Comments on: Love on Ice

By: SportsAgentBlog.com - I Want to be a Sports Agent» NBA Teams NHL Sports Business » NHL Enjoys Record Season…In America

Thu, 29 May 2008 15:05:22 +0000

[...] of SportsAgentBlog.com, Jared March, decided to write a guest contribution after Kenji’s Love On Ice post and its controversial [...]

By: franco

franco — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:21:24 +0000

I like the convergence of sports and entertainment. I think its a great idea by the producers of the movie,(I’m sure Myers and his love for hockey had a hand in that).
Its also a good/cool thing that they decided to go with a real NHL team as opposed to creating a fictional one for the movie, kudos to the NHL for okaying that idea.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:50:53 +0000

I think you were spot on about the overall decline. Sure it’s big in certain markets, but when your product is on something called VERSUS, and you’ve expanded into markets where it’s 85 degrees most of the year and kids haven’t grown up on hockey like they have in the Original 6 markets and in Canada, then you have problems.

By: Kenji Summers

Kenji Summers — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:52:42 +0000

No one cared about the convergence of sport and entertainment?
However, I stand corrected about the NHL’s sharp decline lol. Readers, please overstand the OVERALL theme of the post before catching feelings. Thanks!

By: chris

chris — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:32:31 +0000

League is starting to come back? Yeah right. Do your homework, dude…

“Consider that while just six of the NHL’s 30 teams are based in Canada, they account for close to one-third of the league’s overall revenue. And since September 2005 alone, the Canadian dollar has surged some 19 per cent in value, from 83.9 cents U.S. to parity. The loonie’s climb may be responsible for as much as half of the league’s revenue gains since the lockout, says one source familiar with NHL finances.”

http://www.firebettman.com/tag/sellouts

By: Drew

Drew — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:21:15 +0000

Maple Leafs attendance will go up as a result of Love Guru? Do your homework … The Leafs are always number one in sell-outs…and you will be hard pressed to find a ticket in Toronto even if they continue to put a sub-par team on the ice. It has and will have nothing to do with this film.

Bad post man.

By: jarone

jarone — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:35:32 +0000

Not sure you can say yet it’s back to where it once was. It’s big in markets where there is history and/or grassroots programs. But across the country as a whole it’s still a niche sport.

By: Drew

Drew — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:02:40 +0000

Yeah I was going to say, I thought attendance was up this year. It seems that young guys like Crosby and Ovechkin might be starting a little bit of a resurgence for the sport. The young guys coupled with the fact that big time former hockey cities like Chicago and Pittsburgh are improving means bigger attendance numbers not smaller. Just because ESPN doesn’t cover it doesn’t mean hockey isn’t starting to come back.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:58:59 +0000

“Hockey purists may argue that the NHL has never fallen off but numbers don’t lie. Since returning from the league’s lockout a few years back, attendance and viewership has seen a sharp decline.”

Watch your pratfalls and do your homework.

Contrary to popular belief, the NHL enjoyed record levels for attendance this past season. Far from “a sharp decline”, total attendance & per-game averages both reached record levels in each category and marked the third consecutive season of growth.

2006-07 2007-08
total att. = 20,861,787 total att. = 21,236,255
per-game avg.=16,961 per-game avg. = 17,265

2005-06
total att. = 20,854,169
per-game avg. =16,955.

Across the league, NHL teams played to 93.6% of capacity over the season, up 5% from the 2006-07 season. Moreover, the Pittsburgh Penguins sold out their season for the first time in franchise history, joining the Philadelphia Flyers, the Minnesota Wild (318 consecutive sellouts of 18,500-plus since they entered the League), the New York Rangers (18,200), the Anaheim Ducks (17,193) and every Canadian Franchise to sell out all home games. Not to mention, Buffalo & San Jose, who virtually sold-out every game as well.

Several other teams had significant increases in terms of single-game attendance numbers, the St. Louis Blues were up 41%, the Chicago Blackhawks up 32%, the Washington Capitals up 11%, and the New Jersey Devils up 10% from last years figures.

Oh, and viewership increased to an avg. of 261,760 a game, up from 195,666 a game last season.

I think the only reason I continue to visit this site is for the off-handed chance of stumbling across a link/story I missed somewhere else…