"Last Night's Attendance" Thread II

[MLH]

7,515 in NJ, but we had snow and ice all around. CAA is a pain in the ass even with good weather.

Weather conditions or not, that's pretty sad for a team as good as NJ.

 

[nomorekids]

Weather conditions or not, that's pretty sad for a team as good as NJ.

I live in NJ, and I can vouch...we had not a snowstorm, but an ice storm. The highways were mostly drivable...but most of the town roads were ice rinks. Not a night to be driving, at all.

 

[RaiderDoug]

almost 14K on a wednesday valentines day...a snowy one at that...is a lot better than I expected. Not great, obviously, but this was one of the ones we figured was going to be dreadful...in the 11-12 K range.

A year ago, this game would have been about 10-11k.

As an aside, how in the heck are people getting all of these "free" tickets that the Predators are supposedly always giving out. Who are they and how are they getting them?

Am I the only one who has paid for every game I've been to this year?

 

[Marv4Life]

Weather conditions or not, that's pretty sad for a team as good as NJ.

You try venturing out through an ice storm on already atrocious road conditions to one of the most inaccessible locations in all of pro sports, dealing with the torment of the New Jersey Sports Authority employees and a Pejorative Slured project making parking at the arena more of a hassle then it already is.

 

[Greschner4]

almost 14K on a wednesday valentines day...a snowy one at that...is a lot better than I expected. Not great, obviously, but this was one of the ones we figured was going to be dreadful...in the 11-12 K range.

It didn't even look like that many watching it on TV. The mid-level (I'm assuming they are club seats) were merely dotted with people.

Rationalize all you want, but this level of attendance for this good a team is simply awful.

 

[Greschner4]

It was snowing (flurries) from the time I walked out of the HOP till the time I just got home (I stayed late for the post-game show in the Jack Daniel's Club).

Regardless, snow was not a factor in tonight's attendance, but I'm sure the cold kept some of the walkup fans away (still not an excuse).

As NMK said, it was a better crowd than I had actually expected and I thought the crowd was very loud all night long and was really behind the team 100%.

For Valentine's Day and a Wednesday night (big church night here in the Bible Belt) drawing just under 14K isn't that bad. Honestly, I doubt 1,500 tickets were given away tonight either, but there is no way to tell...

Very happy with the Nashville crowd tonight and kudos to those in NJ and Pittsburgh that battled the winter weather to get to their games tonight as well.

This is a business comment only, not a cultural one, but if Wednesday attendance suffers noticeably because of church, that market's going to have a tough time with the NHL.

How do the Titans sell out, church being on Sunday and all?

 

[Greschner4]

I live in NJ, and I can vouch...we had not a snowstorm, but an ice storm. The highways were mostly drivable...but most of the town roads were ice rinks. Not a night to be driving, at all.

The weather here (NYC) was horrific last night; I'm surprised even that many ventured out to the swamp.

 

[jamiebez]

As an aside, how in the heck are people getting all of these "free" tickets that the Predators are supposedly always giving out. Who are they and how are they getting them?

Am I the only one who has paid for every game I've been to this year?

My hypothesis is that they're giving them to prospective business clients in an attempt to sell more club seats. Many teams also give tickets to charities as a tax writeoff.

So, unless the place you work, or some other company you do business with for is targeted by their marketing staff, you're stuck paying for them like the rest of us suckers

 

[jamiebez]

Not to pile on about the weather thing, but we had an all-day snowstorm in Ottawa yesterday AND it was Valentine's Day AND they were playing a lousy team/terrible road draw (sorry, Panthers fans), and the game was still a sell-out.

Playing devil's advocate, though, the Senators have been discounting unsold tickets for quite a few games this year, and this was one of them. They were offering tickets to members of their mailing list at significant discounts (something close to half-price, IIRC).

 

[MLH]

You try venturing out through an ice storm on already atrocious road conditions

I live in Buffalo. That describes about five straight months. There's five feet of snow outside my house, but Buffalo will sell out and fill the arena tonight.

All of the excuses thrown around in this thread are exactly that.

 

[Greschner4]

Not to pile on about the weather thing, but we had an all-day snowstorm in Ottawa yesterday AND it was Valentine's Day AND they were playing a lousy team/terrible road draw (sorry, Panthers fans), and the game was still a sell-out.

Playing devil's advocate, though, the Senators have been discounting unsold tickets for quite a few games this year, and this was one of them. They were offering tickets to members of their mailing list at significant discounts (something close to half-price, If I recall correctly).

Passion, commitment, and the sport's embedded in the culture. Contrary to some of the nonsense we see here that gets fans out even when there's snow, Valentine's Day, and church.

You'd see the same in Winnipeg and Quebec if they still had their teams, which they should.

 

[Hawker14]

New Jersey is a difficult market to understand.

It doesn't function like the rest of the NHL. Most teams having trouble with attendance generally have good to great attendance on weekends, and poor to very poor on weekdays.

However, the Devils at times sell out on weekdays, and at times draw horribly. Same with weekends, sometimes they sell out, and at other times draw very poorly. They go against the grain of other markets whose attendance levels are less than the league average.

Same when they're hosting the Rangers, they usually sellout as most would expect, but at times draw thousands less than capacity.

I won't get into the debate about whether weather (hehe, nice grammar i know) impacts fans actually showing up since my point doesn't concern it.

The 7k figure is the total tickets distributed, not necessarily fans in the building. A figure this low, similar to the Blues when they had 5k earlier this season, shows just how weak season ticket/mini-pack/and single game advance sales are. Needing 11,000 in game day walk up attendance to reach capacity is the crucial issue facing the Devils, similarly the Blues.

A market like NYC can buy 11,000 gameday tickets very easily, but if it doesn't, the Devils are at their mercy. New Jersey is in a tough situation as they need to increase their season ticket level - although i believe this is an issue facing them their entire history.

 

[MayDay]

I live in NJ, and I can vouch...we had not a snowstorm, but an ice storm. The highways were mostly drivable...but most of the town roads were ice rinks. Not a night to be driving, at all.

Meh. As someone who lives in the NYC metro now, I can tell you that this "storm" was really nothing compared to what is common is many other northern NHL cities.

Back in October, Buffalo had a vicious ice storm far worse than this one, that knocked trees down all over the region, blocked roads, and knocked out power for most residents for a week or more. It got an emergency designation and funds from the federal government.

But little things like lack of power, icy roads, and downed trees didn't stop Buffalonians from packing HSBC for the Sabres game.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=261014002

The game was played despite the region still recovering from a crippling snow storm that began late Thursday night. Nearly 350,000 households were still without power in Buffalo and its surrounding suburbs.

The power outage, however, didn't seem to affect the sellout crowd, as there were few no-shows.

"You see the number of people show up ... kudos to them," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "That was a big lift for our team."

 

[Fugu]

I live in Buffalo. That describes about five straight months. There's five feet of snow outside my house, but Buffalo will sell out and fill the arena tonight.

All of the excuses thrown around in this thread are exactly that.

Classic. Although you have to give credit to the hockey fans that the Preds do have here. They're a pretty devoted lot.

 

[Nashville108*]

This is a business comment only, not a cultural one, but if Wednesday attendance suffers noticeably because of church, that market's going to have a tough time with the NHL.

How do the Titans sell out, church being on Sunday and all?

because football is almost religion here. the titans would put 100k in the stadium if it was that big, Uof Tennessee does it everyweekend. Like 104,000 a game. Even against teams like Air Force and Marshall.

 

[AdmiralPred]

I live in Buffalo. That describes about five straight months. There's five feet of snow outside my house, but Buffalo will sell out and fill the arena tonight.

All of the excuses thrown around in this thread are exactly that.

However, being from Wisconsin and having traveled extensively throughout KY, TN, and Southern Indiana, the folks in the states I've traveled to are far less equipt to handle the conditions when these rare winter weather events strike, compared to Wisconsin. I am sure Buffalo and Eastern WI are not far apart in thier preparedness for winter condiditons - so I understand where you are coming from. To add, being from WI, and being a hockey fan, I am less inclined to travel in weather such as we had this week to go to a game.

 

[RaiderDoug]

This is a business comment only, not a cultural one, but if Wednesday attendance suffers noticeably because of church, that market's going to have a tough time with the NHL.

How do the Titans sell out, church being on Sunday and all?

FWIW, you can usually get to LP field for a Titans game after going to church.

You cant do that on a Wednesday night, as the services usually take place about 6:30-7:30, and it a heck of alot harder to get into Nashville at rush hour than on Sunday afternoon/morning.

I went to church last night. Luckily, Hockey is my religion, so I was was at the GEC.

 

[RaiderDoug]

However, being from Wisconsin and having traveled extensively throughout KY, TN, and Southern Indiana, the folks in the states I've traveled to are far less equipt to handle the conditions when these rare winter weather events strike, compared to Wisconsin. I am sure Buffalo and Eastern WI are not far apart in thier preparedness for winter condiditons - so I understand where you are coming from. To add, being from WI, and being a hockey fan, I am less inclined to travel in weather such as we had this week to go to a game.

Nashville got about 2-3" of snow about 2 weeks ago.

It would have been easier on people here if a volcano sprung up in downtown Nashville.

 

[SomeDude]

I live in NJ, and I can vouch...we had not a snowstorm, but an ice storm. The highways were mostly drivable...but most of the town roads were ice rinks. Not a night to be driving, at all.

Same can be said for Pittsburgh, but we still had 17,000+ last night...against Chicago, too.

That's in no means a knock on NJ, I'm just pointing it out to all the idiots who say Pens can't sell tickets.

 

[Marv4Life]

I live in Buffalo. That describes about five straight months. There's five feet of snow outside my house, but Buffalo will sell out and fill the arena tonight.

All of the excuses thrown around in this thread are exactly that.

Try reading the rest of my post and respond back. Ummmkay?

And the last time I checked, besides the Bills(on Sundays), what else do you got in Buffalo? Unless the team sucks, you're bound to draw well. Here, we gotta compete with 2 hockey teams, 2 NBA teams, 2 NFL teams, and 2 MLB teams, not including College B'ball and football.

 

[tricksta189*]

Hopefully New Jerseys attendance will improve once the new arena is opened. Average of 13,721 when your team is as good as theirs isn't very good.

 

[Foy]

Same can be said for Pittsburgh, but we still had 17,000+ last night...against Chicago, too.

That's in no means a knock on NJ, I'm just pointing it out to all the idiots who say Pens can't sell tickets.

Exactly, they can only sell tickets when the league gives them Sidney Crosby. EVERY team in the league is equipped to sell as well as the team is playing. That's what it comes down to.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

I live in Buffalo. That describes about five straight months. There's five feet of snow outside my house, but Buffalo will sell out and fill the arena tonight.

All of the excuses thrown around in this thread are exactly that.

Yeah, you live in Buffalo. A city that's used to getting frequent snow/ice events, and is therefore prepared to deal with them.

Yet surprisingly, you're able to make derisive comments about cities that aren't as able to deal with snow events. Why?

Golly, if Buffalo can deal with the weather, then so should any city!

 

[MLH]

Try reading the rest of my post and respond back. Ummmkay?

The rest was a bunch of excuses. The swamp isn't responsible for the paltry TV ratings in NJ. I've gone to a game in CAA once and managed to get there. The conditions probably kept some away, but attendance would have been poor either way.

And the last time I checked, besides the Bills(on Sundays), what else do you got in Buffalo? Unless the team sucks, you're bound to draw well. Here, we gotta compete with 2 hockey teams, 2 NBA teams, 2 NFL teams, and 2 MLB teams, not including College B'ball and football.

Good point. We just sit around shoveling snow and preparing for heinous ice storms until it's time for the Sabres game. And what's the combined metro population that you and your competitors are drawing from? 20 million+? And as been so eloquently stated, NJ has some of the richest people in the US. You guys have 9 major sports teams in the region, we only have two, Of course, it's an area that's 10 times the size and better off economically, but..

 

[MLH]

Yeah, you live in Buffalo. A city that's used to getting frequent snow/ice events, and is therefore prepared to deal with them.

Yet surprisingly, you're able to make derisive comments about cities that aren't as able to deal with snow events. Why?

Golly, if Buffalo can deal with the weather, then so should any city!

Will the weather be the problem when playoff games aren't sold out in May? NJ fans have a laundry list of pathetic excuses.