2022-23 NHL team attendance tracker: Risers, fallers, surprises and trends
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By Hailey Salvian and Ian Mendes
Jun 21, 2023
The NHL welcomed a return to normalcy this season, at least when it comes to ticket sales.
As a gate-driven league, NHL owners and teams were decimated financially during the pandemic-impacted seasons, being forced to play in empty buildings or in front of limited-capacity crowds. The 2020-21 season was the worst-attended season (1.77 million attendance) in which games were actually played.
But this year the league drew 22.4 million fans — 24 million including the playoffs — for its best attendance numbers ever. Of course, that’s how it should have been. The league added a 32nd team, and 41 more home games in a new building with a passionate fan base; the Seattle Kraken had 703,211 people attend games this season, per Hockey Reference.
The 2018-19 season previously held the attendance record with 22.2 million fans in the regular season in 41 fewer regular season games. Still, it’s a sizable increase (7.9 percent) over the 2021-22 season.
According to the Sports Business Journal, the NHL’s seven Canadian clubs were up a collective 26 percent (plus-1.05 million over the 2021-22 season), while the three California teams were up 14 percent (plus-226,386).
The Arizona Coyotes, however, pulled the league’s numbers in the opposite direction. The club had previously finished near the bottom in attendance every season dating back to 2006-07, and their move this season to the 4,600-seat Mullett Arena generated a total attendance of 188,600.
Most teams drew crowds the same size or bigger than they managed before the pandemic shuttered the 2019-20 season. Only Arizona, Chicago, San Jose, Winnipeg and Buffalo dropped more than 1,000 fans per game from 2019-20.
Let’s look at the scenarios across the league, from the Southern success stories, to the reliable box office markets and the bottom-five teams.
Attendance figures have been compiled from HockeyDB, Hockey Reference and NHL official records.
Good vibes rolling
Vegas Golden Knights: 18,024 (103 percent)
Boston Bruins: 18,372 (101.7 percent)
Colorado Avalanche: 17,991 (100.5 percent)
Seattle Kraken: 17,151 (100.3 percent)
Tampa Bay Lightning: 19,092 (99.4 percent)
It’s the last four Stanley Cup champions, a new team in a great building, and the best regular-season team in NHL history.
Vegas has a one-of-a-kind game atmosphere and — save for 2021-22 — has never been bad. Tampa won back-to-back Stanley Cups and still have their core locked in. Despite an injury-filled season, the Avalanche continue to be a draw with stars like Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon. After a rocky debut, the Kraken were one of the best teams in the Western Conference and continue to sell hockey to Seattle with new faces and enhanced gameday operations — from Matty Beniers, to Buoy the troll and a new musical score produced for the team by Hans Zimmer, the Oscar-winning composer.
The Bruins, meanwhile, broke the NHL’s single-season wins and points records this season. Though the team will look a lot different next season due to their cap situation, the Bruins have averaged over 17,000 fans since 2008-09. Even in 2015-16, when they missed the playoffs, their average attendance was 18,777.
Southern success stories
Nashville Predators: 17,361 (101.5 percent)
Carolina Hurricanes: 19,526 (99.6 percent)
Dallas Stars: 18,371 (99.1 percent)
If you weren’t convinced by the success of Vegas or Tampa, this is where bad Sun Belt takes go to die.
Since the beginning of the 2018-19 season — the first for the trio of owner Tom Dundon, GM and president Don Waddell and coach Rod Brind’Amour — the Hurricanes have made major strides on the ice and in the stands. Carolina is 226-106-40 since that first season, behind only Boston, Tampa and Colorado, while attendance has jumped from an average of 13,321 in 2017-18 (28th out of 31) to 19,526 this season. Only the Montreal Canadiens averaged more fans. Part of the success — attendance-wise — in Carolina is the product on the ice, but also the growth of hockey in Raleigh. The team also drew nearly 57,000 people to the outdoor game at Carter-Finley Stadium, home of NC State football.
The Nashville Predators did not have much on-ice success this season, and played without their top players for long stretches of the season, but they still had one of the best capacity rates league-wide. Why? The simple answer: Bridgestone Arena is just off Broadway, one of the most popular tourist areas in the country. And the atmosphere at games in Nashville is a blast.
The Dallas Stars returned to their pre-COVID attendance numbers where they have averaged over 18,000 fans since 2014-15.
New circumstances
New York Islanders: 16,912 (98.8 percent)
Ottawa Senators: 16,757 (89.9 percent)
The two teams that have experienced the biggest jumps are the Islanders and the Senators, with both clubs seeing a bump of more than 4,000 fans per game. And there is a direct and clear explanation for each of them.
For the Islanders, the move to a brand new facility at UBS Arena has served as the main catalyst. Years of uncertainty about their future seemed to impact their numbers at the box office, as they bounced between the Nassau Coliseum and Barclays Center. But they’ve played to near capacity in the two seasons at UBS Arena.
The Senators boost can be traced to a change in philosophy with the hockey club over the past 12 months. Following the passing of longtime owner Eugene Melnyk, the Senators opted for a more aggressive approach to spending on payroll last summer. They added the likes of Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat, creating significant buzz in the marketplace. The team was much more competitive, hanging around the fringes of the playoff race into the month of March. And after years of dwelling in the basement of league attendance, Ottawa has enjoyed the biggest rise of any team when compared to their 2019-20 figures.
The reliables
Minnesota Wild: 18,454 (102.8 percent)
Toronto Maple Leafs: 18,753 (99.6 percent)
Montreal Canadiens: 21,078 (99.1 percent)
New York Rangers: 17,859 (99.2 percent)
Vancouver Canucks: 18,702 (98.9 percent)
St. Louis Blues: 18,075 (98.2 percent)
Edmonton Oilers: 17,838 (95.7)
It’s not surprising to see some of the strongest traditional markets continue to have success at the box office. Despite finishing with the fifth-worst record in the NHL, the Montreal Canadiens fans continued to pack the Bell Centre on a regular basis last season. With Stanley Cup-caliber rosters, other Original Six cities like Toronto and New York also played to virtual sellouts on a nightly basis.
The Minnesota Wild experienced a jump of nearly 1,000 fans per game at the Xcel Energy Center, putting them at the very top of the league when it comes to percentage capacity (102.8). Edmonton fans still came out in droves to watch Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on a nightly basis.
It will be interesting to watch how two historically strong markets — Vancouver and St. Louis — perform in this realm next season. Both franchises played to near-sellout crowds, but the Canucks and Blues were caught in the awkward position of being too good to be a lottery team but not good enough to seriously challenge for a playoff spot. The safe bet is that the fans — reliably — stay in the building.
The all-time greats
Washington Capitals: 18,573 (100.4 percent)
Pittsburgh Penguins: 17,816 (96.9 percent)
Generations of hockey fans in Pittsburgh and Washington don’t know their team without Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin.
The support for these two teams, with these two all-time greats of the game, has been undeniable. Washington, before Ovechkin, was one of the least-attended teams in the NHL. But since 2008-09 has been in the top half, if not top-10. From February 2007 to October 2021, the Penguins had a 14-year, 633-game sellout streak.
The hope for the Penguins is that new president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas can add the pieces around Crosby and the Big 3 to get the team back into the postseason, and maximize the window of contention around Crosby’s contract. For Washington, fans will likely still fill Capital One Arena as Ovechkin (822 goals) chases Wayne Gretzky’s all-time scoring title (894 goals) and GM Brian MacLellan continues his efforts to re-tool the roster.
Trending in the right direction
Los Angeles Kings: 17,067 (94.2 percent)
Detroit Red Wings: 18,819 (94.1 percent)
New Jersey Devils: 15,207 (92.1 percent)
From when we did this exercise in December to the end of the regular season, the New Jersey Devils had one of the biggest upticks in average attendance, up to 15,207 per game from 13,859. As the Devils went from a surprising young team to a legitimate contender with the third-best record in the league, fans showed out.
This season’s ticket sales were the team’s best since 2013-14 as New Jersey saw its average attendance above 15,000 for the first time since they made the playoffs back in 2017-18. With a talented, young core locked into place, New Jersey should expect that attendance number to climb at the Prudential Center next season.
The Red Wings are an interesting team to look at. Their attendance numbers improved over the last few seasons as their on-ice product has done the same and their average attendance ranks top-five in the NHL. However, at some point, they’ll need to play relevant games in the spring after missing the playoffs for seven straight seasons.
Los Angeles has been able to navigate the transition from their Stanley Cup years rather effectively, remaining a playoff team in the Western Conference thanks to an injection of youth and valuable summer acquisitions to add to what remains of their previously established core. Their attendance numbers have held fairly steady compared to 2019-20, but there is certainly some room to grow back into the area of 18,000-plus for home games at Crypto.com Arena.
Taking a dip
Winnipeg Jets: 14,045 (93.6 percent)
Philadelphia Flyers: 17,635 (90.3 percent)
Columbus Blue Jackets: 16,860 (93.5 percent)
Calgary Flames: 17,956 (93.1)
It’s surprising to see some solid hockey markets on this list.
In Winnipeg, demand to see the Jets has decreased to the point where True North Sports & Entertainment launched a season ticket drive in April called “Forever Winnipeg.”
“So long as fans are in Canada Life Centre cheering on their team, the Winnipeg Jets will be in Winnipeg forever,” True North said in a press release. A promotional video for the campaign went so far as to ask the question “Is Winnipeg an NHL city?”
Average Jets attendance during the 2018-2019 season, the last full season before the pandemic, was 15,276 — not far off Canada Life Centre’s 15,321-seat capacity for hockey. This season, the average attendance dipped to 14,045. Team chairman Mark Chipman told a business luncheon this spring, “That challenge has become far more daunting now that the effect of the pandemic is fully understood. After 10 years of consecutive sellouts, we now find ourselves in a very different world.”
When we analyzed attendance numbers during the regular season, the Philadelphia Flyers were one of the biggest droppers on the list. But part of Philadelphia’s dip in attendance in October and November can be attributed to the success of the Phillies and Eagles, who were having dominant seasons that took up more attention in the marketplace than the Flyers at the start of their season. Philadelphia’s average attendance has now been under 18,000 per game in each of the last two seasons — the first time that’s happened since the club moved into the Wells Fargo Center in 1996.
The Flames played to their lowest crowds in the salary cap era. Part of that could be attributed to losing two superstar players in Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau and that the team underperformed for most of the season en route to a playoff miss. But the Flames also play in the oldest arena in the league — the Scotiabank Saddledome — with a new event center still years away, there appears to be some malaise that has set into the marketplace in Calgary.
Columbus Blue Jackets season tickets were in high demand after the team landed Gaudreau as the prized free agent catch last summer and re-signed Patrik Laine to a four-year deal. In September, the Jackets said they sold more season tickets over the offseason than they have in a decade.
“We anticipate season tickets to be well over 11,000,” Blue Jackets vice president of communications Todd Sharrock said. “Which will get us back to the pre-pandemic numbers for the first time.”
The team faltered though, and finished 31st in the league, which mitigated some of that preseason excitement. The overall numbers did not drop by much from 2019-20, but they — like the on-ice product — still fell short of expectations.
The Coyotes
Arizona Coyotes: 4,600 (100 percent)
Arizona already served as a punching bag when it came to attendance-related jokes. Then the team moved to a 4,600-capacity arena and had its Tempe arena proposal shot down by voters, leaving the fate of the franchise in question. We’re not interested in piling on. The atmosphere at Mullett Arena actually looks very fun, but it’s not a long-term NHL facility.
So, the Coyotes are back on the hunt for a new arena (again) now that the Tempe project will not go ahead and after their lease with the City of Glendale for Gila River Arena was terminated after the 2021-22 season. According to Craig Morgan with PHNX Sports, the Coyotes are eyeing multiple arena sites in Mesa, Phoenix, Scottsdale and on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community land.
Meanwhile, the team will play the 2023-24 season at Mullett Arena.
The bottom 5
Florida Panthers: 16,682 (86.7 percent)
Anaheim Ducks: 14,953 (87.1 percent)
Chicago Blackhawks: 17,167 (83.7 percent)
San Jose Sharks: 13,912 (79.2 percent)
Buffalo Sabres: 15,567 (81.6 percent)
Despite finishing at the bottom of the attendance table, there is plenty of reason for optimism around several of these teams.
The Panthers saw one of the biggest jumps of any team, with an increase of more than 2,500 fans per game when compared to 2019-20. And that was before Florida’s magical playoff run to the Stanley Cup Final, so there is every reason to be hopeful that ticket numbers only increase in South Florida for next season.
After years of being an attendance powerhouse, Chicago plummeted to the bottom last season, routinely playing in front of thousands of empty seats at the United Center. Chicago’s drop of more than 4,000 fans per game compared to 2019-20 was the largest drop of any club in the NHL (excluding Arizona, who switched to a smaller venue). But if Chicago selects Connor Bedard with the No. 1 pick in next week’s draft, the generational talent may be able to single-handedly reinvigorate ticket sales in the marketplace. Just winning the lottery has made an impact on season-ticket sales; the Blackhawks told ESPN they made $5.2 million in ticketing revenue less than a day after the team won the right to select Bedard.
Anaheim could see a bump if a No. 2 selection such as Adam Fantilli hits the ground running next season under new coach Greg Cronin.
And while the Buffalo Sabres saw their attendance drop by 1,600 fans per game, there is also some excitement that the club could be on the precipice of competing for a playoff spot. Attendance numbers in Buffalo improved over the course of the season as the team remained in the thick of the playoff race; Average attendance improved to 15,567 up from 13,634 in December. If the Sabres break out of their 12-year playoff drought next spring, we should expect the KeyBank Center to be filled to capacity on most nights. Buffalo has historically been one of the strongest hockey markets in the league, but fans have grown tired of the perpetual losing.
The only team on this list that could be in for another rough season on the attendance front is the San Jose Sharks. Even with Erik Karlsson producing a magical, Norris-caliber season, it wasn’t enough to bring the fans out in droves. The Sharks were the only team to play to less than 80 percent capacity last season and if they start the process of a rebuild — which could include trading Karlsson this summer — it stands to reason they could have a difficult time selling tickets next season.
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