Friday, February 2, 2007

Who's watching?

Yesterday the NHL announced record attendance numbers for the month of July.

If you look at some attendance numbers from Tuesday night, it's still pretty alarming:
- Detroit @ NY Islanders -12,322
- New Jersey @ Atlanta-12,162
- Florida @ Pittsburgh -15, 405 (Pittsburgh can't even sellout, can you imagine??)
- Nashville @ Colorado -17,119 (I thought the Avs sold out every game)
- Minnesota @ St. Louis -10,445 (And there wasn't a storm to kill the attendance this time)

One has to wonder if the numbers put out are even somewhat inflated. If you watch the games on TV, it doesn't look like anyone is there. However, attendance isn't the amount of people that come through the gates, rather it's the amount of tickets distributed. The expensive seats are the ones you see on TV that look empty. The real fans don't sit there because they won't pay for it. So, even when those seats show up as empty on TV, it's the upper levels that are full. The tickets distributed, even for free, are usually for the upper levels. They go to charities, schools, and whomever else and can fill the upper levels. They don't hurt the income of the teams, they just boost the attendance numbers.

Press releases like that insult the fan's intelligence and press releases don't fill seats. Look, NASCAR attendance keeps rising, they don't put out press releases about it. The NFL doesn't send out press releases about attendance, NOBODY DOES!!! ESPECIALLY FOR ONE MONTH'S ATTENDANCE!!! What is this, a field hockey league that is trying to wave its pom poms and show that people are actually watching. How about TV attendance? How about international attendance? Let's see those figures again...I mean come on. Not one person could possibly see this news and think, "Wow, the NHL is filling seats."

The TV ratings are still very alarming and that requires the focus. Let's not concentrate on some Ra-Ra nonsense for the NHL to pat themselves on the back for a month's worth of attendance.
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As a self-deprecating Ranger fan of twenty years, the team I've loved for so long is not making any progress quickly. Stuck with a lost coach, an MIA GM, and an egomaniac owner who knows less about hockey than Gary Bettman, it appears as though it will be another 41 years until we win another Stanley Cup. So, what are the short term options? To save the the Penguins and move them to the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn! The Penguins are poised to be the next dynasty in sports yet are potentially doomed to be moved to a hillbilly market that will further destroy the image and decrease the popularity of the already floundering NHL. What better for a league in thick turmoil than to move its marquee franchise to the #1 sports market in North America. Think about the profits that could be reaped with Sidney Crosby playing in the #1 media market? With all of Mario Lemieux's concerns in buidling a new arena, he should turn to Brooklyn-the new Nets arena, the Frank Gehry designed Barclays Center will be ready for business in three seasons when the Penguins biggest starts will only be still in their early 20s!Imagine the country's most promising franchise and one of hockey's most exciting teams ever playing in New York City in the most state of the art building in the country. The possibilities are endless.