I was a bit surprised to see the Panthers percentages, but they're winning this year. Most years the 'fair weather' fans stay home. And, of course, numbers get inflated by visitors to South FL who are cheering for the other team(s). Tampa, meantime, loves the Bolts.Coyotes reach an agreement with Arizona State University's arena for the next three seasons, since the City of Glendale decided not to re-up their lease at Gila River Arena. The university's barn only holds about 5000. I was somewhat surprised to the see the Yotes are averaging 11,600, roughly 68% capacity. I didn't think it was that high.
2021-2022 NHL Attendance - National Hockey League - ESPN
Contrary to popular belief, there really are a lot of hockey fans locally, although a certain percentage are from other NHL cities. A more centrally-located arena would no doubt boost those numbers, as would a competitive team. Truthfully, the current roster of players really do play hard and have plenty of fight in them, just not a ton of talent throughout squad at the moment. But with the plethora of draft picks they've stockpiled in this novel approach to their rebuild, I'm hoping that in 3-4 years they will be a contender. Shane Wright would help, no doubt.
My daughter, who lives in Orlando, and I get to a few Lightning games each year. I'm always amazed how loud stick on puck, puck on boards, puck offa pipes, etc. are compared to on TV. I've gotten hearing aids since the last game we attended. I'm prolly gonna hafta turn them waaay down.
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