Avs’ Nick Holden and Panthers’ Brad Boyes (J. Pat Carter, Associated Press)
SUNRISE, Fla. — I know the rules. I haven’t been away from day-to-day NHL coverage that long before recently being assigned to the Avalanche beat for the rest of the season. And I’ve covered the league for many years in two previous stints.
I’m supposed to tee it up and take cheap shots at the fan bases — and use words like “non-existent” and “alleged” — in Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill and South Florida, where the Avalanche has played its last two games. Or to ascribe it to such things as “Bettman’s Folly.”
The facts:
— The announced crowd in Raleigh for the Avalanche’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Hurricanes Tuesday was 12,965. Carolina’s home average of 12,456 is 29th, or next-to-last, in the NHL.
— The announced crowd in Sunrise for the Avalanche’s 4-2 victory over the Panthers Thursday was 9,584. Florida’s home average of 10,250 is 30th.
I’m going to take a wild guess that these folks, pictured in the BT&T Center, drew better than the Avs-Panthers
…and these folks, too.
But keep in mind that the Avalanche’s home average of 15,837, while appreciably better than those for both those teams, is only 23rd in the league. And the same reasons I’ve heard for the drop in Avalanche attendance since the 11-year sellout streak apply to at least some extent for both those franchises.
One of the funny things about this to me always has been when outsiders belittle the lack of attendance in certain markets, then say of the less-than-sellout crowds in their own markets: Well, there are good reasons for that …
Some of the issues:
— On-ice performance. Yes, we all remember — don’t we? — when the Panthers advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996, Scott Mellanby’s attack on a rat in the Miami Arena begat a toss-rats-on-the-ice fad, and the NHL was hot in South Florida … at least for a time? That was before the Panthers moved to the new arena well north of downtown Miami, closer to Fort Lauderdale. And the Hurricanes also were a major draw when they were successful, including two visits to the NHL Finals and a Stanley Cup in 2006. They play in what amounts to the Silicon Valley of the east coast, and a vibrant fan base embraced the Hurricanes — no, not turning it into Toronto overnight, but showing that the Hurricanes could draw.
— Ticket prices. The Denver experience has provided additional evidence for the fact that the high price of tickets — despite the many “deals” — and other issues have greatly downsized the safety net. When fortunes ebb (in more ways than one), fans pick and choose. There’s a lag effect — the Panthers are greatly improved, as the Avs were last season without a huge effect at the box office — and fans don’t return immediately. (Absolutely, I know the Panthers haven’t drawn well in recent years, period, but they still fight the same impediments.)
— Home games on television … and in HD!
All of this adds up to that I’m amazed than NHL and NBA attendances have held up as well as they have. The NBA has so much more television money, empty seats in such places as Atlanta (and, yes, to an extent in Denver), aren’t that big of a deal. But for both sports, there are so many excuses not to go, not to make the major investment in tickets. And those excuses apply darned near everywhere.
Just remember, though, the NHL rule: When teams in traditional hockey markets bottom out and don’t draw (as was the case in Boston and Chicago not so long ago and Detroit a while back), or even in Calgary and Edmonton in the Avalanche’s early years in the league, it’s because, ahem, they are discerning consumers who won’t patronize bad products. When teams in “non-traditional” hockey markets bottom out and don’t draw, it’s because they’re not hockey towns.
I’ve also found over the years that many of the folks belittling the small crowds in certain markets either have a media pass around their necks and would be aghast if asked to drop $600 for a group of four to attend a game, park, eat and drink; or are fans opining without actually having been to a game themselves — anywhere — in two years. It’s easy to tell other people how they should spend their discretionary dollars.
The NHL’s biggest attendance problem is that not all 30 teams can win, and it can’t be only in markets where the box office doesn’t suffer — both immediately and in the lag effects — if the teams don’t win. And that falloff has happened in places where folks now want to pretend there haven’t been empty seats since World War II.
Five years ago, in the 2009-10 season, Carolina was 23rd in NHL attendance, averaging 15,240. Florida was 25th, at 15,146. And Colorado was 27th, at 13,947.
Now, sure, the tiny crowds in Sunrise are troubling in the sense that even with revenue sharing and a generally financially healthy league, I don’t see how it can continue. It’s so easy to say … move ’em to Quebec City. Or Las Vegas. Or Kansas City. Or Seattle. Or wherever. And that might eventually happen.
But if you don’t think it could happen in Denver …
Think again.
It actually did, once. I realize times have changed, but when the Rockies were in Denver from 1976-82, when fans screamed about a raise in price in the top ticket to $14 (the equivalent of about $40 today), and when the team topped out at 22 wins and made the playoffs once in six seasons (and made it with a 19-40-21 record), the refrain was that was something wrong with Denver for not supporting the NHL, despite ownership and management issues.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
