Friday, October 06, 2017

Attendance Watch: 2017-18

For those that crunch the numbers on the NHL, beyond the salary caps, a free agency calculations, the bottom line for many NHL teams comes from one simple thing, bottoms in the seats.

And this year like the last few of the past, there are some locations that are giving indications that hockey just isn't winning the battle for hearts, minds and wallets.

With Las Vegas now aboard the NHL Club of member franchises and two more potential expansion franchises yet to be awarded, locations such as Quebec City, Seattle and Kansas City among others now look to get on the short list for that expansion, though they may also have an interest in going the relocation route should that option present itself.

At some time this season, someone is going to look at the listings of the NHL's trouble spots and
go, "how long can the league let this go on".


When they do, somebody somewhere will have a ready to go market up for consideration.

Once again this year, we will track the teams that some suggest are on the bubble, secure leadership or not, financially flush as they may say they are, no one likes to lose money, so we'll scan the attendance numbers through the year, looking for those bargain basement teams that could be looking for a relocation plan.

As we have in the past, we shall use attendance at the 13,000 mark as our cut off for review.  Only those games that have drawn less than 13,000 or less in attendance will be listed below.

We also will list which team was in town as the visiting squad for the night, perhaps offering an explanation as to the night's recorded attendance.

The review can be accessed from our GM's office links on the right hand sidebar.

Attendance Figures as of November 7, 2017

Bottom Feeders (our three dim star selection)

The three teams with the lowest attendance, teams the most times below the 13,000 benchmark.


1.  New York Islanders (6)
2.  Carolina Hurricanes (5)
3.  Florida Panthers (4)



The Breakdown by Franchise location

Arizona Coyotes (3)

November 4 -- 12,019 (Carolina) (Event Summary)
November 2 -- 11,477 (Buffalo) (Event Summary)
October 18 -- 11,225 (Dallas) (Event Summary)


Carolina Hurricanes (4)

November 7 -- 8,828 (Florida) (Event Summary)
October 29 -- 10,108 (Anaheim) (Event Summary)
October 27 -- 10,069 (St. Louis) (Event Summary)
October 24 --10, 498 (Tampa Bay) (Event Summary)
October 10 -- 7,892 (Columbus) (Event Summary)


Colorado Avalanche (2)

November 2 -- 12,048 (Carolina) (Event Summary)
October 24 -- 12,823 (Dallas) (Event Summary)


Florida Panthers (4)

November 2 -- 9,311 (Columbus) (Event Summary)
October 30 -- 9,493 (Tampa Bay) (Event Summary)
October 26 -- 10,545 (Anaheim) (Event Summary)
October 12 -- 10,846 (St. Louis) (Event Summary)

New Jersey Devils (1)

November 7 -- 12,317 (St. Louis) (Event Summary)


New York Islanders (6)

November 7 -- 12,281 (Edmonton) (Event Summary)
November 5 -- 10,927 (Colorado) (Event Summary)
October 30 -- 11,113 (Las Vegas) (Event Summary)
October 24 -- 9,795 (Arizona) (Event Summary)
October 21 -- 11,877 (San Jose) (Event Summary)
October 9 -- 10,673  (St. Louis) (Event Summary)


No comments: