NHL attendance is "not as robust as its news releases
suggest," according to David Shoalts of the Toronto GLOBE & MAIL.
Despite an NHL release showing an increase in average attendance
so far in '96, an extensive GLOBE & MAIL study featured in
today's paper of "unofficial crowd figures" shows that average
attendance of 14 of the 26 NHL teams has dropped compared to '95-
96. Shoalts notes, of the 14 teams down in attendance, "nine can
be considered to have serious declines," of 1,000 or more. For
its figures, the GLOBE & MAIL used attendance numbers supplied by
the NHL for 134 games from the start of the season. These are
"not official numbers, but the crowd sizes reported by each team
for the game summaries." NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, in
Toronto "wasn't happy with a different reading of the
statistics," according to Shoalts. He said October averages have
to be compared with the same period last year as opposed to the
average for the whole season. Bettman: "I urge you not to get to
revved up about figures in October. If you compare our overall
attendance, it's up about 1,000 per game." Shoalts notes the
biggest attendance drops are in St. Louis, Chicago, Boston, and
L.A (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 10/31).
NEWS & NOTES: Bettman discussed expansion at a news
conference announcing the release of the book, "A Day in the Life
of the NHL." The NHL's Executive Committee will hear
presentations in November and could add teams as early as
December. Bettman: "My guess is that anything for next year
would be a long shot" (CP/VANCOUVER SUN, 10/31). In New York,
Joe Lapointe writes on the league's expansion adding, "Pessimists
... fear that hockey is about to repeat the mistakes of the
previous decade ... Optimists hope that the ambitious
commissioner has studied the mistakes of the past and knows how
to avoid them" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/31).
