Hockey 2010-2011

[Captn Sacto]

I have compiled attendance figures for the 2010-2011 season. The list is complete through yesterday?s games. The numbers do not include the opening week games played in Europe. The figures are from the ESPN website which list attendance and per cent of capacity.

Eleven teams have sold out all of their home games. Five of the six Canadian teams and six of the twenty-four US teams. The Senator?s are the lone Canadian team and have averaged 98.1% of capacity. The six US teams that have sold out every game are the Blackhawks, Blues, Bruins, Capitals, Penguins and the Sharks. Even though the Flyers have not sold out every game, they are still averaging over 100% capacity. Not sure how they figured out capacity. The Blackhawk?s have been as much as 12% over capacity. The fire marshal here would never let that happen. The other odd situation was with the Kings. 27 of there 34 games have exactly the same attendance of 18,118 people, which is 97.9% capacity. I would think they wouldn?t have the same figure all the time unless that was all they could seat.

As far as average attendance the top 5 are:
1) Blackhawks - 21,370
2) Canadians ? 21,273
3) Flames ? 19,783
4) Flyers ? 19,685
5) Red Wings ? 19,541

At the other end of the spectrum, three teams have average less than 70% capacity. The Islanders, Coyotes and Thrashers. The only other team below 80% is the Blue Jackets.

The bottom 5 teams in average attendance are:
1) Islanders ? 10,352
2) Coyotes ? 11,622
3) Thrashers ? 12,892
4) Blue Jackets ? 13,450
5) Devils ? 14,507

The Ducks, Stars and Avalanche are all just barely above the Devils and also less than 15,000.

Considering the fact that the Coyotes and Thrashers are both fighting for play-off spots while the Islanders have been pretty bad all year, I would consider them as the two teams with the least hometown support. The one team I was most surprised about is New Jersey. I thought they would have more support. Although it has been better the last 10 games where they are averaging almost 16,000.

FYI ? here are the southern teams:
Stars - 80.4%
Panthers ? 81.0%
Lightning ? 86.0%
Hurricanes ? 86.6%
Predators ? 93.2%

So if I were running the league I would move the Coyotes and Thrashers to Winnipeg and Hamilton. If the Islanders don?t get their attendance up, I would move them or the Blue Jackets to Quebec City.

I wouldn?t mind eliminating or moving the Stars, Panthers and Ducks. LA doesn?t need two teams and the Kings have much better supported. Heck, give Halifax a shot.