NHL Average Attendance by "Round"

Striving for a new look on this years attendance numbers as the season winds down, (more like desperate for some material) I figured this might give us a different look after watching a weekend full of my other favorite sport; soccer. For the Soccer incompetent, most leagues use the terms "week" or "round" for each weekend of league matches, just like the NFL.

Now, as well all know the NHL does not do this as there are games every day of the week, but nonetheless the way my spreadsheet is setup I can easily pull an average up for each Home Game Number for each team. To actually get the NHL Average Attendance by week will take some time, which I might tackle over the off-season. But for now, we will have to deal with the NHL Average Attendance by "Round." It's also worth noting that the NHL plays the regular season in about 27-28 weeks time. Take a look (click to enlarge):



The start looks like the stock market. Anywho, this isn't a perfect nor completed graph, as each team in the NHL has only 34 home games completed of their 41, but that isn't a problem. The reality is that some teams have played more home games than others, but most teams are within one, two, or three home games of each other across the board. The largest difference is four games right now, between LA/OTT and EDM/CHI.

Nonetheless, what this graph confirms is the overall Second Half Attendance boost the league and its clubs enjoy as the season wears on and the playoff intensity picks up. Nothing comes close to opening weekend with the exception of playoffs and possibly the regular season finale, but we will find that out. Also, its worth noting that the NHL Avg. Arena Capacity is 18,435, and my chart says that "Round 1" of home games averaged out at 18,434; 30 people short of a "leaguewide" sellout.

More later.