Whatever Happened to the NHL? Part 1

By Derek Rosenfeld

As the baseball season ends, the basketball season begins, and the football season kicks into midseason gear, the common American sports fan’s plate is more than full. However, the recent start of the hockey season once again was presented as little more than a footnote on nightly sportscasts, radio call-in shows, and sports periodicals. The fourth and final component of what is commonly referred to as the “Big Four” of American sports is becoming more and more of a cultural enigma in the United States, almost becoming an afterthought in many cities that support teams. 

Why? According to recently published National Hockey League (NHL) attendance figures, the sport has never been more popular. During the 2008-2009 season, the league announced that it had set an attendance record for a fourth consecutive season, with a total attendance of 21,475,223; the per-game average of 17,460 was 1.1 percent higher than the corresponding record figures of 21,236,255 and 17,265 from 2007-08.¹ Official 2010-2011 attendance figures are equally impressive, with the league average, according to the NHL, being approximately 16,667 per game, or about 90 percent of stadium capacity.²

Photos found on Wikimedia Commons and taken by (top left to right) hockey fights; Captain 59; Tsunami330; (bottom left to right) Michael Wifall; Kellja00; and Hakan Dahlstrom.

So, what is the problem? Is there a problem? Unfortunately, yes, and it only begins with those attendance figures, which come from the teams themselves and are widely disseminated by sports media, fans, and even the players as being lies.A November 4 game between the NHL also-rans Columbus Blue Jackets and Atlanta Thrashers in Atlanta, Georgia, had an announced crowd of just 8,461. However, video replay clearly showed that, most likely, actual attendance was around 2,500 to 3,000. Similar exaggerated attendance figures are popping up all over the league. Currently, more than half of NHL arenas are regularly posting attendance figures of less than 12,000 fans per game, where a 20,000-seat arena is barely half full; some have been recorded as being as much as two-thirds empty. The main reason these numbers are so important is that low attendance does not just hurt gate receipts; it also affects parking, concessions, merchandising, and the entire value of the franchise. Most notably, the Phoenix Coyotes, formerly the Winnipeg Jets, have been posting figures at 43 percent fan capacity—a dismal number—in their arena for this season after having similar attendance problems for the past several years. On May 5, 2009, the team filed for bankruptcy and is now owned by the NHL. On September 24 of that year, the great Wayne Gretzky stepped down as its head coach after nine years.

Now, some may ask how teams can get away with inflating their already low attendance figures. Actually, the figures may indeed be accurate. When you attend any sporting event and an announcer comes on the PA system to announce attendance, the number you hear many times is the PAID attendance–not the number of bodies in the building. Corporate boxes, season ticket holders, and single-game nonattendees all count toward this number. So, in essence, the number of hard ticket sales may be only somewhat lagging, but the people who actually want to leave the house to go watch hockey is beyond that already low figure, which is unfortunate, since many sports fans feel that, although it may not be their favorite sport, hockey is the best sport to see live. “Seeing those empty buildings will have people in Winnipeg and Quebec City just seething,” said Rogers Sportsnet Commentator Daren Millard. “This has been just a truly ugly situation for the National Hockey League.”

 

Yes, the economy is bad right now, and some signs point to that fact as the reason for the league’s gloomy outlook. However, in my opinion, most, if not all of this indifference to the sport has to do with one thing: franchise location. Before 1991, just 19 years ago, 43 percent of current NHL franchises—13 of 30—did not exist (the Ottawa Senators returned to the league after a 60-year absence in 1992, and the Minnesota Wild were created after the North Stars were relocated to Dallas). All of them, save for Ottawa, are located in the southern and midwestern United States. Since hockey sprung from cold weather regions, it will always be closely tied to it origins; these much warmer areas of the continent have little knowledge, interest, or history with the sport. Not only does hockey have to contend with pro baseball, football, basketball, and even golf in these new markets, but it also must fight against the southern goliath that is auto racing, making it nearly impossible for the sport to truly grab hold. A kid growing up in a city such as Nashville, Tennessee, will be less apt to take up hockey than he would nearly any other popular American sport.

 

Another major problem hockey faces is that, simply, too many teams make the league playoffs, thereby negating the importance of the regular season games that are, not surprisingly, being so underattended. Of the 30 NHL teams, 16 will qualify for the Stanley Cup tournament; that is a whopping 53 percent! In baseball, 27 percent of teams make the playoffs; in the NFL, it is 31 percent. The only comparison is the NBA, which also allows 16 of its 30 teams in the playoffs. However, basketball has a much more storied past and higher level of marketability, as most of its individual stars are American, as opposed to the many Canadian, Russian, and European names that make up pro hockey’s rosters.   

In Part 2 of this article, I will go in-depth into the financial aspects of the NHL’s current predicament.