Devils Attendence

[Devil Dog]

Well its that time of year again. Late October, the World Series has concluded without another Yankee title (thank GOD), the NBA season has started and the local papers are writing about the poor attendence at Devil games.

Really, does any of this come as a shock to anyone that has followed this team over the past 10 plus years? This team never, I repeat, never draws well before January. But every year the stories pop up like its some kind of surprise. Since the Devs won their first cup their best year for attendence was 1997-98. In that year they averaged slightly over 17,000 per game and had about 18-20 sellouts. During the second cup run and return trip to the finals in 2001 the team averaged slightly under 16,000 per game.

Why? Does NJ hate its own team? Can no one find the CAA? Is the press coverage so negative and biased that people have certain pre-conceived ideas of the team that it takes half a year to overcome? Hmmmm? Does the team do that bad of a job marketing itself? Aside from item #2 I think that all of the above apply. I live in Essex county and I generally hear positive comments about the team from most people that I talk to about sports.

But when it comes to attending games I also hear the same comments. "I have too many things going with the kids", "its too much trouble coming home from work and then getting back out to the arena", Weekends are usually better, but then something always comes up around the house".

I honestly believe that for most people in NJ it is a problem to get to the arena. With a few exceptions, north jersey tends to be made up of bedroom communities. People tend not to venture too far from their bedrooms, or houses. Throw kids into the mix with soccer, football, day camps, etc. and getting to games is tough.

I also believe that the Devils are suffering from long lasting labels placed on them by the media. Just as we all railed against being labeled a Trapping team or boring team for the past several years, the Devils have another label to deal with. Cheap!! Lets face it, Lou has the image of being tight fisted when it comes to bringing in "talent". The locals have been spoiled by the Yankees getting all the marquee names in baseball over the past several years. Also, they look across the river and see the Rangers always getting the biggest names year after year. Not that it's helped, but it is interesting that the best attendence years was when we had Gilmore on the team. Dougie was a marquee name and we actually had good turn out. Didn't seem to matter that they got knocked out in the second round and the first round respectively. It seemed that the casual fan preferred to watch the "name" player dispite disappointing playoff finishes rather than see "unkown" players and have great postseason success. Maybe I'm wrong, but to average less than 16,000 the year after we won the cup in 2001 is incredible.

This year the press and Lou did a great job of killing off the early attendence. Lets face facts, Arnott, Sykora, McKay and Holik are all gone. We had a bad regular season that saw two coaches get canned and several new players join the team that aren't named, Guerin, Modano, Hull or Amonte. The press questioned whether we would make the playoffs and the whole Newark arena mess left a bad taste in many peoples mouths that NJ would actually build a new arena for the Devils and Nets. We were painted into the big creedy corporate corner without any recourse.

We are 6-2 but we cannot score according to the press. Even though our GFPG average isn't that different from the league average. Our defense is the best in the league by a good margin but nobody wants to write about defense.

The league is littered with names of former great players like Lemieux, Guerin, Mogilny, Gilmore, Holik, Morrison Etc. Now I'm not saying Lou has made nothing but bad deals, but at some point a name player that can actually still perform that is signed for more than one year would be helpful.

Maybe the new arena will help. Maybe the Path, NJ Transit buses and trains as well as driving will pull more people into the arena. But for now I will trek out to CAA on saturday and sit in 207 with 10,000-12,000 of my closest Devil fans and hope that we end up 7-2 by games end.

We just don't draw before January. Never have but hopefully, sometime, we will.

[Triumph]

I don't think it had anything to do with Gilmour.

Gilmour wasn't a well-known player. Only among hardcore hockey fans would Gilmour be a marquee name. Step outside yourself and ask general sports fans who Doug Gilmour is, and they might know. But they'll have no idea what team he plays for now. Elias is better now than Gilmour was then.

I think it had to do with expectation.. the Devils were going to go back to the Cup Finals, people thought. Everyone was energized by the idea of the Devils with the Cup, I suspect there were a lot of people discovering hockey for the first time, or the first time in a long time.

I really can't see the Devils drawing more if they brought in a marquee name. They're looking to attract new hockey fans in general, not people attracted to glitz. Anaheim thought they could attract fans with a marquee name, and now they're getting awful attendance.. and the marquee name wants out.

The Devils have been so good for so long that it's hurt their attendance, I think.

[Jerrydevil]

I am convinced that the Devils sales team is not as creative as it could be, but cutting the salespeople some slack, this arena doesn't exactly sell itself, if you know what I mean.

[MantaRay]

What I look forward to in Newark is the easy transportation to the arena, via the PATH or NJTransit trains.

I live 10 minutes away, yet because I got rid of my car, I have to go into NYC to get a bus to come back to NJ and the CAA.

[MantaRay]

I think this also has more to do with the recession of the past two years that is catching up to everyone.

Attendance seems to be down everywhere if you read the box scores.

[LIDevsFan1]

Enough has been said but I guess I'll say some more (in no particular order):

First, while the Devs play in the largest TV market, what I'll call the "realistic attendance base" is maybe 1/4 of the entire metropolitan area. I live and work in Western Suffolk county and I have to leave work by 4:00 to get to a game without sitting in three hours of traffic. I've been a Devs fan for 15 years and I'm not willing to do it unless I'm really psyched for the game (i.e., Rangers or playoffs), so you can forget about the casual fan altogether. When you take out all of Long Island, CT, Westchester, etc. you're not talking about a huge attendance market to begin with.

Second, there are just too many games---the season is too long, and anyone who knows anything about hockey knows that what happens in October has nothing to do with what happens in April. I just don't think people want to spend money on meaningless games. I think the season is too long, too many teams make the playoffs and great play during the regular season isn't rewarded.

Third, I think this team suffers somewhat from the same thing the Atlanta Braves do. The fans have become spoiled and other than the hard-core fans, anything other than a strong cup run doesn't get people interested.

Fourth, the arena is just not a destination unto itself. A new arena would at least get an attendance jumpstart while its still a novelty.

Next, they have to market the team. Its not that hard. I unsterstood Lou's tactics during the McMullen era, now there is no excuse.

Finally, and I'm probably not the best qualified to speak here, but I think this team lost a sense of community when McMullen sold it. When he had it it was NJ's team owned by a prominent NJ resident and many of the gold circle seats were owned by his acquaintences. I think people understood the decisions that were made b/c it was his money. Now I feel like the team is a corporate afterthought. There's all the negatives of big corporate ownership and we're not seeing the benefits (i.e., the $$$). Maybe I'm crazy but I have a sense of they don't care so why should I. Maybe I'm getting older, maybe its b/c I have a two year old---I'm still a fan but something deeper is missing, I feel like this team has no soul and the mid-late 90s team did. I'm curious if anyone else feels this way.

[HellOnICE]

The advertising this year, is about 100 times more than I have ever seen.