If you were Jeff Vanderbeek....

[Neb00rs]

You should probably look at any of the other posts in this thread to tell you that you're wrong, I shouldn't need to.

Anybody who tries to say Kovy didn't cause those end of season sell outs is being ridiculous. Vanderbeek and Lou are 100 percent considering the crowd draw when deciding whether or not to sign Kovy. What is true however is that if we sign Kovy long term, the crowds will die down a little with people knowing he'll be here for awhile. But average attendance will still be increased significantly.

[maxpower]

Anybody who tries to say Kovy didn't cause those end of season sell outs is being ridiculous. Vanderbeek and Lou are 100 percent considering the crowd draw when deciding whether or not to sign Kovy. What is true however is that if we sign Kovy long term, the crowds will die down a little with people knowing he'll be here for awhile. But average attendance will still be increased significantly.

it helped, but not as much as some people here are making it out. you have the numbers in front of you, don't ignore them to make a point.

[Neb00rs]

it helped, but not as much as some people here are making it out. you have the numbers in front of you, don't ignore them to make a point.

You are right, people shouldn't over exaggerate the impact and there are typically more fans at games later in the season. But Kovy provided a significant boost. His first game for us we didn't have great attendance. But after that we never had a wed-sun game drop below 16,000 fans. In 2009 we had 3 post Feb. 5 games fall below 16,000, one even going down to 14,000. Our last 3 home games this year were all above 17,000 fans. last yead our third to last home game hit around 15,000. But for a specific instance: Nov 6 we played the Islanders, it was a friday and we gathered 14,109 fans. On April 10 we played the Islanders, it was a saturday and we had 17,625 fans. Once again, there is better attendance later in the season, but this is a worthy attendance boost.

[MadDog2020]

It should.

LMAO. Just like he drew crowds in Atlanta.

Most of Atlanta doesn't even know who the fvck Ilya Kovalchuk is. I'm fairly sure 70% of the greater Atlanta population doesn't even know they have a hockey team. Not to mention (and this is really the point here) THE TEAM SUCKS.

[Hi, I'm VALUE!]

Most of Atlanta doesn't even know who the fvck Ilya Kovalchuk is. I'm fairly sure 70% of the greater Atlanta population doesn't even know they have a hockey team. Not to mention (and this is really the point here) THE TEAM SUCKS.

This.

As someone who has had extensive visits to the Atlanta area and tried to get some of the locals into the game, the casual fan doesn't have a clue what hockey is about and is more likely to marvel at the fights and the flaming bird.

Atlanta, for as nice as Philips is, is pretty much Braves country. MAYBE a leaning to the Falcons, but they better be good.

[Neb00rs]

Most of Atlanta doesn't even know who the fvck Ilya Kovalchuk is. I'm fairly sure 70% of the greater Atlanta population doesn't even know they have a hockey team. Not to mention (and this is really the point here) THE TEAM SUCKS.

Atlanta is not a hockey culture and they have poor attendance (like around 13,500 i think) and those who don't know Ilya might be at an even higher percentage. But I'm fairly sure 70% of the NJ population doesn't know who Patrik Elias is. And in Newark it's probably like 80%.

What's important is not that Kovy draws more non-hockey fans to the game, it's that he draws Devils fans who have lost interest in going often back to the arena.

Edited April 27, 2010 by ben00rs

[Masked Fan]

Sign Miroslav Satan. He will bring a lot of merchandise revenue.

Yup, off topic, but YUP!

[thelastonealive]

You are right, people shouldn't over exaggerate the impact and there are typically more fans at games later in the season. But Kovy provided a significant boost. His first game for us we didn't have great attendance. But after that we never had a wed-sun game drop below 16,000 fans. In 2009 we had 3 post Feb. 5 games fall below 16,000, one even going down to 14,000. Our last 3 home games this year were all above 17,000 fans. last yead our third to last home game hit around 15,000. But for a specific instance: Nov 6 we played the Islanders, it was a friday and we gathered 14,109 fans. On April 10 we played the Islanders, it was a saturday and we had 17,625 fans. Once again, there is better attendance later in the season, but this is a worthy attendance boost.

The Devils traditionally have poor attendance early in the year and come on later, after football and the holidays have ended and playoff excitement starts to come into play.

Did Kovalchuk have an impact on the attendance? Maybe a little. But there's no way to tell for sure, because the attendance figures follow the same pattern they usually do.

My one question though - if Kovalchuk is such an attendance draw, how come we were 2,000 shy of a sellout in his first game here, which was a Friday night? Of all the games after the trade, if Kovalchuk was going to have a massive impact on the attendance of a game, it seems like it should have been that one.

[pattyelias]

The Devils traditionally have poor attendance early in the year and come on later, after football and the holidays have ended and playoff excitement starts to come into play.

Did Kovalchuk have an impact on the attendance? Maybe a little. But there's no way to tell for sure, because the attendance figures follow the same pattern they usually do.

My one question though - if Kovalchuk is such an attendance draw, how come we were 2,000 shy of a sellout in his first game here, which was a Friday night? Of all the games after the trade, if Kovalchuk was going to have a massive impact on the attendance of a game, it seems like it should have been that one.

2 reasons. First the forecast said snow. Second was ticketmaster nonsense. I remember I was going to go with my wife to the game that day using the Guys Night Out promo. I went on ticketmaster and couldn't pull up 2 seats together. I ended up buying a single and just went over by my friend's season tickets during the first intermission. The weird thing this was that they said no pairs of the $56 seats together on ticketmaster and then I get to the arena and the top 5 rows of every balcony section is empty. That was just nonsense and kept a lot of people out of the building IMO.

[Neb00rs]

The Devils traditionally have poor attendance early in the year and come on later, after football and the holidays have ended and playoff excitement starts to come into play.

I said this, read my posts.

Did Kovalchuk have an impact on the attendance? Maybe a little. But there's no way to tell for sure, because the attendance figures follow the same pattern they usually do.

As I said Kovy doesn't make a huge difference but he does give a worthy boost, read my posts.

My one question though - if Kovalchuk is such an attendance draw, how come we were 2,000 shy of a sellout in his first game here, which was a Friday night? Of all the games after the trade, if Kovalchuk was going to have a massive impact on the attendance of a game, it seems like it should have been that one.

I never said he was "such" an attendance draw. I even mentioned this first game. read my posts. I think people weren't rushing to buy tickets to see the Devils face the Maple Leafs the next day, who are the worst team in the Eastern Conference. They bought tickets for future games as soon as he was signed.

Edited April 28, 2010 by ben00rs

[NJDevs26]

2 reasons. First the forecast said snow. Second was ticketmaster nonsense. I remember I was going to go with my wife to the game that day using the Guys Night Out promo. I went on ticketmaster and couldn't pull up 2 seats together. I ended up buying a single and just went over by my friend's season tickets during the first intermission. The weird thing this was that they said no pairs of the $56 seats together on ticketmaster and then I get to the arena and the top 5 rows of every balcony section is empty. That was just nonsense and kept a lot of people out of the building IMO.

Well less than twenty-four hours is a pretty tough window to turn a gate that's a few thousand short of a sellout into a sellout regardless, just like Brodeur's return against the Avs wasn't going to be a sellout because the Devils announced it too late for advance walkup two years ago. The Kovalchuk trade iirc was only finalized late Thursday night. Then the Philly game was in the middle of a huge snowstorm but the third home game against Nashville was a sellout.

Edited April 28, 2010 by NJDevs26

[pattyelias]

Well less than twenty-four hours is a pretty tough window to turn a gate that's a few thousand short of a sellout into a sellout regardless, just like Brodeur's return against the Avs wasn't going to be a sellout because the Devils announced it too late for advance walkup two years ago. The Kovalchuk trade iirc was only finalized late Thursday night. Then the Philly game was in the middle of a huge snowstorm but the third home game against Nashville was a sellout.

I wouldn't call it attendance, but Kovy definitely had an impact on the crowd makeup in his first game in the Garden. I go to 1 or 2 Devil-Ranger games at MSG and there is always about 10% of the crowd rooting for the Devils. For that game there were easily 20-25% Devil fans. Walking in the concourse at MSG felt like the reverse of the Devil-Ranger games at the Rock. It was bizarre. The game sucked but it was nice seeing so many Devil fans on the road.

[Neb00rs]

Vanderbeek answered our debate in an interview with Gulitti. The result: we're all right.

link

Did the addition of Ilya Kovalchuk contribute to the increased attendance?“

I think so. I think on the margins it certainly did, the novelty of it. People heard – you can just check the (internet) chat rooms and the blogs – when we traded for him. But did he have anything to do with the fact that we wore retro jerseys on March 17? No. Or that we played Pittsburgh twice or we played an original six team in Chicago, that we played the Rangers, that we had to play the final weekend of the season to win the division? No, no and no. Everything goes into it, but did he contribute? Yes.”

Edited April 29, 2010 by ben00rs