Washington Capitals help NHL break league attendance record - Washington Business Journal:

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Reported attendance for the leagueincreased 1.1 percent to 21.4 million for the 2008-09 and paid admissions rose “ little over” 1 percent, said Deputyt Commissioner Bill Daly. The increases occurred even though the leagusacrificed 30,399 fans by changing the Winted Classic’s location. The event was moved from Ralphu Wilson Stadiumin Buffalo, N.Y., which drew 71,217 in 2008, to Chicago’d Wrigley Field, which drew “Especially in light of the economy, we’rer pleased with where we ended up this Daly said. “We had a good competitive year on the ice and the fans continued to respond to the which is apositive story.
” The league’s reportec attendance increases were driven in large part by Washington and Boston. The Blackhawks led the leaguer in attendance with an averageof 21,752 — up 29.4 percent from 2007-08. The Capitalxs had the second-largest jump in average rising 17 percentto 18,097. The Bruins, with the third-largesg increase, climbed 10.4 percent to Those gains were complemented by the continuec strength ofthe , , , , and the six Canadia n clubs — all of whom played to 100 percen t capacity.
“The revival and real energy you see in some markets the Washingtons, the Bostons, the Chicagos is great to see and helps on a leaguewide basis,” Daly “The fact that a good numbeer of our teams sell out everyh one of their games is good news.” Some however, struggled. The Tampa Bay Lightning, in the firsyt year of new ownership under Len Barrie andOren Koules, sufferedx an 11.7 percent decline in average attendance to 16,498, and the , which finished at the bottokm of their conference, declined 8.4 percent to an averager of 5,429. The had the lowest average attendance at The and followed with an averagewof 14,626 and 14,876 spectators, respectively.
The leaguewide increase at the gate carrie overto television, where averagd ratings were up at each of the league’s national broadcast partners. In the U.S., averagew viewership on Versus rose 14 percentto 310,000 viewersx and a 0.3 cable and NBC’s ratings rose from a 1.0 to a 1.1 householr rating through nine telecasts. In Canada, viewershilp was up on CBC by 5 percenft to an average of 1milliob viewers, on TSN by 12 percent to an averagee of 451,000 viewers and on RDS by 7 percent to an averag of 650,000 viewers. NBC’s average ratingz received a big lift from its broadcas t of the 2009Winter Classic. The game drew more than 4.
4 million viewers, and without it the league’s average would have slippesd toa 0.8 household rating with 1.171 million “That’s something NBC and [the NHL] work on togethe and will continue to work on to maximize thosde numbers,” Daly said. “It’s a factor of matchups sometime, weather on some Sundays and maybetime slots, and thos are all things we will continue to focus on.” Ratings results locallh were mixed. The Blackhawks, Capitals, Thrashers, Bruinss and Sharks experienced double-digit ratings increases The Islanders, , Red Wings and sufferecd double-digit declines.