NHL Attendance

[McDonald19]

That's not set in stone. There's an ownership group in LA that also wants to move that team to the new arena in Kansas City.

And its been said that if the Pond Management group reaches a certain # for their bid then it will be sold to them.

 

[Sotnos]

tampa bay has been in the bottom half of league attendance 4 of the last 5 years, and i'm sure it would be more if i could find the data.

First off, should a Chicago fan really be bringing up other teams' attendance records? Don't think so.

Second, Tampa's attendance has gone up in each of the past 5-6 years, which is more than most other teams can say. Most of the home games last spring were sellouts. I'm not getting into the whole history of the team (you contractionists aren't interested anyway), but there are some very obvious reasons why the attendance was terrible for a few years. Chicago fans should have some idea about what it's like to get screwed over by cheap ownership.

 

[missK]

Second, Tampa's attendance has gone up in each of the past 5-6 years, which is more than most other teams can say.

Here are the actual numbers:

6 year steady increase in attendance, with 6 year increase in points standings too

98-99 Avg attend 11,500 (rank unkn), record 19-54-9 = 47 pts (4th SE Conf)
99-00 Avg attend 13,600 (rank unkn), record 19-47-9-7 = 54 pts (4th SE Conf)
00-01 Avg attend 14,906 (25th), record 24-47-9-7 = 59 pts (5th SE Conf)
01-02 Avg attend 15,722 (20th), record 27-40-11-4 = 69 pts (3rd SE Conf)
02-03 Avg attend 16,545 (16th), record 36-25-16-5 = 93 pts (1st SE Conf)
03-04 Avg attend 17,820 (12th), record 46-22-8-6 = 106 pts (1st East Conf)

 

[rwilson99]

Yeah until they don't make the playoffs, then we'll see the real Tampa fans.

In 01-02 when Tampa was in the fourth consecutive year of 50 loss seasons they drew 15,722 fans on average. The Bolts, as one of professional sports worst franchises, drew more more than Calgary, Boston, Pittsburgh, NYI and Chicago. They also had enough fans to sell out Winnepeg's precious new arena every night.

In other words... shove it.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2002