Tampa Bay sports attendance and the Tampa Bay Lightning

by John Fontana on Jan 23, 2012 7:29 PM EST in General Sports

I read the op-ed letters to the editor at the ~~St. Pete~~ Tampa Bay Times on a daily basis. It's part of my morning routine, and has been for quite a while.

One of the things about letters to the editor, however, is that opinion is often stated as fact. Sometimes, those perceived facts are just assumptions by the writers, others are subjective truths, while others go so far as painting falsehoods as iron-clad facts; "Truthiness" seems next to Godliness. But I digress.

On Sunday morning, in a letter regarding the Tampa Bay Rays and attendance issues, a letter writer made the broad assertion that attendance was down for all three local pro-sport teams...

...Which is a factual error when speaking of the pro-sports team residing at 401 Channelside Drive. The numbers are out there, clear as day, for the public to see for themselves, on ESPN.com (one of few times I can boast about ESPN and hockey): The Tampa Bay Lightning are averaging 18,631 per game in 2011-12, 97% of arena capacity. That's up from 17,268 last season and 15,497 in 2009-10.

That's a clear upward trend. Much like there was a clear downward trend for the Bolts when OK Hockey took over the team in 2008.

What's more? It's not just more butts in seats at Times Palace. There are more eyes following the Lightning on Sun Sports. Sports Business Daily reported today that TV ratings for Lightning games on Sun Sports are up two-thirds (66.7%) over last season, the 3rd biggest increase in the NHL. All this is for a team that's struggling in the standings.

The Tampa Bay Rays struggle at the gate, and those issues with the team, attendance, Tropicana Field and what not are best discussed over at Draysbay. The Bucs attendance woes are clear, with games routinely being blacked out because of Raymond James Stadium not selling out, and the product on field being inconsistent at best. If you'd like to argue about the Buccaneers and their business woes, head over to Bucs Nation.

But for the sake of saying so, the Tampa Bay Lightning aren't struggling to capture the public's interest again. They're not a good example of how the local economy is limiting fan interest in the local sport teams. While the Rays and Bucs struggle for different reasons, the Lightning are currently thriving.

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Very good points, John

“Butts in seats” is a good thing for the business side of the Lighting, for sure. The team was rightly very proud of the increased season-ticket sales in the off-season.

With the team’s play this year being more rough and less exciting for the average hockey fan as compared to last year, my sense is many of those season ticket holders are selling their tickets to out-of-town fans—especially when Ontario moves to Florida. There are more people in the building on any given night for sure—but many of those are opposing fans (especially against the big name teams: Detroit, Boston, Montreal, Toronto). When I can hear “let’s go Flyers” over the TV, there’s a lot of fans in the TBTF not rooting for the Bolts.

Whether the “butts in the seats” root for the Bolts or Chilliwack matters not to the business side of the Lightning—because they make their money from ticket sales one way or the other. “Butts in seats” do matter, though, when measuring the dedicated fan base, and I’m not sure we’re “there” yet. If the fans were fully “back” there would be a solid sea of blue, black, and white instead of the sea of blue interrupted by large sections of orange, yellow, or red.

"Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two equals four. If that is granted all else will follow."
- Smith in Orwell's 1984

by MTBoltFan on Jan 24, 2012 8:54 AM EST reply actions

….now compare that with the Bucs and the Rays, who are not selling a large number of season tickets.

I mean, your points dampen my “thriving” sentiment, but in comparison to the other two pro sport teams, can we really say the Lightning aren’t doing better than perceived? Be it with thanks to leadership from the franchise, the winning season last season, or the NHL’s overall appeal (and a smaller building than Tropicana Field and Raymond James Stadium — and one of the largest in the league), the Bolts aren’t doing too shabby.

Typing is an adventure, and reading should be, too!
Sasquatch, Yeti, The Loch Ness Monster, Evan Oberg - legends that may or may not be real
Raw Charge.

by John Fontana on Jan 24, 2012 10:00 AM EST up reply actions

It’s an interesting phenomenon for sure, and it’s got to be driving the Rays, who have been operating under the belief that winning should drive attendance for the last five years, absolutely nuts. I can’t say that I blame them, as that’s what everybody has always said around here: “Put a good team out there and people will come out to see them play”. Apparently that’s being proven at least somewhat false on two fronts now.

As far as the “butts in seats” regardless of the butt’s affiliation not mattering to the business people with the Lightning; if that’s true, it’s only at the very surface. While they’re certainly glad to take money from Philly fans when the Flyers come to town, they know they can’t count on those people to show up when the Bolts play the Hurricanes or Panthers or Jets or Blue jackets or… The only people that can be counted on to attend Lightning games are Lightning fans and management has to cater to those fans above and beyond others. That was the driving philosophy behind giving season ticket holders jerseys to wear.

by Clark Brooks on Jan 24, 2012 11:01 AM EST up reply actions

Clark, I absolutely agree: Lightning fans buy more tickets to Lightning games than visiting fans. But what I think is happening (and really don’t have the resources to determine empirically) is the STHs are selling their tickets via third-party outlets to out-of-towners for the bigger games, and letting many of the tickets go unused during the lower-tier teams’ games in Tampa (because there isn’t a high enough demand for the tickets).

I’m going to the game tonight—I’ll take a look at the crowd size. If my sense is correct, the attendance tonight will be average—lots of empty chairs. My sense won’t be the only explanation, of course, but it will at least know if I’m barking up the wrong tree.

"Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two equals four. If that is granted all else will follow."
- Smith in Orwell's 1984

by MTBoltFan on Jan 24, 2012 11:15 AM EST up reply actions

Forgot to post this earlier

But my sense was correct about the crowd size. From my vantage point in 330, a little less than half (by my estimation) of the center ice seats in the 100 and 200 levels were empty. I would further estimate about third of the 300 level seats in the same sections were empty.

"Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two equals four. If that is granted all else will follow."
- Smith in Orwell's 1984

by MTBoltFan on Jan 26, 2012 11:02 AM EST up reply actions

I didn't intend to "dampen" your sentiment

Ticket sales, at its most basic, is what keeps a franchise around. In that light, the Bolts are doing superbly better than the other two major sports franchises—though I don’t follow their financial issues (because I just don’t care about those two teams or the sports they represent).

I think you’re basic premise is still correct: the Lightning are doing much better as a franchise, from a business perspective, than their other two counterparts. My point was that an increase in ticket sales does not necessarily correlate to an increase in fan interest.

"Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two equals four. If that is granted all else will follow."
- Smith in Orwell's 1984

by MTBoltFan on Jan 24, 2012 11:09 AM EST up reply actions

Unpublished letter-to-the-editor

Last Sunday, I reacted to the letter in the ~~St. Petersburg~~ Tampa Bay Times irst by writing a letter to the editor. I then followed it up by writing this story that we’ve commented on.

It’s been a week and my letter isn’t going to be published in the Times, so I figure I’ll let comment readers see it:

Subject: Pro sports – take care of thy shop…

Sunday’s Perspective section had a letter writer lament that sports attendance was down for all three Tampa Bay pro sport teams. Two of them, the letter stated, had poor attendance in spite of being in the seemingly more viable location of Tampa. This was part of a broader letter regarding the Rays and the stadium debate.

The letter writer’s assertion that attendance was down for both Tampa based teams was inacurate. I think we can all say that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers attendance was down this year. Evidence (by way of team performance and the NFL blackout rule being employed on a regular basis) was glaring. But the Tampa Bay Lightning is a much different story.

Last season (2010-11), the Lightning averaged 17,268 in attendance in 41 home dates at the former St. Pete Times Forum. In 2011-12, the Bolts are averaging 18,631 through 20 home games this season.

The Rays issues are a mass of logistics, perceptions, and politics. The Buccaneers issues are a jumble of business decisions that have backfired to help make the team less competitive and less worthy of fan investment.

Meanwhile, the Lightning situation is a correction for a franchise that had proven itself to be viable before ownership woes of the recent past had thrown a monkey in the works. Owner Jeff Vinik has invested heavily in a savvy management team to run the franchise, invested heavily in his venue (spending $40 million of his own money to upgrade the now-Tampa Bay Times Forum), as well as invested $1 million this season in charity donations so far.

What is the relevance of this to Stu Sternberg and the Tampa Bay Rays stadium situation? Sternberg has invested in his team’s competitiveness since taking over the franchise in 2005, he’s invested in upgrades to Tropicana Field (none of which can correct engineering and design flaws throughout the building) to make it a more hospitable place to watch games. What Sternberg hasn’t accomplished as an owner is getting the greater Tampa Bay area behind the team (and a sound economy to give fans more disposable income). Instead, politics, insecurities and the bridges still divide Tampa/St.Petersburg long after the area won the quest for Major League Baseball.

Typing is an adventure, and reading should be, too!
Sasquatch, Yeti, The Loch Ness Monster, Evan Oberg - legends that may or may not be real
Raw Charge.

by John Fontana on Jan 28, 2012 3:31 PM EST reply actions