2008-2009 Home Game Attendance (Plot)

[Nero 20]

I thought it would be interesting to plot the attendance for every Detroit home game in the 2008-2009 Season (Regular Season and Playoff Games), so... here it is.

Here are the game summaries for the games which did not sellout:

1. Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 4 Vancouver 3 Detroit (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20082009/GS020053.HTM)

2. Monday, November 17, 2008 - 0 Edmonton 4 Detroit (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20082009/GS020260.HTM)

3. Monday, December 1, 2008 - 1 Anaheim 2 Detroit (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20082009/GS020352.HTM)

4. Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 5 Vancouver 6 Detroit (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20082009/GS020372.HTM)

5. Monday, December 15, 2008 - 3 Colorado 2 Detroit (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20082009/GS020444.HTM)

6. Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 0 San Jose 6 Detroit (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20082009/GS020466.HTM)

7. Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 4 Los Angeles 6 Detroit (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20082009/GS020480.HTM)

8. Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - 0 Columbus 3 Detroit (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20082009/GS020591.HTM)

9. Monday, February 2, 2009 - 3 St. Louis 4 Detroit (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20082009/GS020745.HTM)

10. Wednesday, February 4, 2009 - 4 Phoenix 5 Detroit (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20082009/GS020762.HTM)

11. Thursday, April 2, 2009 - 5 St. Louis 4 Detroit (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20082009/GS021153.HTM)

I ask everyone complaining about attendance: Try selling 20,066 tickets to fans for every single home game, when your team is one of the most successful and makes the playoffs for 18 straight seasons, with sellouts at every home game for 11 straight years of that, with an economy in as much turmoil as Detroit, against (what I would consider) uninteresting teams.

Jealousy is amazing, isn't it?

[Echolalia 2,961]

Its amazing what corporate seating does to attendance

Edited June 17, 2009 by Echolalia

[C-TownWing 0]

6. Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 0 San Jose 6 Detroit (http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20082009/GS020466.HTM)

Surprised that one didn't sell out.

That graph is exactly what you'd expect with a fan base as spoiled as us: "let me know when it's close to the playoffs." Not that they're mailing it in (see below), but there's a definite pattern there.

Obligatory pointing out of the fact that our smallest crowd of the year would sell out the Igloo with 1000+ out of luck. And a few other arenas too, if I'm not mistaken.

[bonan78 1]

Obligatory pointing out of the fact that our smallest crowd of the year would sell out the Igloo with 1000+ out of luck. And a few other arenas too, if I'm not mistaken.

Our lowest attended game this season (18,862) would have sold out every other NHL arena except:

Montreal (21,273), Chicago (20,500), Philadelphia (19,519), Tampa Bay (19,500), Florida (19,452), Calgary (19,289), St. Louis (19,260), and Ottawa (19,153).

Source: http://hockey.ballparks.com/, http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance/

Interestingly enough, the bottom 5 teams in terms of % of seats sold are:

Atlanta 78.01, Florida 80.31, Phoenix 83.58, NY Islanders 84.51, Tampa Bay 84.60

2 of the 5 arenas that we could have sold out on our worst attendance day are selling less than 85% of their available seats.

I know this is being discussed on several other threads, but Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, in it's current configuration, seats 17,383 for hockey, and the Coyotes had an average attendance of 14,876, while the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs had an average attendance of 4,624, or 26.6% of capacity. Food for thought.

Edited June 17, 2009 by bonan78

[uk_redwing 495]

So all those empty seats I was seeing was just me imagining things?

[bonan78 1]

So all those empty seats I was seeing was just me imagining things?

A lot of those empty seats are either season ticket holder no-shows or corporate-owned seats that, again, were bought and paid for, they just didn't go to the game. They record attendance by the number of tickets sold, not by how many show up. Still disappointing to see empty seats at the Joe.

[MacK_Attack 108]

I know this is being discussed on several other threads, but Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, in it's current configuration, seats 17,383 for hockey, and the Coyotes had an average attendance of 14,876, while the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs had an average attendance of 4,624, or 26.6% of capacity. Food for thought.

Southern Ontario in general isn't exactly a hot-spot for minor league sports. The Toronto Marlies draw half of what the Bulldogs do in attendance....and that's probably being generous.

[FedorovMan91 1]

So all those empty seats I was seeing was just me imagining things?

If I remeber correctly, Toronto also does not look sell out the game but they sold out every game. And I lived in Toronto for like 2 months and I visited ACC when the Wings came and the price was crazy.

Whatever, the Wings pretty sold out most games according to this source. The only thing I don't understand is how the Wings did not sell out the games against the Sharks and the Ducks.

Besides, if anyone jeers the Wings by the attendance, I call them not knowledgable. It almost looks someone jeers people who have a natural handicap. We cannot fix the local economic problem but that does not mean the Wings suck or somethng. There are bunch of teams who sell out but the team itself sucks

[MacK_Attack 108]

If I remeber correctly, Toronto also does not look sell out the game but they sold out every game. And I lived in Toronto for like 2 months and I visited ACC when the Wings came and the price was crazy.

That's because the suits in the platinum seats are in their private bars rather than in their seats.