Yeah, that's something I don't even try to bring up when it comes to Hurricanes attendance trends. Here in the Triangle we have 1) Duke, the defending national champion 2) UNC, the national champion before them and 2-time winner in 5 years 3) NC State, a smaller but still respectable program 4) Wake Forest, also smaller but has its own niche. Tickets to any of those games are half as expensive a good Hurricanes ticket. It is theoretically possible for all 4 of them to play the same night as the Canes. And they all have football teams of varying magnitudes as well.
Really, the newer teams simply can't afford to have poor value in that kind of marketplace.
Yeah, I don't think people can really understand unless they've lived in ACC,SEC, BIG10 or BIGXII country.
But to really take things full circle, in Columbus fans are not partial to players by nationality
Its more by personality. I think the most popular Blue Jackets player for a number of years was Jody Shelley. Fedorov was popular. Nash is too. An American, Umberger is probably 2nd to Nash today, but more because of his lunch pail work ethics.
Ad far as teams go, fans are most interested in the Wings, Blackhawks and Pens, but after that the most popular are the Habs Flyers, Rangers and Leafs. The western teams and southeastern teams- Flames,Oilers, Coyotes, Wild, Kings and Ducks draw the least interest.
At least in my hometown, nationalism doesn't do ****.
Nash is