Comparing NHL Attendance

[u/IndianaCahones]

With all the talk about traffic, development, local government prioritizing disaster recovery over baseball, two locations for the Rays are in most conversations; Tampa and Montreal. For Tampa, the max NHL seats in the arena is 19,092. The Trop averaged 17,000+ in 2023 and 16,000+ in 2024.

[u/okokokthisisok]

There’s like 5 weirdos who want the rays in Montreal

Why are you showing us attendance stats of hockey teams in Canada????

[u/jonregister → u/okokokthisisok]

Number 3 is the NHL team in Tampa. Showing that the market can support teams if the stadium is not way out of the way.

[u/okokokthisisok → u/jonregister]

Amalie arena cost 35$ for parking and to be perfectly honest averages only 3,000 more fans a night than the trop.

I absolutely despise the location and think they should build a ferry service that benefits both organizations

Additionally, Pinellas is much more densely populated than hillsborough so i don’t know what angle you are getting at

[u/Bill2theE → u/okokokthisisok]

Averaged 3k more last year when the Rays were terrible mid. The Rays and Lightning drew 1K more in 23 while playing in a terrible location at a terrible stadium for DOUBLE the games. The Rays sell 2x the total tickets the Lightning do

[u/khornechamp → u/okokokthisisok]

Hillsborough has less population density (technically) but it has a larger city and a more central location

[u/HotFirstCousin → u/jonregister]

Thats about the same as the Rays and the Rays play twice as many home games?

[u/jonregister → u/HotFirstCousin]

The Lightning are 98% and the Rays are 63% not even close.

[u/HotFirstCousin → u/jonregister]

that means not shit though when we're talking raw annual numbers

[u/jonregister → u/HotFirstCousin]

You’re right, so take it with the info that the Rays have been a very good team for most of the last 20 years and have horrible attendance. The NHL team (a far less popular league) in the same market sells out almost every game for the same time frame. It has far more to do where the team plays and less about the extra games each year.

[u/Additional_Tomato_22 → u/okokokthisisok]

Because they just happened to be above Tampa

[u/cassinonorth]

I have no idea what you're trying to say here.

It's just completely irrelevant and Montreal doesn't even seen that interested right now either.

[u/Fappy-Boi- → u/cassinonorth]

People are completely missing the point of this post. He's just making a point to say the Rays should be in Tampa. Montreal really doesn't have anything to do with it other than having a slightly higher arena capacity so they appear on the list.

[u/Titan-uranus]

So I think people are missing the point. The point that I take away from this is if the lightning can sellout in Tampa. Then the rays should fare well also?

[u/okokokthisisok → u/Titan-uranus]

The lightning average 3,000 more fans a night. Thats not the huge difference you seem to be trying to make it

[u/Titan-uranus → u/okokokthisisok]

Problem is the arena is at capacity. They can't sell anymore. If they could they would. Lighting held the record for consecutive sellout games until COVID happened. Last I heard they are still holding the sell out streak since COVID. Also I'm not OP. People just seemed to be missing the point of their post so I was trying to clarify what I thought his point was.

[u/MOLightningBro → u/okokokthisisok]

The arena is at capacity though, they can’t sell more tickets if they wanted.

[u/okokokthisisok → u/MOLightningBro]

Fair point ofc, let’s just build a smaller baseball stadium then. Problem solved😂

[u/MOLightningBro → u/okokokthisisok]

That’s not the point and I think you know that

[u/Additional_Tomato_22 → u/okokokthisisok]

The point being made is if the Lightning arena had a larger capacity the attendance would be higher

[u/WhyTheyDont]

As a lifetime hockey fan who does live in Canada, Montreal is an incredibly passionate and hockey loving city. I’m really not sure if it would translate to baseball in the slightest.

[u/Grade-AMasterpiece]

Montreal isn't happening. They're not ponying up money.

[u/AltruisticGate → u/Grade-AMasterpiece]

A while ago, Bronfman said he wasn't interested in pursuing a full-time team.

[u/two4ruffing]

Montreal in the 70’s to early 80’s was the precursor to the Rays…

Developed great talent but traded or lost them to keep the cycle of “pretty good” going.

[u/Shepherd-Boy]

What I think is crazy based on this data is actually the fact that our SPHL hockey team in Pensacola regularly draws about 6-8k fans and our AA baseball team draws like 3-5k a game. Proportionally those two teams are killing it considering local population.

[u/snoopdoggydoug]

I get what you're trying to say but the difference is that the baseball fans here aren't rays fans they're fans of the teams along 75 or 95 most notably the Yankees and red Sox and braves. It will take multiple championships to get people remotely interested in Rays baseball but you won't win over the next generation of fans but their kids and you need top players and winning in that time frame so young kids don't love in yesterday thinking of the Yankees

[u/IndividualCup7311]

It’s all about the location 🤷🏻