Top American Hockey Cities by Viewership/Attendance

[elocomotive]

So, all this talk about hockey cities and what not made me wonder what are the best hockey cities? I figured Detroit would be up there, probably Buffalo and Pittsburgh, and maybe NY, Boston, and some other major cities. And then I was randomly in the Swamp and somebody had a really good TV ratings link up.

So, I took the TV data (manipulated the HH info. to get a person count), combined it with attendance data, and used population information to get a rough "score" . This is FAR (VERY FAR) from a perfected system and the data is a mix of information from the 08-09 and 09-10 seasons, but it gives you a rough idea and I think it's kind of interesting to see. (Sorry Canadian friends - I have no TV data on Canadian teams, so I couldn't factor them in, maybe I'll do a version 2.0 and get them in here and make some changes.)

The "Score" used below is to make it more palatable and easier to digest, but if you move the decimal place one spot to the left, you essentially get a rough measure of how many people are either watching or attending a game in a major metropolitan area on a given night. (For example, for an average game - 8.8% of those in Pittsburgh and 0.5% in Atlanta are watching the NHL game on game nights). Remember though, that is for total population, so it includes kids, people w/out TVs, etc. etc.

Enjoy...and please nobody take anything too personally. I understand people have the city pride thing, but I've been busted on for a long time for being a Caps' fan and have never understood what the behavior of other people in my city has to do with what i MYSELF do as a fan. It was just something fun to do and I thought I'd share. Relatedly, LOL at Panthers' fans!

SCORE (rank) CITY
132.3 (1) Buffalo Sabres
87.9 (2) Pittsburgh Penguins
49.6 (3) Detroit Red Wings
37.8 (4) Boston Bruins
37.4 (5) Minnesota Wild
34.6 (6) Philadelphia Flyers
33.1 (7) Columbus Blue Jackets
29.7 (8) St. Louis Blues
27.0 (9) Colorado Avalanche
24.0 (10) New York Rangers
20.2 (11) San Jose Sharks
15.4 (12) Washington Capitals
14.2 (13) Chicago Blackhawks
14.2 (14) Tampa Bay Lightning
10.4 (15) Los Angeles Kings
9.8 (16) New Jersey Devils
9.6 (17) Anaheim Ducks
8.3 (18) Dallas Stars
6.9 (19) Phoenix Coyotes
5.3 (20) Atlanta Thrashers
5.2 (21) New York Islanders
4.6 (22) Florida Panthers

 

[elocomotive]

PS - For cities with multiple teams (LA and NY), I split the population. Only fair since these teams have competition in the same market.

 

[IPostedWhat]

WE'RE #1!!! WE'RE #1!!!!

I was not surprised to see Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Detroit in the top 3 spots.

The Bruins look like they got a much needed bump thanks to Jeff.

 

[KennyBanyeah]

That list has no huge surprises for me.

Seems to me like you did a good job.

Among the new teams Minny is no surprise at the top. I find Columbus mildly being as high as it is surprising because: 1) It doesn't really mesh with their attendance figures and 2) They haven't had any real success to date.

Interesting to see for sure.

 

[Darkstone42]

Well done, eloco! When I have rep to give out, you'll get some. I like it!

 

[elocomotive]

That list has no huge surprises for me.

Seems to me like you did a good job.

Among the new teams Minny is no surprise at the top. I find Columbus mildly being as high as it is surprising because: 1) It doesn't really mesh with their attendance figures and 2) They haven't had any real success to date.

They have really good TV viewership for the size of their city and remember, they did sell out their arena for years despite fielding a pretty terrible team. So, it's clear people are still interested, even if fewer want to shell out the bucks (recession) to go see them live. Only 2 towns on the list have metro populations under 2 million - Buffalo and Columbus (both of whom I think were on the top 10 viewing list for the Classic despite MUCH bigger cities they were up against).

 

[elocomotive]

Well done, eloco! When I have rep to give out, you'll get some. I like it!

When I posted it, I thought 'If nothing else, I know Darkstone will enjoy this." Hahaha!

 

[beantownmaniac]

WE'RE #1!!! WE'RE #1!!!!

I was not surprised to see Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Detroit in the top 3 spots.

The Bruins look like they got a much needed bump thanks to Jeff.

Why did you have to say that IPW? We'll never hear the end of it.

 

[Darkstone42]

When I posted it, I thought 'If nothing else, I know Darkstone will enjoy this." Hahaha!

You know it. What was your formula?

 

[elocomotive]

You know it. What was your formula?

Avg. HH viewing * avg. American household size + avg game attendance / Metro. Area Population * 1,000

The issues...
-Not everyone in the household is watching, but the ratings do a poor job factoring in watching in bars, etc. which are more prevalent for sports and it was needed to keep the percentage measure (so I figure the two might wash a little, like I said, I did this in about 20 mins. so it's far from scientific)
-If you are doing a measure of attendance, % attending is a better measure for judging fans, but it was tough to develop a multiplier that worked effectively and then it would ruin the use of the score as a percentage of people viewing the game in total (besides, the TV numbers are almost always dominant to the game attendance)

 

[IPostedWhat]

You guys are talking about math, aren't ya?

I'm going to go look at this shiny thing that caught my attention.

 

[davnlaguna]

WE'RE #1!!! WE'RE #1!!!!

I was not surprised to see Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Detroit in the top 3 spots.

The Bruins look like they got a much needed bump thanks to Jeff.

Buffalo is a ghost town that only gets one tv station and for the poor people that live(if that is even the right word) there it only shows Sabers games. That proves Buffalo is Hell.

 

[IPostedWhat]

Buffalo is a ghost town that only gets one tv station and for the poor people that live(if that is even the right word) there it only shows Sabers games. That proves Buffalo is Hell.

I would reply back to this, but I will just get in trouble again.

But I guess that does prove a snowball really does have a chance.

 

[elocomotive]

I would reply back to this, but I will just get in trouble again.

But I guess that does prove a snowball really does have a chance.

Well, it wouldn't be fair, would it? It'd be 13 v. 1.

 

[IPostedWhat]

Well, it wouldn't be fair, would it? It'd be 13 v. 1.

Whatchu talkin bout Elo?

 

[TiLoBrown]

PS - For cities with multiple teams (LA and NY), I split the population. Only fair since these teams have competition in the same market.

NY should be split 3 ways then since The Rock normally has alot more Rangers fans in it than Devils fans....yea I'm nitpicking so sue me! lol

 

[puckhead]

You guys are talking about math, aren't ya?

I'm going to go look at this shiny thing that caught my attention.

careful, it's sharp.

 

[IPostedWhat]

careful, it's sharp.

Too late.

 

[Automattic]

Ding! nice patience though...

 

[Automattic]

Ding! nice patience though...

Oops wrong thread.