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Dallas is not even close to a hockey market, Anaheim is close when they are winning a Stanley cup, St. Louis has a decent fanbase that is coming back as their team gets out of the basemant, but I wouldn't call it a hockey market. Colorodo stopped selling out games once their team wasn't being a contender every year... I won't flat out say they aren't a hockey market, but they aren't on the same level. I guess it depends on your definition really. I would say the only true hockey markets are the Canadian teams (Ottawa barely makes the cut), and Minnesota. These are hockey markets because they sell out games when their team is still playing like garbage. Places like Boston, New York, Los Angeles, etc. are massive cities that have a large sports fan population, so when the local hockey team is winning and becoming a somewhat hot item they will go to a game. Whether any of these franchises could survive a non-contending team year after year, I don't know... just look at Florida. I bet if they had been a top team these past 10 years people would be listing them as examples of how hockey can work in non tradional markets. |
This is really hard thing to say without knowing the loss or profits of all the teams in the league. Dallas in fact was losing money until they got a new owner I believe this year that loves hockey and worked to better the team. Yeah the games stopped seeling out once in Colorado once they were not amongst the elite, but they did at least used to have the record for most consecutive sell outs in a row. I would not be surprised if another team surpassed it. Yeah, they actually do not fill the seats early in the season. Later in the season it is usually sold out. Colorado/Denver is a football market by far, first and foremost. The thing is their owners started pushing basketball there in the Pepsi center more recently and with that the Avs lost popularity. The nuggets at least made the playoffs every year. As far as Florida goes it is once again hard to judge based on lack of previously mentioned info. I do know that the longer a team has been in a city the more popular it usually is, as several generations of hockey fans are following the game. Like in football I know all the most popular teams are teams that have a winning tradition and have existed there a long time. Hence why Denvers top sport is football and not hockey or baseball. I read an article on this very topic recently. So your arguement is fair as most of the teams I mentioned are relitively new in the league.
That is fair you would say practically no US city is as good of a hockey market as Canada. Most people play football, soccer, baseball and basketball before hockey. Partly because it is the most expensive of the five to play and only the wealtheir families play hockey. So it is definantly limited by that. That and when ESPN dropped hockey it was less availible for awhile. It has risen in popularity in recent times. So if your basing it on what sport is the most popular than hockey is not the best market in the US as the fourth most popular team sport in this country. In fact, I think the US population follows too many different sports to ever say it will come close to Canada for hockeys popularity.
That being said, I have actually hoped Phoenix would go to Quebec as that is the city that lost it's team to come here. One reason I know the Avs have remained too is because when Stan Knoenke bought it, the management forced in the agreement that the team could not leave the city for something like 15 years. But overall I do know that the Denver pioners and Colorado Tigers have been more popular here for years. Much more than many baseball or basketball teams.
