Many would point to raucous big buildings such as the United Center in Chicago (21,356) and the Bell Centre in Montreal (21,273) as driving the league-wide average and they'd be at least partially right. Some would suggest new rules and an emerging crop of young superstars a la Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin have peaked fan interest and they'd also be right. Still others would point to shootouts and three-point games and how they pump up team point totals and compress the point differentials between contenders and pretenders.
Yet if the numbers have grown consistently since the lockout, isn't it also true that parity -- pure and simple --has gone a long way to keeping the turnstiles moving? What better way to sell tickets and drive attendance than on the promise of hope: with no clear Stanley Cup favourite, more fans from more markets can dream longer about their own team's prospects of making the grade.
The numbers would suggest the bull market for NHL tickets is the result of the perfect storm of all of these factors, but none more important than team balance.
Check this out: almost half of the 30 teams in the NHL (13) are drawing more than 18,000 fans per game...more than a third (11) of the league's teams are selling out every game...five of Canada’s six franchises are at 100 per cent capacity and the sixth is not far off at 98.8 per cent...six northern U.S. markets are playing to full houses.
Most impressive is that four-fifths of the NHL is north of the magic number most people in the business covet as a sign of franchise strength; with 24 of 30 teams at or above 80% arena capacity.
Despite the bull market for NHL tickets north of the border and in northern U.S. markets, the league clearly still has its work cut out for it in the southern U.S, where seven of its eight lowest-drawing teams are currently located...five of them in sun belt markets.
That includes Phoenix. Despite a fourth-place finish in the NHL's overall standings last week, the Coyotes closed the regular season dead last in attendance, averaging a reported 11,989 at Jobing.com Arena.
Yet Phoenix and the NHL's other weak links would be even weaker were it not for the elephant in the room; a salary cap implemented in 2005 and one which has to be given at least some props for helping drive these record levels of game attendance and fan interest.
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