AUSTIN, Texas – How do you measure success at the box office? Everyone we’ve talked to says just look at attendance figures and you’ll end up with a pretty good picture of which teams are doing well and which aren’t.
We weren’t so sure. So we researched the attendance figures for the CHL and based on that information, the teams up near the top of the heap must be doing very well, while the teams down near the bottom should be ready to shut their doors. If that were true, then why do some of the teams at or near the bottom continue to survive?
For some of them, maybe it’s because a better way to measure their success is to look at filled seats as a percentage of building capacity. The following chart shows team attendance rank by attendance and by building capacity for hockey (capacities provided by the CHL).
Rank Team Avg Attendance Capacity % Cap Rank
1 OKC 5903 10400 57* 6 tie
2 Tulsa 5513 17096 32** 15
3 Wichita 5289 9560 57 6 tie
4 Colorado 5289 5289 100 1
5 RGV 4460 5500 81 2
6 Laredo 4220 8002 52 8
7 Rapid City 3879 5037 77 4
8 Bos-Shr 3765 7353 51 9
9 Arizona 3573 5100 70 5
10 Rocky Mt 2790 6000 47 10
11 Corpus 2629 7495 35 13 tie
12 NMX 2474 6200 40 12
13 Miss 2 414 8400 29 16
14 Odessa 2224 5131 43 11
15 Texas 1838 2300 80 3
16 Amarillo 1715 4900 35 13 tie
All other things being equal (and we know they’re not), is it better to lead the league in attendance and fill just over half your seats, or is it better to be in the middle of the pack and fill 70% of your seats? How do teams like Corpus Christi, Mississippi and Amarillo survive year after year? Without knowing each team’s total cost to run their operations, we’ll probably never know the answer to this and as long as our team survives, we probably don’t care.
We probably haven’t answered the question of what is the best way to measure success, but we’ve certainly provided ammunition for bragging rights for fans of teams who don’t draw as well as others, but fill more seats as a percentage of capacity.
Winning is a key ingredient to filling seats and approaching full capacity. But not always. Comparing the attendance ranks in this article with the CHL Power Ranking Poll conducted by PHN’s Jeff Reed for the same week indicates that winning isn’t everything. The Texas Brahmas have been among the CHL’s top teams this season in the PHN poll but ranks next to last in the attendance rankings. The Odessa Jackalopes are leading the Southwest Division but cannot hit a stride at home to gain a winning streak there. The result has been a terrible draw at the gate in west Texas.
The RiverKings have consistently been in the top half of the CHL poll but this year are ranked near the bottom of total attendance and percent of building capacity.
So what does it all mean? Winning is not everything but it has second place beat by a mile. As suggested recently on these pages, the cure for attendance ills may be nothing more than putting a better product on the ice. A competitive hockey match where the home team is in it to the end is better than a t-shirt cannon and silly contests during intermissions. The fans are not stupid. They want to see quality hockey, whatever the level.
Contact the authors at: mitch.cooper@prohockeynews.com and lou.lafrado@prohockeynews.com.
*The Ford Center in Oklahoma City uses a figure of 18,036 for hockey that drops their percentage to 33%.
**Tulsa has a brand new building. While their percentage of capacity has decreased due to the size of the building, their overall attendance from past years has increased slightly.
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