Fair enough. Hopefully I can explain.
It's not as easy as posting a link to what Dolan reports to Espn as attendance vs what the true numbers are. A lot of other folks in other markets take those numbers and go with it as fact or just think all New York teams draw like the Yankees or only remember the 94 Rangers. The general hockey media in the US today barely knows their own markets much much less other teams.
I already wrote about what the ticket people at Msg said so I will not repeat it. Steve Zipay of Newsday on 12/14/04 wrote about the Ranger television ratings...
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http://www.newsday.com/sports/colum...orts-columnists
(link does not work)
No NHL plus no Cablevision rebates doesn't add up
And unlike the public outcry over missing the high-profile Yankees, fewer subscribers are screaming about the lack of Rangers, Islanders and Devils telecasts. That's because substantially fewer viewers tune in: Last season, Rangers telecasts on MSG produced an average 0.75 rating, or about 60,000 homes.
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Tell me how could a team with those terrible television ratings for 82 games have 18,000 sold tickets? For a little reference those were the Isles television ratings when they had a 15m dollar payroll in the late 90's.......
Going into 2003-04 Dolan told the media before the season began ninety four percent of his seats for Ranger hockey were already sold for the season. Basically that means he only had six percent of his building available to the public for the rest 2003-04 regular season.
Considering the empty seats all over the building at games all season it's just not possible.
Dolan's runs a very political operation at Msg, he is not going to post his true paid attendance or admit he cannot sell tickets when it would be considered a huge failure on his part and neither would a lot of owners.
Let me ask if you do not believe Dolan's reported losses at 40m why are you so willing to accept his attendance figures? What Dolan lie are you more willing to accept.
You never see open seats like that in Philadelphia or Detroit. Look at the media covering the Flyers in that market, look at how small the hockey media is here today. When was the last time as a hockey fan you read an objective article from this market about the work stoppage? You pick up a paper here and it's baseball coverage dominating the public interest.