out in the middle of nowhere/swampland and was hard to get to. I was willing to accept that reasoning, since I figured the fans I did see in attendance looked rather hardcore, and a large majority of them seem to be wearing Devils sweaters. I've never been to New Jersey, so I won't go all Barry Melrose and claim New Jersey to be some barren wasteland of factories and crime.
The cure to these attendance woes was supposed to be the minty-fresh Prudential Center, the fancy new arena with the custom-made urinals. (oooohhh!) Hockey pundits were eager to see if a shiny new house would finally get the Devils fans packing the arena.
The Devils fans have been slow to embrace the new building. The announced average attendance in the first 20 home games has been 15,447, more than 2,000 less than the 17,625-seat capacity. If there was a true head count, the attendance figures would be far less on a nightly basis, however
Yes, I realize that attendance is up over 1,000/game compared to the previous two seasons, but that could easily be a temporary spike due to curious fans who went to see the new digs once or twice.
So, I ask the Devils fans around here, is New Jersey just a softer market that is pretty much peaked at 15,000/game? The Devils have a new building and a competitive team, so what's the deal?
The Atlanta Thrashers are another one of those oft-panned hockey markets that gets little respect north of the border. As the Thrashers constantly finish in the bottom third of NHL attendance, and play in a market knowing for having trouble selling out sporting events, it would seem that the Thrashers are fighting a very hard battle to win the hearts and minds of their city. We all remember how the city already had a NHL franchise (the Flames) and failed once.
The hardest thing for any such franchise to do is to introduce kids to a game they are unfamiliar with. The more you experience a sport as a kid, the more likely you are to have interest as an adult. Kids in Atlanta know baseball and football, but hockey?
In the last dozen years three rinks have gone up north of the city, bringing the total in the Atlanta area to four. The Marietta Ice Center is the oldest of the bunch.
Yan Kaminsky, a former NHL player with the Winnipeg Jets and New York Islanders and now the hockey director at the Ice Forums in Duluth and Kennesaw, said involvement at the youth level nearly has tripled since the Thrashers' inception.
"We probably have 800-900 members that are youth hockey players, and that's just for our program between the two rinks. There are probably about 2,500-3,000 members of youth hockey programs overall," Kaminsky said. "In the south, those are pretty good numbers."
It's important to realize that Atlanta is a huge sports market, with over four million citizens in the region. Since the NHL decided to throw its hat into such virgin markets, it's important that we allow these markets to grow and develop like a tender Bonsai tree. It's an uphill battle, but the NHL is making small steps in the right direction.
Now, I have no personal disdain against Washington DC, other than I know it's a place full of greedy politicians, slimy lobbyists, and immoral lawyers.
Still, the topic of weak attendance in Washington comes up often. The past few years have been especially bad for the Capitals, and they've long been perceived as not being the strongest draw in the league. When it comes to the topic of relocating franchises, Washington is one name that comes up quite often. Many fans just don't think Washington deserves to have their team.
Caps fans will argue that the team sucks (it does) and has for awhile, and it's not worth big bucks to watch a team full of mostly AHL-calibre players. Others will argue that the Caps have one of the best young stars in the league (they do), an exciting young roster, and a very receptive owner. Why shouldn't the fans in Washington support their team?
Once upon a time, the Colorado Avalanche used to sell out every game, and Avs fans spared no expense in telling you just how awesome their team was. After being gift-wrapped an awesome team from Quebec, Denver residents quickly jumped on the Avalanche bandwagon, and the team sold out 487 straight games (the equivalent of about *twelve* seasons). It was quite annoying to hear this stat rubbed in our faces time and time again.
Well, these days, the Avs aren't on top of the hockey world, and tickets to their games are easier to come by than news on Amy Winehouse's last liquor choice.
Dennis Obduskey of Bailey has six season tickets for Avalanche games, including two $130 seats. A week ago, for a Sunday night game against St. Louis, he used only two. He unwillingly let $362 worth of tickets go to waste. "Last season I didn't use a couple thousand dollars' worth of tickets," Obduskey said. "Couldn't give them away."
Couldn't give them away? Who turns down free hockey tickets? Throw a pair of free Canucks tickets into the busiest intersection of downtown Vancouver, and about 100 people will risk their lives and leap in front of rush-hour traffic for those ducats.
Mike Chambers of The Denver Post offers his theories as to why the Avs can't sell out, but some of them don't really wash with me.
Post-lockout "fence mending" with fans that continues to this day. What 'fence mending' doth thou speakest? Most NHL fans are well over the lockout, and are more interested in the latest Chris Simon' thuggery than NHLPA/NHL negotiations from a few years back. If you are a hockey fan, chances are that a simple lockout didn't exactly turn you off of NHL hockey for good. Hockey is back, the games are played ... it's that simple.
The NHL, having an inferiority complex rivaled by only the average reader of OK! Magazine, constantly feels the need to trumpet any little business milestone as if the rest of us have a stake in how much money the NHL owners rake in. Are fans supposed to be happy if the NHL takes in more revenues?
The National Hockey League posted record attendance for the month of November, attracting 3,367,547 fans to 199 games for a per-game average of 16,922. The per-game figure eclipsed the previous November high of 16,818 set during the League's successful re-launch season in 2005 and was 2.3% ahead of last season's 16,538.
Ah, selective statistics, anyone? Notice how the NHL doesn't say that this was PAID attendance? Notice how the NHL didn't tell you that this wasn't the best November TOTAL they've ever had? No mention of low TV ratings, or revenues earned, etc ...
Over at The Globe and Mail, our pal James Mirtle crunches the numbers like a Christmas walnut, and the data shows that the overall average for this season is actually down 162 seats per game. Basically, for all intents and purposes, attendance is pretty much flat, and there's no real reason for any celebration or panic.
The real 'positive' that could be gleaned from the data is that Chicago, New Jersey, and New York (Long Island) have gained attendance. The NHL definitely needs three of their biggest markets to put more butts in the seats.
While Count Gary Bettman von Spankypants will always trumpet the fact that the NHL's finances and revenues are as healthy and vibrant as a drug-free marathon runner, the proof, as your grandmother would say, is in the power pudding.
Early in the season, we can see some really interesting trends in NHL attendance, with some major Tiger Woods-like swings in some markets, as fans either jump on or jump off their team's bandwagon.
Much has already been made about the Red Wings massive drop in attendance, despite the fact that the team is still very good. "Hockeytown"? Not any longer. Detroit, however, is not the only club that is bleeding attendance.
Thanks to Sports Business Daily, we get a nice, capsulized look, at the attendance figures and trends for the NHL's Western Conference clubs.
When the Red Wings decided to label Detroit as "Hockeytown", they had the championships and packed houses to back it up. As much as Canadian hockey fans gnashed their teeth, few could touch the fervor and succeess of the Red Wings club and their fans.
All good things, however, must come to an end, and it appears that Detroit's label may no longer apply to their franchise.
Yes, the Red Wings failed to *gasp* sell out their season opening game against the Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks. Obviously, the failure to sell out such a game must raise some red flags.
But there's also a much less North American appearance to this team, especially after Steve Yzerman's retirement a year ago and Brendan Shanahan's exodus to Broadway. The Wings still boast more than their share of world-class skill, with Lidstrom and young cornerstones Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. But this has become a Euro-dominated team, and it's quite possible the lack of prominent Canadian or American stars may have had an adverse effect.
"I do think that Steve's retirement after being here for so long and being the face of hockey here might have chased some people away," Lidstrom added.
The Red Wings are too European? Hmm, this didn't seem to hurt them when they had the Russian Five, did it? Fedorov, Konstantinov, Kozlov, Larionov, and Fetisov were all embraced by the Wings faithful for bringing them a load of wins.
Well, this can be explained by the real reason why Wings fans are fed up with the team.
Jacking up ticket prices to insane levels. How can the Wings expect to fill the place if they jack up ticket prices in the face of a struggling Detroit economy? There are many other entertainment options in Detroit, and the Wings priced themselves out of many blue-collar budgets.
The Wings are fan un-friendly. The Wings act like the old miser who won't give away his money to the needy. There is little community involvement, little marketing of the players, and a lack of access to people in the organization. How can the Wings declare themselves Hockeytown when they make little effort to promote the sport in the community? The Vancouver Canucks, for example, got involved through their charity (and telethon) and many other charity/community events. The team makes its players available for community efforts that do not involve hockey, and this builds goodwill for the club.
Boredom? Look at the Atlanta Braves, and how they struggled to fill their stadium. Wings fans have been used to a level of success, and the failure to win a cup may have turned off a few spoiled fans. Just like in Colorado, the fans demand more out of their team, and won't settle for merely winning the division.
In the end, the Wings have nobody to blame but themselves for their failure to sell out important games. The team took their fans for granted, and now they will suffer for it. It is not enough to simply put out a winning team, as fans demand more out of their relationship with the club than they used to. If the Wings want to win back the fans, they need to start reaching out to their core fanbase a lot more often.
It appears that the Detroit Red Wings aren't the only successful NHL club having problems filling their home domes to capacity during playoffs games.
One of the NHLs more swept-under-the-rug black marks is the fact that the New Jersey Devils, thrice Stanley Cup champions in the past decade+, can't sell out their home games on a regular basis.
Kind of like the Atlanta Braves of hockey, right? How can a team that is so successful not sell out playoff home games? Remember, this was the team that held a Stanley Cup 'parade' in a freakin' parking lot.
The Devils played their first three home playoff games before a total of nearly 6,300 empty seats, but goaltender Martin Brodeur could have sworn Continental Arena was packed to the rafters.
"I think the towels made it," Brodeur said with a smile Tuesday, referring to the white towels given to fans to spin over their heads in the playoffs. "It fills up the empty seats."
Bad location in the middle of a swamp? High ticket prices? Cruddy arena? I've heard those excuses before, and it just doesn't wash. The population of the area is quite high, and yet they can't fill one little arena for an NHL playoff tilt? While the Devils have been a prime example of how to achieve success on the ice, they certainly don't pack the stands. The Devils finished 26th(!) in league attendance this year with an average of 14,176 per game. The year before? They were also 26th!
I guess it's not too shocking, then, that the Devils can't sell out their playoff games. There doesn't seem to be a very good casual fan base in the area, as most of the fans who do attend seem to be of the hardcore variety.
The Atlanta Thrashers are another one of those oft-panned hockey markets that gets little respect north of the border. As the Thrashers constantly finish in the bottom third of NHL attendance, and play in a market knowing for having trouble selling out sporting events, it would seem that the Thrashers are fighting a very hard battle to win the hearts and minds of their city. We all remember how the city already had a NHL franchise (the Flames) and failed once. 
Once upon a time, the Colorado Avalanche used to sell out every game, and Avs fans spared no expense in telling you just how awesome their team was. After being gift-wrapped an awesome team from Quebec, Denver residents quickly jumped on the Avalanche bandwagon, and the team sold out 487 straight games (the equivalent of about *twelve* seasons). It was quite annoying to hear this stat rubbed in our faces time and time again.
While Count Gary Bettman von Spankypants will always trumpet the fact that the NHL's finances and revenues are as healthy and vibrant as a drug-free marathon runner, the proof, as your grandmother would say, is in the 
When the Red Wings decided to label Detroit as "Hockeytown", they had the championships and packed houses to back it up. As much as Canadian hockey fans gnashed their teeth, few could touch the fervor and succeess of the Red Wings club and their fans.
It appears that the 
