I have been lurking on here for years but I felt it was time to trash Nashville a little bit going in to the playoffs. The notion that Nashville is anything close to a "hockey city" is totally absurd. The only place you need to look to prove this is ESPN.COM and NHL.COM where all the official attendance numbers are reported. This franchise should never have been started in this city period. Just another prime example of the league over-expanding. If this team can't bring out the fans this season how can they really hope it will survive at all in the long term?
Let's take a quick look at the attendance data....
The Nashville Predators rank 21st overall in attendance if you figure it as a % of capacity. And by using this statistic I am really giving them the benefit of the doubt because they have one of the smaller arenas in the league at 17,113. That means they have to sell almost 3,000 less tickets than the Red Wings to get a sellout. Add to that the fact that the numbers these struggling teams report to the league are often heavily inflated by group tickets sold to corporations or sponsors at a major discount. Sure, Nashville fans will point out all the empty seats at JLA on a given night. They might be empty, but for the most part these are 100% full price season tickets that simply are going unused. That being said let's check out some recent Nashville games. Keep in mind this is a team that is being considered as a possible favorite to win the cup this year....
1/9/07 VS Anaheim 11,821*
1/18/07 VS Columbus 10,927
2/8/07 VS Toronto 15,018*
2/14/07 VS San Jose 13,836*
2/19/07 VS Phoenix 15,862
2/22/07 VS Montreal 15,808*
*I think these games are the most disturbing. Original six teams that show up once every 3 years and top rivals, just pathetic.
As someone who has been on skates and a fan of the game since I was 5 I really have to wonder how this league can truly be succesful in the long run in markets like Nashville if their fans can't even support the team when it is doing fantastic in the standings. Just another reason why I hope we steamroll these fools in the playoffs. Their fans and the city of Nashville simply don't deserve a long run at the cup and it's questionable if they even deserve to have a team period. And please, don't even make me bring up the local TV broadcast ratings, ouch! Sure...."hockey city" sure.