NHL teams and their fanbase reach

[IU Hawks fan]

Generally speaking in the US, hockey does not reach beyond the current metro market.

Baseball and football teams will carry into secondary markets, so Portland would be Seahawks fans and Richmond, VA would be Redskins fans.
In hockey (and the NBA for that matter), fanbases are much more localized in the metro area.
Hence you won't find Blackhawk or Red Wing fans in Indianapolis as you would Cubs and Tigers fans.

There aren't Tiger fans in Indianapolis. Cubs and Reds with some Cardinals and a slim amount of White Sox in the mix.

 

[David_99]

In my experience, the Maritimes seem to have a big 4 of Leafs, Habs, Bruins and Penguins fans.

 

[Grabovski]

In Hamilton the Leafs have the most fans but there is a lot of Bruins, Wings, and Habs fans too. Pens or Sabres would probably come in #4/#5.

 

[sctvman]

Here in Charleston, hockey is not very popular. There's a lot of fans of the Stingrays, our local ECHL team, but even them are only at best the 2nd most popular out of the 3 minor league teams in town.

You have the Riverdogs (low-A baseball), and the Battery (soccer), and they usually get bigger crowds. The Stingrays do best in the inland suburbs, but there's so many other choices in town that it's hard for them to grow.

The only NHL teams I see with fan bases around here in this order are the Hurricanes (biggest), Penguins, Sabres, Capitals, the NY teams, and the Bruins.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

In Hamilton the Leafs have the most fans but there is a lot of Bruins, Wings, and Habs fans too. Pens or Sabres would probably come in #4/#5.

It's interesting you say that, I always expected the Sabres to do much better than that in Hamilton given Buffalo is only about 60 miles away and the American stations you get are the Buffalo ones.

Aren't there a lot of Bills fans, though?

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Here is a map that I found on http://icethetics.info


http://bp3.blogger.com/_r8tWGVHrjGI/SE20HQMn7FI/AAAAAAAAEi4/65Rbr_TaZ_Y/s1600-h/fanbasemap.png

Pretty inaccurate map. Most of them just follow state lines. For example, the Hawks aren't depicted to control almost any of Northwest Indiana, areas generally considered to be Chicago suburbs and are closer to the city than a lot of suburbs in Illinois. Meanwhile, it shows them controlling all of southern Illinois in areas that the Blues clearly control. Obviously if you live 10 minutes from St. Louis over the Mississippi your going to be a Blues fan if you do like hockey.

 

[Cornwall OHL]

Pretty inaccurate map. Most of them just follow state lines. For example, the Hawks aren't depicted to control almost any of Northwest Indiana, areas generally considered to be Chicago suburbs and are closer to the city than a lot of suburbs in Illinois. Meanwhile, it shows them controlling all of southern Illinois in areas that the Blues clearly control. Obviously if you live 10 minutes from St. Louis over the Mississippi your going to be a Blues fan if you do like hockey.

It's just a rough map that was found on Icethetics. I mean I am from the Ottawa area, and am a diehard Sens fan, but I can't help but notice that every Leafs or Canadiens game I go to, they out number Sens fans. Hell, even Buffalo opening night had quite the large section with their Sabres and Slug jerseys on.

 

[FootKnight]

Pretty inaccurate map. Most of them just follow state lines. For example, the Hawks aren't depicted to control almost any of Northwest Indiana, areas generally considered to be Chicago suburbs and are closer to the city than a lot of suburbs in Illinois. Meanwhile, it shows them controlling all of southern Illinois in areas that the Blues clearly control. Obviously if you live 10 minutes from St. Louis over the Mississippi your going to be a Blues fan if you do like hockey.

Yeah it's also got South Jersey as Devils when it should be Philly, as mentioned earlier, and it looks like Conneticut and maybe part of Rhode Island (the map's outline of the is pretty rough, hard to tell) as Isles? I don't think there's many people from New England cheering for an NYC area team. That has to be Boston territory.

Looks like it's just a rough map someone threw together with general areas around teams.

 

[dj4aces]

Looks like it's just a rough map someone threw together with general areas around teams.

Sounds like a neat idea would be to build a new map, as a sort of community project maybe?

 

[FootKnight]

Sounds like a neat idea would be to build a new map, as a sort of community project maybe?

That would be an interesting project. Try to get a decent consensus of how far team's fanbases stretch. Asking people around here what kind of fans they see in their area would be a good start. I definitely don't have the motivation for it, but it would be cool if someone did it.

Also, I had forgotten that Hartford had a team . Was Hartford-Boston a rivalry? Maybe I'm wrong and Whalers fans went to the Isles as they aren't Boston or the Rags? I guess southwest CT supports NY teams too? I'm not from the area, so maybe I'm wrong all over the place.

 

[ticats4]

It's interesting you say that, I always expected the Sabres to do much better than that in Hamilton given Buffalo is only about 60 miles away and the American stations you get are the Buffalo ones.

Aren't there a lot of Bills fans, though?

A lot of people in the Hamilton blame the Sabres primarily for our inability to get an NHL team here.

 

[dj4aces]

Also, I had forgotten that Hartford had a team . Was Hartford-Boston a rivalry? Maybe I'm wrong and Whalers fans went to the Isles as they aren't Boston or the Rags? I guess southwest CT supports NY teams too? I'm not from the area, so maybe I'm wrong all over the place.

Hartford had huge rivalries with the Rangers and Bruins both. Don't know about the Islanders, though.

 

[barneyg]

Sounds like a neat idea would be to build a new map, as a sort of community project maybe?

There's always the CommonCensus.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Good find, Barney. This looks much better

 

[IceAce]

Hartford had huge rivalries with the Rangers and Bruins both. Don't know about the Islanders, though.

Not really. For a good chunk of the Whalers NHL tenure the Islanders were dominant and the Whalers were awful. Never saw each other in a playoff series either, because under the old system, you had to win 2 series to win your division to go to the Wales Conf finals, which the Whalers never did. (Whalers actually only ever won 1 playoff series in their history IIRC)

And while I think Hartford may have considered the Rangers a rival, I'm not sure the feeling was that mutual from my time living in the area? But I'm sure an older Ranger fan could give you a better feeling of the pulse there.

 

[BigFatCat999]

Here is a map that I found on http://icethetics.info


http://bp3.blogger.com/_r8tWGVHrjGI/SE20HQMn7FI/AAAAAAAAEi4/65Rbr_TaZ_Y/s1600-h/fanbasemap.png

Not a great representation, Nashville has more of a north south movement. They moved their radio broadcasts to encompass Huntsville in Northern Alabama.

 

[molsonmuscle360]

Northern Saskatchewan is mostly Oilers territory, with a dash of Flames fans thrown in there. Southern Saskatchewan you can pretty much flip that over, but when you get a little more to the south-east around towns like Moosomin, Esterhazy, Langenburg there are fans of a huge mix of teams. Most of them were Jets fans so they kinda split all over the place when they moved. Lots of Avs fans and Canucks fans down there I have noticed.

 

[Moo]

Here is a map that I found on http://icethetics.info


http://bp3.blogger.com/_r8tWGVHrjGI/SE20HQMn7FI/AAAAAAAAEi4/65Rbr_TaZ_Y/s1600-h/fanbasemap.png

So the Blue Jackets and Stars have a bigger fanbase than Pittsburgh and Montreal? That's awful.

I have to dispute that map -- which look like it's drawn by a first-grader, by the way.

1.) Ohio's map is off. They dip into Toledo for the Red Wings, which is good, but the Eastern part has diehard Penguins fans, especially in the Steubenville and Marietta areas. Those should be in Penguins colors. And what about the upper panhandle of West Virginia? There shouldn't be any white there; it should be all gold.

2.) It doesn't account for population density, market coverage, and pre-existing fan bases. Especially the latter. You mean to tell me all hockey fans in the extreme part of Southern California are Ducks fans? The Kings were there long before that. And what about just east of Detroit, across the river into Canada? They're all Toronto fans? They're closer to Detroit, so wouldn't they be more prone to being Wings fans?

Terrible map. I'd rather see a map of regional TV penetration than supposed fan base representation. At least it would be more accurate.

 

[Cornwall OHL]

I have to dispute that map -- which look like it's drawn by a first-grader, by the way.

1.) Ohio's map is off. They dip into Toledo for the Red Wings, which is good, but the Eastern part has diehard Penguins fans, especially in the Steubenville and Marietta areas. Those should be in Penguins colors. And what about the upper panhandle of West Virginia? There shouldn't be any white there; it should be all gold.

2.) It doesn't account for population density, market coverage, and pre-existing fan bases. Especially the latter. You mean to tell me all hockey fans in the extreme part of Southern California are Ducks fans? The Kings were there long before that. And what about just east of Detroit, across the river into Canada? They're all Toronto fans? They're closer to Detroit, so wouldn't they be more prone to being Wings fans?

Terrible map. I'd rather see a map of regional TV penetration than supposed fan base representation. At least it would be more accurate.

Once again this isn't my map, it's from another website. It was posted to give a rough idea. In reality the Senators would have a more mixed market with red and blue going through it. As far as the size of the market representation on the first map, it pretty much just highlights the whole state or are that team is in. I am sure on Long Island there are a lot of Rangers fans.

The second map presented doesn't show Canada.

 

[Fugu]

Aren't the majority of votes by Wings fans? If this thing were weighted by % from each base, the country would be red.


(Hard to read so maybe I'm off with the numbers.)

 

[Moo]

Good find, Barney. This looks much better

No mention of Canada at all. Just the USA. Invalid map overall if you ask me.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

Seeing this map, I understand why the NHL wants to focus on the East.

 

[S E P H]

I have a few fans that live(d) in Everett and they love the Canucks.

Holy crap I didn't know Avs had a big fanbase in Idaho.

 

[barneyg]

No mention of Canada at all. Just the USA. Invalid map overall if you ask me.

Other than the absence of Canada, how is this invalid?

 

[MayDay]

If the Sabres were able to get their games on TV in southern Ontario, they would have a stronger reach.

As it is, they do well in the Niagara Peninsula (Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, St. Catharines, etc.). These are the areas at risk of being lost if a team goes to Hamilton.