Coyotes in Trouble

The financial crisis of the Phoenix Coyotes looks like it's taken another turn. According to reports the city of Glendale, a Phoenix offshoot where the Coyotes play, has been allowing the team to play rent-free for the last 7 months; a savings which could amount to $4M over a season. The city of Glendale owns the arena.

It was already reported late last year that the troubled Coyotes franchise is getting their league revenue share early from the NHL to help offset the financial losses. Previous reports suggest that the team has lost $200M since 2001.

Daytona 500 - Popularity by region

NASCAR had it's biggest race of the season last week and judging by the ratings that were released by media market, if you live in a city with 'Green' or 'ville' in it's name chances are that you watched Matt Kenseth win.

Here's the breakdown of how the race was watched, the rating represents the percentage of TVs that were on and watched the race, so of all the TV's in the Greenville region 21.2% were watching the Daytona 500.

1. Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville - 21.2 rating, 182,000 viewers
2. Greensboro - 19.9 rating, 136,000 viewers
3. Dayton -18.0 rating, 87,000
4. Indianapolis - 17.2 rating, 192 viewers
5. Knoxville - 17.0 rating, 93,000 viewers
6. Charlotte - 15.6 rating, 175,000 viewers
7. Orlando-Daytona Bch-Melbrn - 15.4 rating, 226,000 viewers
8. Nashville - 15.3 rating, 155,000 viewers
9. Tampa-St. Pete, Sarasota - 15.3 rating, 278,000 viewers
10. Jacksonville - 15.1 rating, 102 viewers

Washington Sell-Outs

This afternoon's Washington Capitals home game against the Pittsburgh is certainly must see TV with the league's top three players going up against each other.

It's not not exactly surprising that today's game is sold out but it's shocking in the same nature that Turtle is dating Meadow Soprano in real-life that this sellout game will be the 8th consecutive which will tie a team record.

Folks, the Caps have been around since 1974. That's 35 years and you're telling me that they've never sold out more than eight games in a row?

To put things into perspective the Colorado Avalanche once sold out 487 games in a row.

Super Bowl & NBA All-Star Game Health Tie-ins

Stem Cells aren't normally the type of topic that's discussed during NBA All-Star weekend but they made an appearance in Phoenix when 'natural stem cell enhancers' called StemSPORT were doled out in gift bags for the National Basketball Association of Retired Players.

According to the press release, these stem cell enhancers are supposed to "increase the release and circulation of Adult Stem Cells by some 25%... For very active and sports focused people, Stem Cells are the raw materials to repair micro-tears and micro-injuries created during training."

In related news, Dikembe Mutombo is now seeking a new 10-year contract.

Meanwhile, apparently the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers wasn't necessarily the result of their stellar defense or Ben Roethlisberger's game-winning drive but rather their use of fish oils. The Steelers were at the forefront of a two-year study that looked at the use of Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acid found in fish oil and it's impact on reducing cholesterol and other cardiovascular risk factors.

Just imagine how much longer it would have taken James Harrison to catch his breath after that 100-yd interception if he didn't have all that fish oil in his system.

What's in a number?

Alongside discussions about Shaq and Kobe's reunion, Amare Stoudemire's possible exit in Phoenix and Allen Iverson going the Carmelo Anthony route and shaving off his trademark cornrows was the scuttlebutt that LeBron James is toying with the idea of switching his No.23 jersey to his Beijing Olympics #6 uni.

So what kind of affect would a number change have on sales of Bron-Bron jerseys?

Well, LBJ currently holds the NBA's third best selling jersey behind Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett. Interestingly enough it was Kobe who switched jersey numbers from 8 to 24 (his old high school number) a few years ago and saw sales of his jersey increase. You can bet that a new LBJ jersey change will cause fans to flood to stores just to own the latest and greatest and instantly vault the LeBron jersey back to the top of the heap.

In case you're curious, no one on the NY Knicks currently wears the No.6 jersey. And if you're looking at the #6 jersey as a precursor to possible 2010 free agency locations, the number is retired by Boston, Philly, Phoenix, and San Antonio.

The Shock of Lightning

Damian Cristodero, from the St. Pete Times had an interesting piece today about the inflated attendance numbers of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Those commonly distributed attendance figures that the NHL releases only reflect the announced attendance and not the actual tickets sold, and even these announced attendance figures are often sketchy when teams announce 14,000 people in the building when there's actually 8,000.

Through the first months of this season the Lightning are selling 14,119 tickets per game but are averaging 16,698 people. Meaning close to 2,600 tickets per game are simply given away to help fill up the building.

How to sell hockey tickets in non-traditional markets

Two new interesting promotional campaigns have been launched by two of the NHL's worst attendance leaders. The Atlanta Thrashers and the Florida Panthers both draw on average less than 15,000 fans per game and in an attempt to change that they are trying to entice fans with some novel ticket packages.

The Florida Panthers who have not made the playoffs in nearly 10 years and who currently occupy the 8th and final playoff spot are offering their fans a "Panthers Playoff Promise" package. If fans purchase a 4-game pack for this year, they will receive tickets for 4 free games next year if the Panthers don't make the playoffs.

Funny you would expect someone like Columbus to offer a deal like this to their fans considering they are the only NHL club to have never made the playoffs.

The Thrashers meanwhile are one upping the Panthers by offering lower bowl tickets for $30, yes, you heard that right $30. But no that's not all, whatever amount you spend on these lower bowl tickets will be credited at a 50% rate towards tickets for next year. Essentially this means Atlanta fans are getting tickets that sell for well over $100 in other NHL arenas for $15 per ticket. Wow! It's no wonder that Atlanta constanstly gets bandied about as an example of some of the NHL's struggles.

Sens Army - In need of more troops

It's no secret that the NHL's six Canadian clubs are the league's true lifeblood. Last year the Canadian clubs accounted for 31% of the 30-team league's ticket revenue. In your Economics 101 class, the NHL's Canadian clubs would be your prime example of an inelastic product.

The Ottawa Senators are starting to screw with that equation. To start with the team's season ticket base has dropped astoundingly from about 13,000 to 10,000. Being one of the league's worst teams obviously has had an affect but for a region that bills itself as 'Hockey Country" its staggering how fickle a previously thought of inelastic fanbase has changed. A recent game against the league's best team, the Boston Bruins drew just over 17,000 fans - about 2,000 below capacity and about 2,500 less than the team drew on average last year.

Despite their attendance struggles the Sens still do rank in the league's Top-10 drawing 18,863 per game.

The Sens have responded with a new campaign titled "Fan First", aimed at boosting ticket sales -which has a distinct U.S. non-traditional hockey market feel to it. In addition to admission to Saturday gameday skates, the campaign includes these deals:

• Future Fans Paks Minor hockey players and students+ can get a Sens game ticket, small hot dog and drink for only $20 (taxes included)*. Plus, mom and dad get a deal too!


• Super Saturdays Save 35% off select 300L tickets for the Feb. 7, Mar. 7 Mar. 21 or Apr. 4 games.


• Wild West Nights Purchase a ticket in the 300L or 200L-ends for Vancouver, Calgary or Edmonton and get a $20 food and beverage credit.


• Fantastic Fan Nights Save 35% off in the 300L or 200L-ends for the Feb. 24, Mar. 11 or Apr. 7 and get a $10 food and beverage credit.

Let's just be thankful that it hasn't reached the point where fans are given free admission by showing their driver's license.

Obama, Facebook, Golden Retrievers & Football

In the spirit of Jeopardy: Alex, What are things that are popular?

Harris Interactive, released the results of their latest Harris Poll that asked Americans what their favourite sport is. No surprise that football reigns supreme, nearly doubling the popularity of baseball, the next most popular sport.

1. Pro Football - 31%
2. Baseball - 16%
3. College Football - 12%
4. Auto Racing - 8%
5. Men's Pro Basketball - 6%
6. Hockey - 5%
7. Men's Golf - 4%
8. Men's Soccer - 3%
9. Swimming - 2%
10. Boxing - 2%
...
...
1571. Women's Pro Basketball

On the positive side for Hockey, there has been a couple percentage points in growth since the NHL's lockout.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) wasn't included on the Harris Poll but you have to think that's the one sport that has the greatest ability to grow in popularity over the next few years.

The Most Watched Super Bowl of All-time

Last week I debated where the Steelers-Cardinals Super Bowl would rank in terms of TV viewership. I felt it could crack the top-5 list of most watched Super Bowl games. Low and behold the game was an absolute classic, and obviously held the attention of the casual football watcher enough with it's riveting 4th quarter see-saw battle to make it the most watched Super Bowl of all-time.

The game drew an average of 98.7 million, besting last year's record-setting audience for the Giants upset of the Patriots by 1.2 million viewers. NBC is also reporting that with 151.6 million total viewers Super Bowl XLIII became the most watched TV program of all-time in the U.S.

The Steelers sixth Super Bowl victory also did well in Canada attracting an average of 4.3 million viewers (3.6M on CTV, 0.69M on French-language station RDS). Those numbers are actually down from last year when CTV on it's own drew 4.2M viewers.