Second Half Attendance Boost: Part IV

As promised, here is the fourth installment of the Second Half Attendance Boost series. The last was two weeks ago, and you can find all three previous parts here. Without further adieu, the average attendance figures (click to enlarge):



Carolina still leads the charge with LA and Columbus just behind. Columbus is still undoubtedly benefiting from the playoff fever, as they are currently in sixth place in the West. But, what is really good to see is that LA's number have not dipped from two weeks ago when they were still in the playoff race. The Kings currently sit 13th in the West, six points out of a playoff spot. They are not out of it, but they are definitely outside looking in. Something else that is good to see is only two red blocks, along with 5 out of the 6 bottom teams having a positive two weeks.

Now lets take a look at the average capacity attendance chart (click to enlarge):



Whoa, a lot more color here. Most of the changes are minuscule, though, with figures under or around 1%. Ottawa had the biggest jump in the past two weeks, with over a 2% gain. Overall, 16 teams are benefiting from the second half attendance boost, along with the league as a whole too.

There will be two more installments of the series, one two weeks from today, and another after the season wraps up on Sunday, April 12. The end is in sight, people.

Thanks for reading as always and I will be back posting regularly starting tomorrow afternoon after a bit of travel in the morning back to school.

NHL a Top-10 Innovative Company in Sports

According to Fast Company, an industry leader magazine which focuses on business, the NHL is #7 on their list of the most innovative companies in sports (NHL.com article, Fast Company article). Fast Company seemed to be impressed with the NHL's Internet presence:

NHL.com: The challenger brand of sports leagues is becoming quite the creative digital-media company. Free from other leagues' restrictions on video, NHL.com shows exclusive off-the-ice footage as well as every goal scored.

The NHL shares the list with only one other sport, Ultimate Championship Fighting. Good for the league to gain some recognition, considering that hockey's fan base can be a very critical one of its own game.

- There is one more reason why to buy the NHL Network, as it plans to simulcast CBC's Hockey Day in Canada, which is coming up this Saturday, February 21st. For those of you who have never seen Hockey Day in Canada Programming, it's very well done and celebrates the game well. This year's HDIC is occurring in Campbellton, New Brunswick and will feature all six Canadian teams in a triple header back to back to back.

Here's the CBC Promo for this years day:



- No details yet on the Phoenix story, once again. Frustrating. More (maybe) later.

- Update: 4:55 PM EST:

More '09-'10 Ticket Price News. I'm not sure how I missed this last week, but the Kings are freezing their season ticket prices for holders. No word yet on single-game ticket prices.

The Hurricanes are offering a great deal to their current Season Ticket Holders, a three year price freeze (obviously with a couple of twists):

By placing a 30 percent deposit on their 2009-10 season tickets now, fans guarantee that their season ticket price will not change for the next three seasons, locking them at their 2008-09 price through the 2011-12 season. In addition, the team has made adjustments to how fans can pay for their season tickets, allowing them to spread their payments over an 11-month, zero-percent-interest plan, where installments will be paid monthly beginning with their deposits in March and extending into January 2010.

They also announced a pay-as-we-play plan for the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Good deals all around.

Gretzky on HNIC and Thrashers Ownership Troubles Resurface

First of all, the Rangers suck. Tom Renney is eventually going to take the fall for Glen Sather's awful GM decisions, and its a shame. He has overachieved with this club and brought the club back to life the past couple of seasons. End the Sather era in New York.

Anyways...

Wayne Gretzky spoke with HNIC's Inside Hockey last night. They started with the state of the Coyotes and eventually led to his future plans. Take a look (business related stuff up to the 4 min. mark and after the 6 min):



Gretzky is confident the team will still be in Phoenix next season. The biggest news maker came out after the 6 minute mark, where Gretzky said that if the team did move, he wouldn't be going with it as coach. Finally, he acknowledges the fact that a team or teams would most likely be successful in Southern Ontario. Nothing too shocking.

In other Gretzky news, the Globe and Mail reported Saturday morning that he was getting paid close to 8 million dollars to coach the Coyotes. Gretzky dismissed this Saturday night before the game, saying:

"The reality is my partnership with Mr. (Coyotes owner Jerry) Moyes is pretty unique. My partnership goes along the lines of coaching and corporate work for the hockey club -- part of the salary goes into ownership."

Well OK then.

The Thrashers ownership battles are back in the news as they go back into courts as well. James Mirtle and The Falconer had their takes over the weekend. For a little history on this, Puck Money reader Jennifer sent me two great articles back in late January. Supposedly, a man named David McDavid (heh) won the original lawsuit to make him the rightful owner, but that didn't happen. Finally, a little more history as here is the original story of the Atlanta owners attempting to buy each other out.

To sum it up, the Thrashers, Hawks, and Phillips Arena are essentially a package deal. Because of this mess and their individual performances in their respective leagues, they are easily worth more than they are to purchase. I will either touch on this more later tonight or further on in the week, or when it comes the Thrashers turn for my Playing Below Capacity Series.

Either way, more later.

Update, 6:15 PM:

I don't know how I missed this, but the Kings join the bandwagon in freezing season ticket prices for next season.

A summary of ticket price announcements (for next season) thus far:

- Wild freeze prices
- Oilers will slightly increase
- Bruins will slightly increase

More later.

More Ticket News

- Watching the Kings game last night, they announced a new ticket deal in the third period. The L.A. Kings Stretch Pack:

The Kings (24-21-7, 55 pts) are in the playoff chase this year (Western Conference Standings), entering play on Feb. 12, just three points out of a playoff spot and six points out of fifth place in the West. Jump on the stretch run of the season as your Kings battle for a Western Conference Playoff spot. Get two tickets to four games, two Kings Alternate Logo Hats and priority opportunity to purchase playoff tickets for just $99.

That's a deal in a half. I'd buy them just for the playoff priority. Good marketing, L.A.

- Sports Business News reports that Buffalo Sabres Season Tickets will increase by 5% for the 2009-2010 season. Along with this is another playoff incentive:

Fans who commit to renewing by March 20 can get sizable discounts on potential Stanley Cup playoff games this spring — and the team will be crediting customers' '09-10 accounts with rebates matching the discounts. Factoring in rebates, fans may actually pay less for their tickets for next season if the team goes deep into the playoffs.

"We're not sitting around thinking, "Oh my god, we're going to have this big decline in season-ticket renewals,' because the bottom line is we really don't believe that," Sabres minority owner Larry Quinn said. "But we do want to do something to relieve the pressure on people from the economic situation..."

Apparently, the Sabres management are expecting a drop in season ticket holders. The article also states that the club will not make a decision on single game tickets until the summer after the schedule is released. That will be interesting, as they will most likely base their numbers off how successful their renewals are. The Sabres currently are 8th in the Eastern Conference with a 3 point lead over 9th and 10th placed Carolina and Pittsburgh; both at 59 points.

1:15 PM Update:

- The Colorado Avalanche are also jumping in on the fun with their Home Stretch Pack. Four games starting in early March against the Wings, Oilers, Canucks, and Blues:

Available packages:

• $340 - Lower Level End
• $204 - Upper Center Balcony
• $144 - Upper Corner Balcony
• $89 - Upper End Balcony

-Playoff ticket pre-sale for Home Stretch buyers.
-Priority seating for 2009-10 season tickets
-No service charges or handling fees

$90 on the balcony (A lot of fun, great view) for four games along with the other perks? What a deal.

More to come later.

Some News and Future Plans...

First, the news of today...

TSN's Darren Dreger reports that the New York Islanders will be playing an Exhibition game next September at Kansas City's Sprint Center, a beautiful 18,500 seat arena in the heart of KC, against the Los Angeles Kings.

What does this mean? Well, a little bit of nothing. Dreger rightly speculates that this is supposed to be somewhat of a scare tactic by the NHL to Charles Wang, who refuses to threaten to move the franchise in order to accelerate his Lighthouse Plan. The plan is to ultimately renovate the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, and to develop the 100 acres around it with plenty of consumer attractions.

Other than that, the Islanders are no where near moving. I'm sure this game will be close if not a complete sellout as the Kansas City area doesn't get to see much hockey. But only time will tell on that.

As promised from yesterday, the Western Conference Attendance update from Sports Business Daily.

The notable gainers are the Blackhawks, who are up 49%, and the Blues, who despite being in last place (as I took a look at previously here), are up 8.1%. The Red Wings are also up by 6.6%, who are joined by none other than the Phoenix Coyotes, who are acutally up 4.7% this season from last. The only teams to really decline are the Avalanche (down only 4%) and the Kings (only down 2.4%.

The verdict? Great stuff. I would venture a bet to say that, in general, the Eastern Conference typically outdraws the Western Conference, seeing as Hockey is just generally more popular in the northeast (I think I'm going to look into this somehow). Why is this great stuff though? Well as I showed yesterday, 12 out of 15 teams in the East are either breaking even or declining in attendance thus far. As for the West, only 8 out of 15 teams are breaking even or declining this season. And as a whole, the Western Conference is up 3.5% this season, averaging 17,387 this season as opposed to under 17K last season at this point. So props to the West.

Finally, just some house-keeping on what I plan to do while at school here, where I don't have as much time to post than as if I'm on break when I started this.

I plan on doing something original (Playing Below Capacity series, or something else) probably once a week. I will try to report news like this as much as possible, but I understand I'm not breaking the news, so its not as interesting. I am spending my class time trying to think of interesting things to write about, I can promise you that.

So thats all I have for now, have a good day. I wouldn't expect much until Sunday.

Playing Below Capacity: Los Angeles Kings

And here is the second edition of Playing Below Capacity, where we will focus on the Los Angeles Kings, who rank 23rd in Attendance Percentage Capacity in the league. The Kings currently lead the NHL with 27 home games thus far as of today, which is three more than anyone else. They have only sold out seven of these games, but five of those sellouts have come in the past five games. The first edition was on the New Jersey Devils, who are just above them at 22, in case you missed it. This will follow the same format as the previous one. With all that said, lets take a look at the Kings.*

*Warning: Please remember that I'm a young college kid who really doesn't know what he's talking about. Any "problems" that I suggest the Kings have are my opinion and are most likely not that accurate. Also, any information I used can easily be found on the Internet as I am a typical lazy college kid. With that said, enjoy.

Here are the ideas I came up with that could be problems with getting people to go to Kings game on a regular basis...

• Arena Location/Age
• High Ticket Prices/Poor Promotional Events
  
• City Population
• Financial Issues in Los Angeles, CA (location of Arena)
• On Ice Product
• Location/History of Franchise

So before we really start, lets take a look at some basic facts of the LA Kings (all information taken from their wikipedia page, click here):

• The Kings were founded in 1967 when Jack Kent Cooke was awarded an NHL Franchise the year earlier.
• The Kings have only won their division once, in the 1990-1991 season. They have only gotten past the second round of the playoffs once as well, when they won the Western Conference Championship in 1992-1993, but then losing to Montreal in the Stanley Cup Final in five games.
• The Kings began playing at The Forum in Inglewood, California, before moving to the new Staples Center, which opened for the 1999 NHL and NBA seasons.
• The Staples Center for Ice Hockey is said to be 18,118 (Wikipedia)

Let the fun begin...

- Arena Location/Age

With the Staples Center turning only a decade old in October of this year, I doubt the Staples Center is much of an issue for attracting fans. The Staples center is actually the 5th youngest arena in the Western Conference, only older than Columbus, Phoenix, Dallas, and Minnesota (Colorados' Pepsi Center also opened in 1999). And being located in Downtown Los Angeles, I think the only problem with that would be traffic getting in and out of the city if one was to commute regularly to games from outside of the city. Still, it shouldn't be that bad.

- High Ticket Prices/Poor Promotional Events

According to teammarketing.com, the Kings average ticket price is up 2.7 % this season to $47.20, putting the Kings about $2.50 below the NHL average of $49.66 (all from here). Their average premium ticket price is $105.24, which hasn't changed in the last three years, and is about $8 below the NHL average of $113.44 (teammarketing.com). This is looking good thus far. The Kings have not raised their average premium ticket price the past couple of seasons, when they easily could have, and they are staying modest with the average ticket prices for the casual fan. I don't see anything quite wrong here.

Now lets remember, Teammarketing.com ranks its NHL list by what they call the Fan Cost Index, The FCI:

comprises the prices of four (4) average-price tickets, two (2) small draft beers, four (4) small soft drinks, four (4) regular-size hot dogs, parking for one (1) car, two (2) game programs and two (2) least-expensive, adult-size adjustable caps.

For the 2008-2009 season, the LA Kings rank 14th in FCI, which means the group of four drops about $281.31, which is roughly $70. Costly? Somewhat. The good thing about this is that going to a weekend game with an average ticket price from the Kings, assuming that you're not driving across country to see the game; the group of four could keep their costs under a $100 for the night. That is very doable. Now the Kings' FCI is up 3.3% from last season, but is still under the NHL Average FCI of $288.23, which in general is up 5.5% from last season.

So the tickets aren't all bad, how about some deals, though? If you venture to the Kings website and click on "Discounted Offers" under the "Tickets" tab, you find their four main deals:

1. Hockey Night Out - "Enjoy a great night with friends, food, fun and hockey. Pack includes two (2) tickets, two (2) nachos and two (2) beers starting at only $53, a savings of over $26! Upgrade to the lower level for just $115.50."
2. All You Can Eat - "The All U Can Eat Pack includes a ticket to the Kings game and all you can eat hot dogs, nachos, peanut, popcorn and soda starting at just $27 for all Monday games ($36 for all games)! All U Can Eat Seats are available for EVERY game!
   Click here to purchase ($36)...and take advantage of our All U Can Eat Value Mondays ($27) ."
3. Family Pack - "Starting at only $21 a person, receive 1 ticket, 1 hot dog and 1 soda. Receive 1 free parking pass for every 4 tickets purchased!"
4. College Nights (photo displays price of $10) - "Discounted tickets available online or at STAPLES Center Box Office with college ID on game nights and during regular business hours."

Good deals appealing to many different demographics. I wouldn't say LA is leading the pack here, but they are doing their part for sure.

- City Population

The Kings do not have an issue here. Los Angeles is populated with just under 4 million people and has a Metro Population a shade under 13 Million (Statshockey.net). What else can I say? L.A. is the second largest city with an NHL franchise in the league, with its nearest rival being Chicago, who still trials them by a million within the city and 3 million in the Metro.

- Financial Issues of Los Angeles

Once again, everyone is hurting due to the latest recession, but as of 2007 the Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of just under $700 billion, putting the area second to New York City in the Western Hemisphere (Wikipedia). This includes much of the suburbs and smaller cities around LA, but I'd bet a good amount that a solid portion of that figure is from either directly or within 20 miles of LA.

- On Ice Product

The Kings have not made the playoffs since the 2001-2002 season, and have made the playoffs 23 times in their 40 completed seasons. But, as I mentioned earlier, have only made it past the second round once, and only to the Stanley Cup Finals once as well, falling to the Canadiens (Wikipedia). On the upside, the Kings management has slowly began building a team for the future. Out of the 26 players on the Kings roster, only 7 of those players are aged 30 or older, with no players at the ages of 27 through 29 (Wikipedia). Personally, their biggest concern is goaltending, where two young goaltenders may need a couple of seasons to pan out. Either way, the Kings have a 24 year old Captain in Dustin Brown; and if they are able to keep their young core, the Kings should be able to break out of last place in the Pacific.

- Location/History of Franchise

Southern California isn't exactly a hockey haven, but there are very competitive youth hockey programs that do well in USA Hockey's National Championships year in and year out (from my experience reading USA Hockey Magazine). They are also very heavy into Roller Hockey, where it is seemingly easier to play due to Southern California's climate.

The Kings haven't had a very winning past, but you can't say they haven't been successful. They played host to the Great One (Wayne Gretzky) from 1988 to 1996, and had some of their best years during his stay. In general, a couple of consecutive runs deep into the playoffs would really grow the fan base, but they still draw well considering their place in the standings recently.

- Conclusion

The Kings are easily the safest team of all the teams playing below capacity. They are 12th on Forbes' NHL Team Valuations, coming in with at $210 million along with a revenue of $91 million and an operating income of $1.2 million. With all this good, they do have a substantial amount of debt over their value, which is 87 %. But, ever since the lockout, their revenue and overall value has risen every year (all from Forbes).

So what can the Kings do? Honestly, after looking at it all, I think most of it comes down to the on ice product. This season, they are averaging a shade under 16,000 a night (ESPN), but their last five home games have all been sellouts, with a total of seven on the season (My Excel Graph). Not bad for a last place team in the Pacific division. I think in two seasons the Kings will be a force to be reckoned with, and more and more seats will be filled night in and night out at the Staples Center.

So there is the second division of my little series here at my little blog. Once again, I will look it over and see what I can do next time. I hope you enjoyed the read. Please feel free to comment on any aspect of the article.