Speculation: Colorado Avalanche popularity vs other sports in Denver

[Jokerit 16]

How big is an Avalanche in Denver? What a about they popularity vs other major sports?

Click to read more...

 

[MaKarter]

Usually 4th on the list, but the list fluctuates with how competitive the teams are.

1. Broncos, probably forever the most popular Colorado sports franchise.


2. Rockies, even though we are terrible and poorly ran, the fans keep coming to games and buying merch.
3. Nuggets, NBA is more popular than the NHL in Colorado. A lot of Nuggets fans just say another team is their favorite and Nuggets are their second favorite team.
4. Avalanche, great group of loyal fans that have supported the team since it moved to Denver and then a large group of fair-weather fans who come back around when the team is good.
5. Rapids and Mammoth- Soccer and lacrosse are big, growing, youth sports in Colorado.

Edit: Avs also have a large fanbase outside of Colorado. As seen on HF.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

How big is an Avalanche in Denver? What a about they popularity vs other major sports?

I hear they can get pretty big!



But like the poster above said it likely swings up and down based in team performance. 90% of sports franchises operate like this.


If your team is good, you'll have a packed barn every night, if your team is bad sales will struggle and interest will dive.


Only a select few franchises can do well even when the teams are awful, in hockey you're looking and Montreal, and Toronto really. New York and Boston to a lesser extent tend to do quite well regardless as well but even they see some popularity swings.


On the flip side some teams that are just not in good markets will also struggle even when they are a good team. Florida and Arizona are examples of that in the NHL.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Yeah the Broncos are Rockies are the clear leaders for popularity in Denver. The Nugs and Avs are tied I’d say. When I worked at the Pepsi center I always thought the Avs were the more consistently attended team but the Nugs would get more big name attendees. But overall the distance between those two is pretty minimal I’d say.

 

[S E P H]

Rockies are not as popular as Avs or Nuggets are. They get to play in the months where no sports are played, but that doesn't make them more popular than others. I rarely and I mean rarely ever overhear people talk about Rockies compared to the other three. Broncos are by far the most pop and I don't think there is a second place; people sports talk either involves praising the Broncos when they're good or constantly criticising them when they're bad. It's not like they float into irrelevance when the Rockies, Avs, or Nuggets are bad.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

I’ve been there twice. Both times the front line staff at stores/restaurants would always ask why I’m in town. I’d say to catch an Avalanche game and the general response is...

 

[tigervixxxen]

The Rockies have an older fan base which is what helps keep their popularity up.

Everyone knows who the Avs are in town but it’s prob going to take a Cup finals appearance for people to really get on the bandwagon. Nuggets starting to peak at the same time doesn’t help either.

And no, nothing will ever touch Broncos level popularity.

 

[Bonzai12]

The Rockies aren't popular......Coors Field is just the best bar in town

 

[5280]

The Rockies are like the latter year Chicago Cubs. Let’s go out and have a good time and get out of the house but also realize and not care that they’re are never going to win anything meaningful.

 

[MaKarter]

The Rockies aren't seen as popular because they are terribly ran and there seems to be no answer for how to pitch at 5280ft.

If the Rockies were contenders every year, or built up a solid core group through rebuild/drafting like the Nuggs and Avs have, then they would be far more popular in Colorado than hockey or basketball.

 

[John Mandalorian]

The Rockies are like the latter year Chicago Cubs. Let’s go out and have a good time and get out of the house but also realize and not care that they’re are never going to win anything meaningful.

They came close in 2007 and, if not for the 8 day wait for the WS to begin, it probably would have been a lot different. They were white hot before the layoff.

 

[John Mandalorian]

I’ve been there twice. Both times the front line staff at stores/restaurants would always ask why I’m in town. I’d say to catch an Avalanche game and the general response is...

Why are the front line staff wearing scrubs?

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Why are the front line staff wearing scrubs?

Can never have too much PPE in this crazy world fam.

 

[LostInMosEisley]

The Broncos are definitely number one and they have the most ability to retain popularity and interest through losing out of the four teams, but it's worth noting that one of the reasons the Broncos are so popular is because they haven't gone through long stretches of losing very often. They are now, having had three straight losing seasons, potentially halfway through a fourth, which is the franchises worst stretch since the 60's early 70's. Then Nuggets were an ABA franchise called "The Rockets" and the other teams didn't exist. This season started with hope and optimism among the fan base, which is not totally dead yet, but if Drew Lock doesn't pan out and they are back to searching for a QB, it would be a setback that could put a malaise of hopelessness over the fan base, one that the fan base has not experienced before. The Avs and Nuggets meanwhile are poised to be championship contenders over the next several seasons. I could see a scenario where if one or both of those teams win championships and the Broncos continue to struggle, that 2016 Super Bowl further and further in the rear view mirror, where the Broncos status at the most popular team in town would be threatened. Of course it would take such a scenario, dependent on the Broncos failing and other teams succeeding, but it's also a fairly plausible scenario at this point.

 

[UncleRisto]

I’ve been there twice. Both times the front line staff at stores/restaurants would always ask why I’m in town. I’d say to catch an Avalanche game and the general response is...

I'd wear my Broncos hat everywhere just to be safe.

 

[Hasbro]

The Rockies severely under utilize their fanbase. The city has only grown since they set every attendance record in the league and they have to have a party deck? If the team ever broke up the cronyism and contended a bit Coors would be packed again.

 

[Pokecheque]

The Rockies severely under utilize their fanbase. The city has only grown since they set every attendance record in the league and they have to have a party deck? If the team ever broke up the cronyism and contended a bit Coors would be packed again.

The party deck is one of the few smart things that organization has done in recent years. I took my old man there for a game for Father’s Day and we got seats near the party deck and I swear we were the only two people who weren’t shitfaced drunk on that entire side of the field.

 

[Pokecheque]

How big is an Avalanche in Denver? What a about they popularity vs other major sports?

It's Broncos #1 in terms of popularity and it's not even close. Even as horribly run as they are, the NFL and the Broncos rule the sports talk airwaves. They'd have to enter into a Detroit Lions-type of sustained irrelevancy before they did any real damage to their popularity. Even when they're bad, they're still the topic of conversation.

I'd say the Rockies are #2, mostly because of Coors Field and as TV says, they have an older fanbase that sticks around despite the utter clown show running the organization.

Nuggets are #3, but if they finally have put their horrid past behind them, at least for a time, they could easily be the #2 team in town.

So yeah, Avs are #4, and I don't think they'll ever be anything more than that--hockey is still a niche sport in Colorado, and for the most part, in all of the US. That said, it's wildly more popular than it was when I was growing up in post-Rockies Denver suburbs in the 80s and 90s. I played growing up and there was a decent youth association, but it wasn't a school-sanctioned sport, so if you wanted to really be successful you usually had to either head out of state or try and convince DU or CC to recruit you. It's changed now--there are legit state tournaments for high school championships, and of course DU is, or at least was, one of the premier collegiate hockey programs in the nation. IMO it was a pretty big deal when Jaccob Slavin made it to the Bigs and excelled. Before that the best CO natives to make it to the NHL was Drayson Bowman and the Shore brothers. I don't think, even with the change in culture, that we'll see it ever overtake the others, but it's nice to see hockey really take hold due in no small part to the Avalanche's influence.

 

[Bonzai12]

Just throwing this out there in a different light - when I’m walking around town and we’re talking merchandising, I see people wearing stuff in this order:

1 - Broncos
2 - Avs
3 - Rockies
4 - Nuggets

the Avs do really well with gear. I feel like people love the brand but just kind of starting to get back into the team. The Nuggets merchandising is horrible and the only time I see people wearing Nuggets stuff is when it’s the retro 80s shirts/hats. I wouldn’t be opposed at all to the Nuggets changing their name. It’s kind of a dud. For the Rockies I never see anyone wearing their stuff either. People like to go to the park but nobody likes to show they’re a fan apparently. I really only see Rockies stuff in the immediate Coors field area.

 

[Pokecheque]

Naw, the Nuggets name is a classic. There's nothing wrong with the name--but they keep screwing up the uniforms and merchandise because they're convinced that navy blue is a good color and it isn't. The Skyline jerseys are what the people want--I'm hoping, like the Milwaukee Brewers, they'll finally just give the f***ing fans what they want. The only other look that was even remotely close was the Melo-era powder blues. I loved those.

 

[LostInMosEisley]

Do people really think there won't be any attrition with the fan base if the Broncos keep floundering? And let's face it, with the ownership situation and the growing possibility they may still be at square 1 with the QB situation, it doesn't look very hopeful that things will turn around very soon. People say the Broncos will always be the most popular team as though interest in the team has been tested thoroughly before, which is not the case. The Broncos were a very well run team for decades and now, really for the first time of note, they are not. Last time they were this bad this city was just happy to have a professional sports team. Now they have decades of success establishing expectations that are not being met. The glow of the last Super Bowl championship which wasn't that long ago will keep wearing off.

 

[S E P H]

Do people really think there won't be any attrition with the fan base if the Broncos keep floundering? And let's face it, with the ownership situation and the growing possibility they may still be at square 1 with the QB situation, it doesn't look very hopeful that things will turn around very soon. People say the Broncos will always be the most popular team as though interest in the team has been tested thoroughly before, which is not the case. The Broncos were a very well run team for decades and now, really for the first time of note, they are not. Last time they were this bad this city was just happy to have a professional sports team. Now they have decades of success establishing expectations that are not being met. The glow of the last Super Bowl championship which wasn't that long ago will keep wearing off.

There's a difference between "attrition" as you put it and simply stop "caring" for sports. I debate that not caring about a sports team is always way worse than having passionate dislike for that said sports team. For a good decade, the people of Colorado including the sports programs of the state (IE; local media, sports radio, etc.) didn't acknowledge the Avs even existed when we were really bad - which also fell in the same time of the Nuggets poor years as well. Neither team got any good publicity except maybe the Nuggets to a small degree since NBA is more popular on the national spectrum. Both teams were launched into irrelevance for large portions of the 2010's, but Avs got more brunt of it due to coming out of the 2004 NHL lockout.

The Broncos will probably never suffer from the same fate because the local media have dedicated sport segments towards them; like 9News post-Broncos recap from 10:30 to whatever. You can probably turn on The Fan right now talking about how disgusting that loss was yesterday. As I said in my previous post, the Broncos will always be popular because people - the fans and sports writers - will keep talking how they surpassed expectations or how they failed to keep those expectations. It just isn't with them, it happens with sports around the globe that are popular in specific regions; like how everyone kept talking about the Leafs when Raptors won the NBA championship or how bad Arsenal and Man United have become when Leicester City won the EPL. I suggest it's dumb, I think wasting time on the Donkeys when you have two extremely good clubs in the Avs and Nuggets - even if one of those sports is TMZ-esque - is hilariously stupid, talking about the Leafs failures for another season when Leonard brought a championship is this stupid joke, but sports media and their editors dictate the content that gets created and they tend to be quite bias.

 

[tigervixxxen]

You’d have to get to a whole generation of people who didn’t grow up as fans of the team or with it as part of their culture. You’d have to have a decade of half filled attendance to get to the point where it’s not the most prevalent sport. The Broncos were our first sports franchise from 1960, it’s basically part of the city’s identity. The passion might go dormant, you might not see people outwardly wear the gear or talk about it but there’s just no question that Broncos are in the cultural fabric. What the hell have the Cowboys done in the last 25+ years and there’s a million options in Texas, it doesn’t matter.

 

[Hasbro]

You’d have to get to a whole generation of people who didn’t grow up as fans of the team or with it as part of their culture. You’d have to have a decade of half filled attendance to get to the point where it’s not the most prevalent sport. The Broncos were our first sports franchise from 1960, it’s basically part of the city’s identity. The passion might go dormant, you might not see people outwardly wear the gear or talk about it but there’s just no question that Broncos are in the cultural fabric. What the hell have the Cowboys done in the last 25+ years and there’s a million options in Texas, it doesn’t matter.

Or they’d have to be pretty outraged, which was the signal sent when no one showed up to that McDaniels game versus the Rams.

 

[LostInMosEisley]

I'm definitely going to be annoyed if the sports press is giving equal or greater coverage to a crappy Broncos teams off season moves in the midst of Avs or Nuggets runs to a potential championship. Yeah sports media can dictate what is the conversation but they are also playing to the market... the reason there's so much Bronco coverage is because people are tuning in to it.

I recall that when Kansas City had a rough stretch... at one point they went 2-14... there were a lot of empty seats at Arrowhead. And that's a smaller market with less sports competition. It's possible that will never happen with the Broncos, but frankly, it should. There's no virtue in devoting time and energy and money to a poorly run team.