The Buzz is Back

It was back at the all-star break when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told questioners at a press conference that the playoffs would be the first indication of whether the league was going to take a big hit as the North American economy swooned.

The idea was that while season tickets sold last summer hadn't been affected by economic conditions, the spring would provide an indicator of the appetite out there for NHL hockey in the new financial environment.

Well, so far, it's good news.

Now, you can't entirely trust NHL attendance numbers, which are often fishy. But the league says 40 of 44 playoff games in the first round were sold out, and that was a very full house in Vancouver Thursday night.

The New York market is gone with the Rangers and Devils eliminated. But three old markets seem new again with remarkably robust audiences in Chicago, Boston and Washington providing a counter-weight to the doom and gloom coming out of places like Phoenix these days.

It's not just that fans are buying tickets for the Hawks, Bruins and Caps. It's that they are establishing new levels of enthusiasm in all three markets. Going to games in Washington as the Capitals took on the Rangers last week was a real eye-opener both in way the fans turned out uniformly decked out in red and screamed for the home team, but also the way in which the Caps promoted participation through their in-game show.

See, many Canadian fans look down their noses at U.S. cities, suggesting they don't know anything about the game. But visits to Washington, New York and Philadelphia showed evidence of fan committment and enthusiasm beyond what you'll often see in Canadian cities.

For someone used to seeing games in Toronto, it's like a totally different universe. A non-demanding fan base that turns out no matter what often creates a very neutral atmosphere at the ACC, certainly nothing like the raucous, partisan throngs that you'll see in U.S. cities. The in-game entertainment package provided in places like the Verizon Centre (D.C.), the Wachovia Centre (Philly) and, of course, Madison Square Garden in New York builds a level of participation that puts the lame, Carlton-the-Bear activities as the ACC to shame.

So while there are clearly places in the U.S. where NHL interest is lagging, there are also places where it is revitalized and the fan experience is as good or better as anything in Canada.

For the Leafs, with Saturday (May 2nd) marking the 42nd anniversary of the last Stanley Cup, one of the priorities for president/GM Brian Burke has to be putting some oomph back into both the on-ice product and the passion for the team. The Leafs have missed the playoffs for four straight years, the longest drought the team has ever experience, yet the response of the city when the Leafs packed it in for the season was really a collective shrug.

It's not that people like losing. They just meekly accept it and don't demand anything else. What we're seeing in cities like Boston, Chicago and Washington are fan bases that wouldn't accept lousy teams, but now that their home teams are good and entertaining, those fan bases are responding in a major way.

Would the same happen in Toronto? Sadly, we may not know for a while yet. But you sure couldn't get fans at the ACC to all wear red, or orange, or white. Tough to pull a t-shirt over a suit.

Comments

[Josh]

The ACC is a little like the new Yankee Stadium in some ways, huh? I liked this quote yesterday from a blog I read:

"Bud Selig may tout profits, but it’s now roughly the same price for a middle income family to go to a Yankees game as it would be to put down the initial payment for a 42-inch HDTV. Families will choose the latter option. Their kids will not be watching baseball."

Not dissimilar from the Leafs.

[David Hutchison]

It's fantastic that other markets are getting excited. Sadly though the fan who won't accept losing is bad for business overall - there is just no way for all 30 teams to win. And if they do, people start complaining of parity and a mediocre product. Only when you can play to a full house with losing teams will the league be as strong as it needs to be. In that respect at least the boring Leaf fans are good for the game. That said - Leaf fans go crazy as well when they have a winning product to cheer for - I lived near Bloor and Yonge the last time the LEafs went on a run in the playoffs and there was little sleep for all the horn honking even in the first round.

[Down Goes Brown]

"What we're seeing in cities like Boston, Chicago and Washington are fan bases that wouldn't accept lousy teams, but now that their home teams are good and entertaining, those fan bases are responding in a major way."

Most sports fans would call that bandwagon-hopping.

"But you sure couldn't get fans at the ACC to all wear red, or orange, or white. Tough to pull a t-shirt over a suit."

True enough. But let's not pretend that there's much cross-over between die-hard Leaf fans and the folks who actually attend the games, especially in the lower bowl. MLSE has every right to charge whatever the market will bear, but you can't price the average fan out of the game and then wonder why the suits that remain don't make any noise. It's tough to cheer when you're working a cell phone.

Drop by any sports bar on a game night if you want to hear some passion. "Fans at the ACC" and "Leaf fans" are hardly the same thing.

[Jeff]

> A non-demanding fan base that turns out no matter what often creates a very neutral atmosphere at the ACC, certainly nothing like the raucous, partisan throngs that you'll see in U.S. cities.

Don't we want fans that will care about the team no matter what? Otherwise we're left with Phoenix. We know how they're doing.

> For the Leafs, with Saturday (May 2nd) marking the 42nd anniversary of the last Stanley Cup

ZOMG! It's been that long!?

> But you sure couldn't get fans at the ACC to all wear red, or orange, or white.

I hope not. The Leaf's colours are blue and white. ;)

[Steve C.]

There's that Canadian inferiority complex again.

Yes the 'suits' are the problem in Toronto but that is just a reflection of the team's enormous popularity: only the rich get in. Are you suggesting it would be better the other way? You can never sell Canadians the notion that they should only support a WINNING team - that's what gets poor hockey markets in trouble. On the other hand, give us a winning team here and you can be sure the 'fan participation' will blow away anything you're describing now.

I'm sorry but I'd rather have Carlton the Bear than have Andy Frost at the ACC try to sell us on how exciting a coming power-play is. Canadian fans (esp. Leaf fans) react with embarrassment when told 'how' to cheer, and rightly so. You are right though, we DO have a superiority complex but go ahead and find a way to feel inferior if you insist, that's how you always see things anyway.

[Pal Hal Pall]

Taking a pessimistic (read realistic) view of things, if the fact that Chicago and Boston, two original six markets, are actually attracting fans is seen as good news as opposed to the normal state of affairs, then that's a serious problem. These are markets that should never have been in doubt in the first place. When a good team in a supposedly good hockey market can only draw fans when the team is outstanding - Boston has been icing decent teams over the past ten years while drawing flies flies - then the league is clearly in a bad state. Any city will support any team if it's winning (or has a flamboyant superstar like Ovechkin). Unfortunately for the NHL and despite their best efforts, every team can't win all the time.

As for Leaf fans, it's no big mystery why the crowds suck. Like DownGoesBrown pointed out, the regular fans have been priced out of the market. But on top of that, Leaf fans are disillusioned, and if the team ever gets exciting, physically dominant, and competitive, the fan base will be re-energized as it was in 92-93.

[Bill]

Damien,

Keep in mind that the people at ACC are not the Leafs fans. Businessmen eating sushi are not the fishermen, firemen, cops, and robbers that love this team. If the suits at ACC ever wanted a crowd of fans (and we all know they do not) in their building they should drop prices to 25 bucks a seat for one game and sell them to hardocre Leafs junkies (and not some token "Diet Coke, only half the real Leafs play, exhibition game either). Lose 9 to 1 in front of a construction worker that hasn't seen this gang of goofs have an ounce of success in 42 years and your perception of fan passion and accountability will change. Ask Brian Burke if he has the guts to put fans in his building a night or two a year (you know he does!) and even that ridiculous bear will be cutting edge.

[furcifer]

Yeah. Staying away works so well for teams. Panthers/Coyotes/Thrashers fans have stayed away in droves. I guess if more of them had stayed away all three teams would be in the playoffs.

[Peter]

i see Damien finally jumped on the Leafs fan bashing bandwagon. too bad it's a cheap shot. interestingly, i've been to Leafs games and never saw any "suits" around. i'm sure if you look at the private boxes they are there, but i don't think that's any different anywhere else. and the atmosphere can be just as good as in any other rinks. the fans were pretty awesome in the home opener last year against the Habs when we beat them in OT.
i thought you are supposed to support your team even if they are losing. that's what you call a fan. just because we don't boo the team every time they screw up, doesn't mean we are not passionate about them. we saw how well that tactic works in Montreal...

[furcifer]

Maybe we should be as demanding as Ducks fans. They won a Cup two years ago and still failed to sell out their first round home games.

[Christian from Portland OR]

Choosing from Jim Balsillie or Bettman, I have to go with Balsillie. The NHL under Bettman has been a complete disaster. I for one applaud him prying his way into the old boys network. Maybe if the NHL had some shrewd businessmen running things they wouldn't be trailing NASCAR in the US. As I read this week, moving the NHL to Phoenix was like opening a kosher deli in Mecca. As a huge Leafs fan, I see Hamilton competition as a great thing to motivate MLSE to actually produce a winner on the ice!