NHL Franchise Boys

The NHL has returned from it’s incredibly stupid lockout with a shortened 2012-13 schedule, and the fans have come flocking back. Entering the recent lockout, the team owners were not concerned about the effect on its fan base. Commissioner Gary Bettman chalked it up to the league having “the greatest fans in the world”. Those fans are so devoted to the NHL product, they’re willing to forgive the work stoppages and return in huge numbers. He was right!

Rather than facing lower attendance and television ratings from “supposed” hoards of hockey fans angered at the NHL for staging its third lockout in eighteen years, the league enjoyed sellouts and high ratings for its opening weekend:

• NBC reported an overnight rating of 2.0 for Saturday’s opening day, the highest for regular season NHL coverage (excluding the Winter Classics) in eleven years.
• CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada saw a record 3.3 million Canadians tune in for the Toronto Maple Leafs-Montreal Canadiens season-opener, the highest for a Leafs-Habs debut since 2007.
• The Ottawa Senators-Winnipeg Jets matinee reached 1.5 million viewers, the highest audience for an HNiC afternoon game, while the Anaheim Ducks-Vancouver Canucks tilt later that evening drew 48 percent more viewers than the network’s ‘Prime West’ debut game from last season.
• The first 17 home-openers were sellouts, ranging from traditional hockey markets like Montreal, Philadelphia and Boston to the non-traditional in Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, Florida and Nashville.

Should the NHL owners decide to exercise their option in September 2019 and “opt out” of the current CBA, or when the current CBA expires in September 2022, they won’t fear damaging their fan base by doing so. They know the fans will come back, because they always have.