theRepublic said:
Aj_habfan said:
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.
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St. Louis is a great hockey market. Other than the two years immediately following the strike, the Blues are routinely in the top 5 or 10 in terms of attendance.
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Yes, but you can't ignore those years (three actually). St Louis is a better market than most, but when they were last in the league, the team was last in attendance. Since the lockout they are 18th in attendance.
The team has been improving slowly (at least before this season) and attendance has been growing rapidly, so the fans do deserve credit.
