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It's beginning to seem that after-lockout attendance is telling us that many fans would prefer there to be less hockey,... less hockey and they'll attend a greater % of the games. Perhaps 82-game Seasons really are too much hockey saturation.
Disagree. Personal standpoint, I live 20 minutes from Jobing.com now instead of 1 hour and 30 minutes from it. I attend more games because it's convenient for me compared to before.
In St. Louis so far besides home opener(20,000+), the attendance has been way down. Against the wild I believe there was 16,500-17,000, against Nashville this Tuesday there was only about 15,000 there and tonight against Detroit (usually is always a sell out) there was only about 17,500. I think there were about 250 STH that got rid of their seats due to the lock out and they lost two sponsors as well. Scottrade Center holds 19,150 to.
So yeah the lock out has definitely affected the Blues. Can't really blame the fans for not going after the way the NHL has treated the fans the past decade.
What happened to all the claims that attendance would suffer?
During the lockout, the popular opinion was that NHL attendance would suffer drastically as angry fans would stay away in droves, refusing to support the actions of an evil League and/or players.
Yet as of the ~10 game mark of the season:
17 teams are at 100% capacity.
6 more teams are above 95%.
2 more teams are above 90%.
Only 4 teams are below 90%: Colorado, Phoenix, Columbus and the Islanders.
League attendance (just like after the last lockout) has increased as a whole. As a personal anecdote, the 'Canes have experienced a huge increase in popularity and the enthusiasm is fairly high.
During the lockout, the popular opinion was that the Canadian teams would be fine, but the sunbelt teams would suffer (for reasons I didn't understand). Yet Carolina, Florida, San Jose, Dallas, Tampa Bay, Nashville and Anaheim all have had success at the gates.
Why was this opinion so very, very wrong?
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Last edited by Highway to Cap Hell: 02-08-2013 at 10:48 AM.
Wishful thinking. Some people were angry and bitter towards the NHL and wanted the league to be "punished" for the lockout.
Nobody who was paying attention during the 2004 lockout should be surprised. Work-stoppages in hockey just create pent up demand, which leads to massive ticket sales and high TV ratings when the game returns.
The Rangers are at 100% capacity. Their capacity for this year is 17,200. ESPN has them at 17,200 every game, but since they still think the capacity is 18,200, they don't have them listed at 100%.
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It's beginning to seem that after-lockout attendance is telling us that many fans would prefer there to be less hockey,... less hockey and they'll attend a greater % of the games. Perhaps 82-game Seasons really are too much hockey saturation.
100% spot-on. The absolute best thing this league could do to increase revenue would be to reduce the schedule. The NHL has the longest season out of all the major North American pro sports. Paradoxically, shorter season = more revenue.
#1 revenue league (NFL) - 5 months.
#2 revenue league (MLB) - 7 months.
#3 revenue league (NBA) - 7.5 months.
#4 revenue league (NHL) - 8 months.
The Rangers are at 100% capacity. Their capacity for this year is 17,200. ESPN has them at 17,200 every game, but since they still think the capacity is 18,200, they don't have them listed at 100%.
Yeah ESPN needs to update NYR and Winnipeg capacity. I don't get why they still use the Manitoba Moose capacity for the Jets, even though it has been 1.5 years since the MTS Center was updated for the Jets.
Also Florida attendance is bogus. I thought that Phoenix and Detroit attendance was inflated, but Florida is just brutal. During the home opener, they announced over 19,000, yet over half of the seats were empty. Panthers real turnstile count must be worse than Coyotes. (which I don't understand considering Tampa Bay arena is actually filled completely every game)
Last edited by DJ Omnimaga: 02-08-2013 at 04:12 PM.
Also Florida attendance is bogus. I thought that Phoenix and Detroit attendance was inflated, but Florida is just brutal. During the home opener, they announced over 19,000, yet over half of the seats were empty. Panthers real turnstile count must be worse than Coyotes. (which I don't understand considering Tampa Bay arena is actually filled completely every game)
The arena defiantly looks half empty in the photos below!!
Yeah ESPN needs to update NYR and Winnipeg capacity. I don't get why they still use the Manitoba Moose capacity for the Jets, even though it has been 1.5 years since the MTS Center was updated for the Jets.
Also Florida attendance is bogus. I thought that Phoenix and Detroit attendance was inflated, but Florida is just brutal. During the home opener, they announced over 19,000, yet over half of the seats were empty. Panthers real turnstile count must be worse than Coyotes. (which I don't understand considering Tampa Bay arena is actually filled completely every game)
As has been pointed out in many threads, the panthers new 'red zone' and 'club red' create the impression of a mostly empty arena when it's not. Basically, there is a club behind a block of the lower bowl seats behind the benches, right in camera view. Ticket holders of those seats spend most of the game inside the club, but they are there and the seats are paid for.
That might possibly explain it. WHen I watch highlights, those sections are what I see the most. Behind the nets there are sometimes lots of empty seats as well even during sellouts, but we don't get to see the upper bowl.
It sucks if a sellout happens and lots of seats are empty, because if a fan wanted to go to see his favorite team and couldn't get tickets due to a sellout, only to see empty seats everywhere on TV, this must be kinda frustrating.
And in the case where a team attendance is greatly inflated, the tickets are sold, but the fans that are not attending don't spend money on food and items at the game, so there is still some revenues lost.
As has been pointed out in many threads, the panthers new 'red zone' and 'club red' create the impression of a mostly empty arena when it's not. Basically, there is a club behind a block of the lower bowl seats behind the benches, right in camera view. Ticket holders of those seats spend most of the game inside the club, but they are there and the seats are paid for.
In MSG, a few sections on the penalty box side of the rink are the outside of suites. Those sections look like actual sections, but they are blocked off from everyone else and have a staircase that leads to their own private boxes. Technically, those aren't considered seats (as in not included in the 17,200).
Of course gate $ would be ideal and objective, but watching games and judging the audience you see on TV is the definition of subjective. You could watch a florida sellout and conclude that there were 10,000 people there based on their current setup. Same goes for a number of other markets where camera positions focus on prime seats that are sold but not attended. To the NHL, and any reasonable BoH commenter, empty seats mean nothing, it's paid seats that matter, and there's no way you can figure that out by simply watching the game.
So how do you explain break in game shots that show upper decks with basically nobody in them? Do they have a poor person club level too?
On top of that you can talk to people who travel and go to get last minute tickets. When you can get awesome seats for twenty bucks you know the market is a joke.
Remember when some folks were prognosticating the impeding doom of the NHL thanks to the lockout and how fans wouldn't come back?
Whatever happened to those people?
I was merely open to the possibility attendance could suffer, as opposed to those who were adamant nothing would happen.
I was hoping enough fans would realize flooding back immediately might very well encourage the NHL to continue this ridiculous behavior.
Mind you its still early, and attendance figures are very sketchy. We should also bear in mind that teams league wide have made concessions in order to encourage the fans to return. Some are practically paying the fans to come back and attend games.
