The NHL will now focus on boosting attendance rates at arenas in a bid to create more excitement around the game The League has that it would seek to convert TV spectators into live crowd at the arenas.
NHL Focused on Boosting Arenas Attendance Rates
The National Hockey League (NHL) will attempt to take more fans off the small screen and directly to the arenas. The governing body is planning to employ several measures that would hope to see places like Detroit keep filing up the city’s arena. Yet, this has proved more challenging in recent years, mostly because ice hockey has a lot of competitors out there.
Red Wings, one of the NHL franchises, said that they have been successfully filing up their arenas to about 98% of capacity, but at the expense of significant marketing efforts. Yet, estimated five teams of 31 ended up not filling 90% of their arenas’ capacity. Meanwhile, the Red Wings’ results are far from the 2013/2014 season’s rates.
In places like Detroit, one of the main problems proved that people were too lazy to actually use the tickets that they received. Instead of watching the game at the rather chilly arenas, most people would just rather stay in the comfort of their own homes.
Hockey and Chill
Netflix has proven to be one of the main competitors to the NHL and this is not surprising at all. San Jose Sharks VP Doug Bentz has been able to confirm the clout of the video streaming platform:
“The one advantage we have over Netflix is you’re a part of a community at a Sharks game. We want more of that in our world where so many are stuck on devices in isolation or binge-watching on a couch maybe with one other person.”
A Blues’ fan was cited by the Associated Press, as if as a counterpoise to the opinion that staying at home would be be enough when it concerned a game of hockey. According to the fan, ‘TV doesn’t do it [the sport] justice.’
There have been many attempts to boost attendance. The Carolina Hurricanes have successfully managed to climb out of the bottom of the league, boosting their overall attendance rate to around ¾ of the total capacity of their home arena.
Meanwhile, there have been many tickets giveaways in the hopes of boosting the overall attendance numbers. Selling tickets on mobile – as they do in Major League Baseball (MLB) – has also been discussed.
Fans have also had the opposite ideas just as well. One Red Wings fan said that while he appreciated his team’s efforts, it was not entirely possible for him to attend. Life often gets in the way and so do family and children. The fact that other sports are having a less visible problem in attendance rates is quite understandable– a better overall popularity of that specific game.
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