Yesterday I read A Look at NHL's October Attendance on Fanhouse. What it essentially said was that average NHL attendance is down this season almost league wide. While looking at the stats they posted I noticed three teams had not change in their attendance per game. The meaning behind this lack of movement is simple. They sell out every single game, no questions asked. What did all of these teams have in common? They all play in Canada.
So I decided to take a little deeper dive into the attendance stats and seperate them by regions. The regions are very generic but I think they get the job done. What you gather from the numbers is that hockeys relocation and expansion was completely baffling if not entirely moronic. [Click to expand]
The South's best attendance is Dallas at 17. Five of the Six worst NHL attendance spots are located in the South*. The lone team who breaks the South's crap shutout is the Islanders who play in the NHL's worst arena, as said by Gary Bettman himself, play in a relatively small market#, and they've been atrocious for as long as I can remember. Meanwhile the lowest ranked Canadian team is Edmonton at 18. Edmonton has sold out their arena every game the past three years, they simply have a smaller arena than other teams. They do not lack support.
When you move to loss of attendance this year it again shifts the South way. The South overall is experiencing a 15% attendance decrease this year. Canada is experiencing a 0.5 % decrease and this is sparked on mostly because Ottawa has gone from good to not so good.
Gary it's time to move some hockey teams back to where they belong and that is not in Florida, Georgia or Phoenix it's to a place where people actually give a shit about hockey, Canada.
*I grouped Phoenix in the South instead of the West.
#No one likes the Islanders other than people on Long Island and no one goes to their games other than fans.
So I decided to take a little deeper dive into the attendance stats and seperate them by regions. The regions are very generic but I think they get the job done. What you gather from the numbers is that hockeys relocation and expansion was completely baffling if not entirely moronic. [Click to expand]
The South's best attendance is Dallas at 17. Five of the Six worst NHL attendance spots are located in the South*. The lone team who breaks the South's crap shutout is the Islanders who play in the NHL's worst arena, as said by Gary Bettman himself, play in a relatively small market#, and they've been atrocious for as long as I can remember. Meanwhile the lowest ranked Canadian team is Edmonton at 18. Edmonton has sold out their arena every game the past three years, they simply have a smaller arena than other teams. They do not lack support.
When you move to loss of attendance this year it again shifts the South way. The South overall is experiencing a 15% attendance decrease this year. Canada is experiencing a 0.5 % decrease and this is sparked on mostly because Ottawa has gone from good to not so good.
Gary it's time to move some hockey teams back to where they belong and that is not in Florida, Georgia or Phoenix it's to a place where people actually give a shit about hockey, Canada.
*I grouped Phoenix in the South instead of the West.
#No one likes the Islanders other than people on Long Island and no one goes to their games other than fans.
Comments
And NHL has been successful in the South (Tampa Bay - 03/04 Stanley Cup Champs, Carolina - 05/06 Champs, Anaheim - 06/07 Stanley Cup Champs)