Crowded Interest

Hockey Affected by Attendance Dips Across Sports; What's to Blame, and What to Do?

by Jashvina Shah and David Eckert/CHN Reporters

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, there was barely a soul in the crowd at Boston University’s Agganis Arena. Yes, it was almost Thanksgiving. Yes, most students had already departed for home. But the final official attendance was listed as 1,826, in a rink that holds 6,300 people and averaged a total of 5,167 fans in 2009-10.

In 2018-19, BU averaged 3,830 spectators at its home contests.

“It’s sad, the lack of crowds. When BU played at BC I think they had a big crowd, but that's expected,” former 40-year BU coach Jack Parker said. “I've seen a lot of BU games. I've seen a lot of games on TV where there's a half a house or less. BC at UNH. Maine. Usually those are packed houses for sure. There just doesn't seem to be any interest on campus. The trend of the Beanpot losing its sold-out status automatically, Hockey East having trouble drawing at the tournament in the Garden, all point to a lack of interest on campus."

The hand-wringing may be focused on BU these days, but the Terriers are far from the only team having this problem, and their struggles in this department do not necessarily point to a particular flaw in their approach. Cross-town rival Boston College, for example, averaged 55.8 percent capacity last season as opposed to 72.9 percent in 2009-10. Both of those schools' on-ice play has dipped in recent years, but that's not the only factor, or even the main factor.

Across college hockey, 37 programs averaged fewer spectators in 2018-19 than they did in 2009-10, nine years ago. And these are teams like BU and BC, Minnesota and Wisconsin, the traditional powerhouse programs. Wisconsin filled the Kohl Center to nearly 99 percent capacity in 2009-10, averaging 15,048 fans. In 2018-19, the Badgers drew just an average of 10,044. Minnesota, too, brought in 2,164 fewer fans per game in 2018-19 than it did in 2009-10. And those are just the official numbers of tickets sold — the images of actual people in the seats often paints an uglier picture.

"There's a lot of stuff written, and not even just college hockey — all college sports, college football — about less people going (to games) and there's lots of competition for time and people can sit at home and watch things,” Paul Capobianco, the assistant director of brand communications at Wisconsin, said. “Every athletic department and every pro sports team in the country is looking at that very closely."

After years of increased attendance and interest, college hockey has slipped the other way. It's a problem because the infrastructure was set up under the assumption the gravy train would keep running. Sellouts at the Frozen Four became a foregone conclusion. New arenas were built on campus, bigger and more beautiful than ever before, under the assumption the good times would keep rolling. Salaries went up.

It isn’t just the traditional powerhouses who are struggling. Nebraska-Omaha, one of the “newer” programs in college hockey, has had difficulty filling seats — even after downsizing from 15,959 capacity CenturyLink Arena to Baxter Arena, which seats 7,898. The Mavericks have averaged 5,445 fans at their home games this season, a mark Nebraska-Omaha hockey founding father Mike Kemp isn’t pleased with.

“We’re not going to be satisfied with anything less than 7,898,” Kemp, now the senior associate athletic director for events and facilities, said.

Places with strong local followings, like Maine, New Hampshire and Rensselaear, have falled off in interest. It could be solely wins-and-losses related, or it will never reach those peaks again, hard to say.

Attendance issues extend past on-campus contests and regular-season games. It affects the playoffs, too, with some conference championships, Regionals and even the Frozen Four struggling to draw. Lack of attendance at Regionals perpetuates the on-campus vs. neutral site debate.

Last year’s NCAA title game between Massachusetts and Minnesota-Duluth drew 13,629 fans — just over 71 percent of the capacity of Buffalo’s KeyBank Center. It was the lowest announced attendance for a title game since 2001, the last time the game was not held in an NHL arena. Per The Buffalo News, it was much less than when Buffalo hosted the Frozen Four in 2003 at the HSBC Arena, when Buffalo drew 18,535 for the semifinals and 18,551 for the final. It was a combination of factors, percolating for years, with ticket prices and structure being a part of it.

But Why?

“Some of it is the wins and losses, some of it is the ticket prices,” Michigan head coach Mel Pearson said. “Some of it is the change of leagues, some of it is the options available, some of it's streaming, games on TV, social media and all that. Especially with young people, what they want to do now [has changed]. Sometimes it's the length of the games. Do you want to sit there for 2:45? I think there's a lot of factors.”

Pearson succinctly sums up the issue — it's all of those things at once.

It's hard to argue that interest in hockey, or sports in general, has waned, necessarily. Participation is still high. Online chatter is still there. This web site continues to increase its traffic and interest every year.

It would be a mistake to say college hockey isn't doing well. College hockey, broadly speaking, is doing very well.

But it's not translating into the kind of rabid, must-see-in-person followings that there used to be, not that long ago. Did college hockey get too big for its britches?

Take even a place like Cornell. The crowds are still pretty good, those who are there, when they get there, are still involved. It's still one of the best places to see a game. But it's not like it was. This past weekend, coach Mike Schafer sent out an email imploring fans to arrive prior to the game — like they used to — to make things loud and intimidating for the opponent from the moment they step on the ice. It worked.

But thanks to social media, the urge to get to games early is not there. Used to be, that's all there was to do. Used to be that, to see all your friends at once, you had to see them in person. Now students "see" each other online constantly all day. It's not right or wrong, it's just the way it is different today.

Of course, team success is still a huge factor. In 2014-15, when BU returned to the Frozen Four for the first time in six years, BU’s home attendance spiked to 76 percent capacity full, the highest since 2011-12

Take the Badgers, who have hovered in and out of last place in the Big Ten and haven’t made the NCAA tournament since 2013-14. BU, BC, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Maine all missed the NCAA tournament last season — something previously unheard of.

Michigan's Yost Arena is another place where crowd sizes seem to have fallen off from its 25-year peak, where it was always known as perpetually full, raucous and loud. It's all relative, since Yost still sees strong crowds. Of course, wins and losses also play a factor here, now that Michigan's dominant streak of NCAA Tournament appearances is a thing of the past.

Over the last three years, 75 percent of NCAA Tournament teams have placed in the top half of the country in capacity percentage.

“I’d love to say that it’s marketing and all that stuff, but, you know, the team’s good,” said Josh Bartell, the director of Clarkson’s Cheel Arena, another place where fans used to be rabid, saw a big dip, and is now on the upswing again because of team success. “The fact that the team’s good, we’ve had five NHL signings in the last three years. I think people are excited to see players that could be in the NHL. ... It’s not only the winning, but it’s the level of talent.”

It is an unfortunate circumstance that numerous other factors just so happened to coincide with some major programs facing struggles on the ice. It makes it hard to tell how much of it is wins/losses, and how much of it are these other new societal factors. Most likely both.

It just so happens that many of the big schools no longer dominate like they used to. New Hampshire, Maine, BU, BC, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc... Many of these schools increased ticket prices at the height of popularity, right before things started to go south, creating a double whammy.

Even if the team is doing well, who would want to spend an exorbitant amount of money to freeze in a hockey rink when they could just sit at home for free and stream the game?

“It's not pro hockey at pro hockey prices almost, now,” Jack Parker said.

Every league now has its own streaming package, placing hockey games in homes at a fraction of the cost.

“I’m not ready to completely blame technology, but I think it is, especially for our younger fans, it’s easier for them to stay at home and watch or just watch Netflix, watch something else besides going to a live event,” Bartell said. “We work really hard to try to get people in the game in person.

“Once people see hockey live, they buy in.”

Technology and streaming may also dent the ties that players and fans used to form long before college. Technology has allowed the recruiting pool to expand, leading to less local players and less local support. There’s no more Mike Eruzione bringing half of Winthrop, Mass., to BU games.

“The game isn't producing as many great players to be excited to go see play and there's not as many great local players for the townspeople to come and watch them," Parker said.

Or in some cases, fans fled when conference realignment ripped apart the old CCHA and WCHA rivalries. Losing the in-state rivalries seemed to particularly affect Minnesota fans, who have been the most vocal in lamenting the loss of the old WCHA. Of course, again, that also coincided with diminished performance and major increases in ticket prices.

Does This Affect Everyone?

Even though conference realignment took away Minnesota’s biggest rivals and created fan discontent, it hasn’t had the same effect everywhere. North Dakota has continued to pull in some of the best attendance in the country, filling the Ralph Engelstad Arena to 99 percent capacity — regardless of how well the team does. Overall, 21 schools saw attendance spike by some degree from 2009-10 to 2018-19. Newer powers like UMass and Quinnipiac do well.

Conference realignment has also helped some eastern teams boost their attendance, with teams like Clarkson, having an easier time drawing Big Ten schools to Cheel Arena.

Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota have all visited Clarkson in the last four seasons, which has helped the Golden Knights fill an average of over 90 percent of Cheel Arena over the same period.

“I think the fact that the Big Ten needed to play more non-league games and our coach was able to schedule them, it’s been great,” Bartell said. “I think our fans have been super excited to have Big Ten teams come in. We’ve had Arizona State come in.”

As part of a promotion, Clarkson rolled season ticket prices back to their original prices 1991 prices from Cheel Arena’s opening. The next season, Clarkson only raised prices from that original price instead of raising them to modern-day pricing.

Clarkson is also sitting in the North Country, a hockey hotbed that also features Saint Lawrence. On average, Golden Knights fans fill 94.3 percent of Cheel Arena. And last season they packed the ECAC tournament at Lake Placid. Clarkson’s women’s team has the sixth-best attendance of the 41 Division I programs.

“I'm sure every place is different between a city setting and parking versus a team not having success, there's a whole — there's just a bunch of reasons,” Capobianco said. “Every place is probably somewhat unique."

How Do We Fix It?

On the one hand, perhaps there's nothing to fix. Society has changed, and it will change again. The scope of people's worlds is bigger now. A local battle doesn't feel as intense when the whole world is your fingertips. You can't get thousands of locals to travel from Ithaca to a tournament game somewhere anymore, when both a) they can watch it at home, and b) there are more diverse things to do.

"I think a lot of people are trying to figure out ways to make it valuable for people to go to the game instead of sit at home and watch or do something else,” Capobianco said. “That's the trick. The secret. If everyone could figure it out, then everyone would have perfect attendance everywhere.”

But it won't stop everyone from trying.

The Badgers have chipped away at their problem through giveaways like red glow sticks and Wisconsin hockey onesies. Boston College has held similar promotions and theme nights.

James Di Loreto, BC’s associate athletic director for marketing and fan engagement, said the Eagles concentrate on building relationships with the students through focus groups and working with various student organizations. The marketing staff also focuses their energy on games they know will draw well.

“It's the social experience of going with others that feels important,” Di Loreto said. “I've always held that being a part of that neighborhood, if you can create neighborhoods within your seating sections where you have that shared experience together, it's something that's really hard to replicate. You can't have that at home.

“The more we can focus and be supportive of that and create those moments and memories where people want to bring the next generation of their family and friends to it, that's really critical."

The Eagles also foster relationship with season ticket holders through gifts like personalized nameplates and frames.

“How we're recruiting our student athletes and supporting them, we're thinking similar in terms of that same way in terms of our different audiences,” Di Loreto said.

For Nebraska-Omaha, community outreach is focused on the youth, crucial in a market that has a booming hockey history and a USHL team.

For Clarkson, it’s the small-town atmosphere — pro players without the pro feel — that brings in fans.

Another solution for teams has been downsizing, which boosts the demand for single-game and season tickets, increases the percent capacity full and provides a more engaged and intense atmosphere.

Minnesota-Duluth, Bemidji State, Notre Dame, Penn State, RIT, Colgate, Bentley and Canisius have all built new rinks in the past decade. Penn State, for example, kept its rink a reasonable size, 6,000 seats, and packs it in. Ohio State has a new, smaller rink planned. American International may be building a new rink. Sacred Heart just announced a $60 million new arena project.

Ultimately, the leftover responsibility falls on the schools, some of which built dedicated marketing teams around 2010. Programs, be it in Hockey East or nationally, are sharing best practices. Clarkson implemented a ticketing system that allows people to text or email their tickets to someone else.

“We are tracking what season tickets aren’t showing up,” Bartell said. “Not that we’re going to go after them, but then that’s going to help us try and maybe build secondary sales. If you don’t use your tickets, why aren’t you giving them away?”

But it’s perhaps more crucial than fans realize.

"We've got to be better,” Pearson said. “We're talking about expansion and things like that. If Illinois is looking at what Minnesota or Wisconsin are drawing now compared to what they used to do in the heyday ... I mean, is it a good investment for them? … We want to add teams and we want to make sure we show them that it's a great product."