A couple housekeeping items here…
I only included cities/areas with a current NHL team in America. This means that no Canadian markets are included, and I did not evaluate places that used to have a team and may be seeking one in the near future like Kansas City, Atlanta or Hartford, Conn.
I have provided the primary market for each team, average attendance since the 2005 lockout (not including this season) and what percentage of the arena the team is filling. There is more emphasis on current attendance, but a team’s history in each location is considered.
The presence of the game's history in each city is taken into consideration, but the focus is on whether each area supports their NHL team in order to be fair to places without high-level high school programs like Philadelphia and St. Louis as well as Sun Belt markets with strong hockey support like San Jose and Tampa Bay.
Finally, I have taken into consideration information accrued from years of reading your comments while covering the NHL for Bleacher Report. As always, your readership and commentary is always appreciated.
All attendance ...
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Article written by Tom Schreier
Power Ranking the Best NHL Markets in the US
February 15th, 2013 by Tom Schreier Leave a reply »
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