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Chicago also draws well at PNC now that they have been winning over the last 6 years.
Of course winning is a "cure-all" for attendance woes, just look at the Blackhawks. Here's their average attendance rankings out of the 30 NHL teams from 2000 to 2009:
And this is one of the "Original Six". The one big problem is, it is mathematically impossible for every team to be good every year, at most all 30 teams would be tied at .500.
To be fair though, until his death in 2007 the Blackhawks owner was incredibly cheap and stubborn that even the die-hards fans of that team were turned off.
This is a hockey area, but as everyone else said, you need to have a good product on the ice for people to be willing to spend a bunch of money. I was a season ticket holder since 2000. I've been admin on letsgocanes.com since 2003 so obviously a huge fan but recently gave up my tickets because I was frustrated when I left. I'd rather spend my money on something that makes me feel happy.
One of the ways you can tell this is a hockey area is by looking at the number of youth teams here. My son is a peewee (11 years old) and there are at least 12 peewee teams in Raleigh/Wake Forest, that is over 200 kids that are 11 and 12.
As for having the arena downtown, that has some benefits but we would love tailgating and street hockey which would be a real shame. There are advantages to being in the middle of nowhere.
If they start winning, you will be most impressed with the atmosphere.
There was a thread a while back on the General U.S. subforum about which cities should have a pro sports team that currently don't have one. Quite a few people mentioned Raleigh. So not everybody even knows that the Hurricanes play in Raleigh and not Charlotte.
Tough loss tonight, especially after that win yesterday. At least we got a point.
With regards to the location of PNC, I think two things that goes towards PNC's current location is that it serves as a good locus - more easily accessible to the majority of fans in the Triangle than if it were in downtown Raleigh. Beyond that, if the arena was downtown, I'm not sure if the tailgating culture that's grown around the team would be there and I think that's one thing that consistently visiting fans really like about our barn.
For what it's worth, my wife and I have an 11-game miniplan and have had our seats for four years now. I grew up a Penguins fan, was a loyal fan of my local ECHL team in SC, and got hooked on the Canes during the '05-'06 season when I moved up here for grad school. We usually go to about 15 games a year in person and any game we don't go to we watch on TV or listen to on the radio. We'll also drive down to Charlotte about once a year to catch a Checkers game.
It's easy to become apathetic when the product on the ice isn't at all worth watching. I've been a die hard Canes fan since day one. And I barely muster the passion to set my DVR these days, much less drive, pay to park and buy overpriced tickets to watch several overpaid lazy bums go through the motions. Once Francis truly begins the rebuild and gets rid of Eric Staal and Cam Ward, I'll show interest again. But the last several games I've attended have been abysmal losses where either the goalie gave up 4 or 5 weak goals, or the Canes couldn't score a goal. Both spell disaster. There's a bright future with the good young players in the system, but this team needs a Go-Get-Em captian in the worst kind of way. There's no true #1 center, and no one can be relied upon to score. Everyone blamed Semin. Then Skinner. Then the Staals. No one is scoring except for a defenseman!
The only thing wrong with attendance at Canes games is that the team has been lousy to mediocre for seven consecutive seasons. Another Big Six team with recent attendance problems is (gasp!) Boston, where attendance ranked 25th in 2001-02, 25th in 2006-07, and 26th in 2007-08. It's ok for Bruins fans to stay away when their team sucks, but not for Canes fans to do likewise? By the way, Pittsburgh ranked 25th in 2002-03 and 30th in 2003-04. No magic there, either. And don't even mention the Islanders who have been at or near the bottom in attendance consistently. By the often-heard logic I suppose the Islanders will move to Quebec city soon.
Stahl has the best +/- on the team.
Faulk makes some weird unforced errors, but he is only 23.
And, Rask is scoring a bit, with a higher percentage of his shots finding the net, highest on the team other than Mr. Excitement.
Rask did look totally disoriented the other night against Ottawa, though.
I wonder if Hainsey slept last night, or could only see visions of a wide open net? Making that goal would have helped his team worst +/- a bit, too.
Actually, it doesn't. Sure, it shows the numbers but fails to explain why. If you looked at it just a decade ago, you'd see Pittsburgh near the bottom. Why? A rundown building, an AHL-quality lineup (far worse than what the Canes have now), and the inability to secure a first overall pick even when the team finished last kept fans away in droves. As someone else mentioned if you looked at Chicago's attendance prior to "Dollar" Bill Wirtz's death they'd be down there too. Why? Antagonistic policies towards the fanbase. Heck, when Ilitch initially bought the Red Wings, he had a promo where every home game they'd give away a car. They had to do that in "Hockey Town" to get fans in the door because of how appalling Detroit was in the "Dead Things" era.
So no, that chart doesn't tell it all. Especially when for some teams the numbers are just plain wrong. Take New Jersey, for instance. Seating capacity at Prudential Center is 16,514. 13,601 isn't 77.2% of 16,514, it's 82.4%.
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