NHL vs. NBA attendance
I was stunned to see the NBA home attendance numbers. The Indiana Pacers and New Orleans Hornets are drawing under 13,000 people a game according to ESPN. A third of the league seems to have a problem drawing fans. Of course this wouldn't be a problem if television numbers were not going down as well. For me the big surprise isn't New Orleans drawing under 13,000 but Indiana drawing so poorly.
Now the NHL has some problems of its own but they are at least drawing over 80% capacity and they have some horrible hockey markets they are trying to break into (Nashville, Florida, Phoenix, Los Angeles)
2:07 PM ::
3 Comments:
As an Indiana transplant now living in South Carolina, I am not as shocked at the low numbers for the Pacers. They are a mediocre team in a state where great, competitive basketball can be seen at any local high school or small college gym, at rarely more than $3 a seat. The Pacer's lowest price seat is $10 + the "opportunity" to drive many miles, pay for parking, and stare at the tiny players through binoculars.
The LA Kings have been around for 40 years , that's a true Hockey Market. The Kings have been bottom feeders for the last two years but when they start winning again those numbers are sure to go up. The Kings situation is comparable to that of the St Louis Blues from the last couple of years , attendance was down but they are winning again and it's back up and going strong.
The NHL has actually pass the NBA in popularity in the States.
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=622
The NHL has set attendance records for the 3rd straight year also. This game is definately on the uptick and it even set that attendance record without including the outdoor NHL Winter Classic game. They counted the 71,000+ fans in Buffalo as just a sellout crowd of 18,600.
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