For those of you who bitch about our attendance numbers

[Triple B]

The Lightnings average attendance is 9,000 in a stadium that holds 19,500... unless we are playing a Yankee team the attendance rarely ever breaks 10K. However when we play the Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Bruins, Redwings, or Flyers the place sells out.

****, DB, no offense but where in the hell are you pulling your figures from?? Just a qucik check of a few non "Yankee" games last year came up with attendamce no lower than 13K.

[jd77]

Yeah, the year leading up to the Stanley Cup the Lightning entered the top 10 in the NHL in attendance and didn't fall out of the top 10 til last season.  For about 3 years they were like 2nd or 3rd in the NHL in attendance behind only Montreal and Detroit who had larger stadiums.  The Lightning actually had a sell out streak ran for like 2.5 seasons. So I am not sure where he is getting those #s from.

[Cow Pie]

****, DB, no offense but where in the hell are you pulling your figures from?? Just a qucik check of a few non "Yankee" games last year came up with attendamce no lower than 13K.

None taken  , I'm pulling from the NHL 2009-10 Media guide I got in the mail last week... it figures our average attendance at the St. Pete Times Forum / Ice Palace since we began playing in it.

Still whether its 9,000 or 13,000 they still sell out or come within a hair of doing so when we play one of the Northern teams.

To be fair its not just the yanks that are the problem... there are plenty of local natives that follow the Gayturds, Noles, or Canes and have not yet assimilated to being Bulls fans.

Its a 3D problem...

[MikeG]

His information is totally inaccurate. The Bucs have sold out every game ever played at Ray Jay.

The Dolphins are always in danger of having their games blacked out. And many of their games have been blacked out over the past decade.

maybe before this season-- but we have definitely had trouble this season. Luckily, the Bucs are playing alot of teams that bring fans down. Like the Cowboys, Giants, and Jets. Well-- I guess they are really those transplants you were referring to but anyway-- the point is we did have a  nice home based sellout streak going (perhaps still--) but I know of so many people who have had season tickets sitting around my area that gave them up this year. they just said they got too expensive.

I'm starting to agree with them.

[jd77]

Last year the Lightning had the 2nd worst record in the NHL and they averaged 16,497.  http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2009

In 2008 they had the worst record in the NHL, yet ranked 8th in the league in attendance at 18,692  http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2008

In 2007 they were an average team on the ice, yet ranked 3rd in the NHL in attendance at 19,876. http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2007

In 2006 they had the 2nd best attendance in the NHL at 20,509.  http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2006

You can go back as far as 2001 on that ESPN page. The lowest attendance is in 2001 and that is over 14K.

So I think your book may be off with its figures Dixie.

[Cow Pie]

Last year the Lightning had the 2nd worst record in the NHL and they averaged 16,497.  http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2009

In 2008 they had the worst record in the NHL, yet ranked 8th in the league in attendance at 18,692  http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2008

In 2007 they were an average team on the ice, yet ranked 3rd in the NHL in attendance at 19,876. http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2007

In 2006 they had the 2nd best attendance in the NHL at 20,509.  http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2006

You can go back as far as 2001 on that ESPN page. The lowest attendance is in 2001 and that is over 14K.

So I think your book may be off with its figures Dixie.

Here is where I'm getting my numbers from...

I get one every season to read up on the Bolts opponents... it actually lists the average as being "for the life of the franchise" and most likely dates back to the Hockey Barn... the way i read it before I thought they were talking about the Forum.

I'm just parroting whats in the book.

[Bullsheaven08]

It takes miami anywhere from 4-6 years to graduate enough students, that USF graduates in 1 year. So USF's alumni base grows exponentially greater than Miami's. Also, we sometimes have more students show up at our games, then Miami even has enrolled.

However, I don't see those excuses good enough reasoning as to why they have such poor attendance.

[Rabbi Bull]

I agree about the Yankee statement. No one moves up north to retire or live if you are from the South, so the teams in the north have a strong fanbase because there is no outside influence. Down here in FL, we get people from the north who come down here and still root for their hometown teams, instead of becoming a fan of the local teams. If you are from the North and want to fly your hometown team flags and say "I love N.Y." or "Go Bastan" then please move back there, no one asked you to come down here. Either support the locals, or go back.

Wrong, I moved up to the North from the South and have loved it.  The weather is good, and not hot all the time, and the area is amazing to live with the old style brick houses.  Just because people root for a team does not mean that they are from that city or their parents are from there and rooted for it.  I'm not from Philly originally but grew up a fan of their sports teams as well as the Miami sports teams. 

Another factor you have to look at is that teams like the Marlins, Panthers, Lightning and Rays and even a stretch the Heat are all relatively young teams that most fans couldn't grow up rooting for.  So if you were a fan of baseball or hockey living in either Miami or Tampa you picked a team to root for out of state.  You can't blame it all on the "transplants" from the north.

[CousinRicky]

To be fair, Miami is a small private school.  So for them to sell out they have to have a huge amount of people show up that have zero affiliation to their school.

We have like 40K students at any given time and a huge number of alumni.  

And as far as pro sports go in the state, we have the population of sports fans here to support every team in the state and support them well.  The economy right now is killing us, but the biggest problem is the transplants. ( I am a transplant that is part of the solution however, people like me aren't the problem.)  There are far too many people that pick up and move here, but never really add anything to or feel a part of the community.

Too many people buy a house in FL, then immediately run out to get a license plate cover of a team from their former city so that they can stand out and show off that they aren't from here.  Then they will put a flag on the front of their house of that team, so that anyone that drives by will know the people living there are superior to others because they aren't from FL.  Then they buy the different sports packages so they can watch games played in the city they chose to leave instead of the home team.  They log on to the internet everyday to read the news from their former city and never pay attention or have any clue what is happening locally.  So basically, they are still in their former city in every way except they get to enjoy the FL weather and lifestyle.  While the brow beat everyone here to death.

Until we fix that problem, and I don't know that its fixable, our pro sports teams will never live up to their potential.

:clap Could not had said it better myself...

For example, and I'm sure this holds true with the Rays...

The Lightnings average attendance is 9,000 in a stadium that holds 19,500... unless we are playing a Yankee team the attendance rarely ever breaks 10K. However when we play the Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Bruins, Redwings, or Flyers the place sells out.

If those retards would assimilate and become Floridians than the Bolts would sell out every game.

I would wager that the same group of Yankees that moved down here with kids raised them to love what ever Northern team they love all which hurts all Florida teams from the Bolts to the Bulls.

I guess I'm one of those retards from up north.  So what you're saying is Florida can't support teams on their own if they can't fill the stadiums without the transplants.

[Joe]

The whole Bulls can't draw because of northerners argument is ********. The Bulls don't draw because unlike pro sports college sports is regionally heavy instead of city heavy. There are likely more Noles and Gator fans than Bulls fans in Tampa.

It's the reality for now.

As far as pro goes, the Lightning averaged 16,000 last year but the gate numbers were around 10,000. Why because the thrill wore off once the team sucked (get the trend)

The Bucs sellout streak is toast this year for the same reason.

The Dolphins sellouts were BS forthe better part of the 2000s.

As for Miami, 45,000 fir a school that size is good. Two private schools draw large numbers...USC and Notre Dame. ND is ND and will forever draw. USC, however wasn't drawing insanely big crowds before this recent streak and actually drew less than Miami in 2000.

Put it in perspective, privates have never and will never as a whole draw as well as large state schools.