Before we get too far into this, I feel the need to make a few things clear. I do not blame the fans of these team or cities for staying away from their NHL clubs. First I blame the NHL itself for placing teams in these cities, and then the individual team management for running the teams so poorly. With that said:
Yesterday we took a look at a list by Forbes, detailing the cities with the best NHL fans; today we are going to look at the flip said of that coin. According to Forbes these are the cities with the worst fans. Before we get to that let us take a look at how Forbes came to these conclusions:
“To rank the NHL's worst fans we looked at three fan engagement measures from the 2008-2009 season: home game attendance, local television ratings and merchandise sales. Teams whose fans had the lowest average regular season attendance as a percentage of their arena capacity, fewest local television viewers as a percentage of the team's metro area population, and spent the least on team merchandise were considered the worst. Note: The NHL shared merchandise ranks on the condition that teams outside the top 10 sales ranking remained confidential.”
So here is a look at the cities with the worst NHL teams:
1. Nashville Predators- Their Attendance rank is 23rd, and their TV audience is 22nd. Things are so bad that the old bit of them not having an average attendance of 14,000 for the current season will allow the new owners to break their lease and relocate.
2. Tampa Bay Lightning- This team seems to be in free fall. Last year was the worst point total since the 2000-01 season, and that comes on the heels of several bad years in a row. From the 2007-08 season to the 2008-09 season the Bolts lost 90,000 fans, and the current season isn’t fairing much better
3. Phoenix Coyotes- They has the distinction of being Wayne Gretzky’s only hockey failure. This team has never made money due to poor management and bad leases. After all the summer drama it appears the club is set to be sold again, but one has to wonder if hockey in the desert is ever going to work
4. Atlanta Thrashers- They had they second lowest attendance last year, and the second lowest TV audience. On top of the fact that this city has already lost one NHL franchise.
5. Florida Panthers- The second worst attendance, the worst TV audience. Despite having their second best record last year, they have not made the playoffs since the lockout. Their fans appear unwilling to settle for mediocrity
So what do all these cities have in common? First they are all south of the Mason Dixon line, they do not have a winter season, and for three of the five they have large populations of people who have moved from other locales bringing with them their sports allegiances.
These fans are not fans of their home teams, but fans of other teams, and apparently only take in a game when their original team is in town. That is not enough of a fan base for any of these teams to survive financially.
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Comments
Even though you add your disclaimer at the beginning, you should have changed your headline too because it sounds like you are blaming the fans.
Hockey has worked in Phoenix and will continue to do so. Please look at attendance and win/loss records from 1996 - 2003.
BTW, the Ottawa Senators went bankrupt *twice* (you did know that they were part of the original NHL, right? In 1912? They went bankrupt in 1931 right around the great depression and again in 2003) and between 1992 - 2003 no one went to see their games and they were making the playoffs. But they were a great hockey market? Those Canadians didn't support their team so the NHL *should* have yanked that franchise out of that market too. Luckily, they got a buyer and they went to the Cup Finals in 2007.
Lets not forget Buffalo and Pittsburgh either. They were broke and no one showed up to games. Why? The teams lost games. Thanks to Crosby and winning, fans came back. Same thing with Buffalo.
All Northern C
PB- win loss records and attedance have nothing to do with profit in this case. When the Coyotes moved to Phoenix they played in the American West arena, and since that building was not built for hockey, they had to discount almsot 25% of their seats becasue they ended up being obstructed view. They made no profit, even when they were good. Given the state of their current lease, they cannot make money period.
No way has Nashville ever had the worst fans. Their all-time attendance percentage is 89.8% and in less than 500 home games they have had over 7,000,000 in attendance. Only three seasons have they been under 14,000 per average per-game and never under 12,000. In their short history teams like the Blackhawks, Devils, Hurricanes, Stars, Bruins, Sabres, Caps and Penguins to name a few have had lower attendance numbers than the Preds have ever had. What the Pred had was horrible media coverage and an owner that ran off almost all corporate support and many season ticket holders.
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