I would just like to add that it would look very bad for the NHL and their marketability if the highly touted "future star" of the game, the NHL's version of Lebron James, is playing in front of a bunch of empty seats. Then you have to factor in the impact Crosby will have on the lesser caliber clubs, and the focus & spotlight constantly being on Crosby to carry such a team on his back. I don’t think we’d see that problem in a place like Columbus or even Atlanta since they have a good core to work with and could gain a lot of success by having Crosby on their roster to go along with a Nash or Kovalchuk or Zherdev or Heatley.
I recall the Penguins selling out their first home game of the season against the LA Kings, with Marc-Andre Fleury making his NHL debut. That game would be the highest attended game for the Penguins during the season. The Penguins had the worst average home attendance record in the league. The ten worst home attendance numbers were held by the Penguins (11,877), Hurricanes (12,171), Predators (13,177), Blackhawks (13,253), Islanders (13,431), Capitals (14,720), Devils (14,912), Ducks (14,987), Bruins (15,070) and Thrashers (15,121). Take note that some of those figures may be slightly exaggerated, as seats may be sold, but were empty. So the announced attendance may not actually always match the actual number of heads in attendance.
Some of those clubs could definitely benefit from having Crosby not only on the ice but from a marketing standpoint, as long as the mainstream media buys into the hype and Crosby is as good in the NHL as he has been in juniors. His talents have to be showcased on a national network. Jerseys with his name and number 87 have to be sold at a rapid pace in not only the city he is playing for, but outside of that region. The league needs Crosby to be in a market where that type of exposure is available. Take note of when the NHL was gaining steam behind the hottest sport of the 90’s, the NBA.
It was during the time when the Kings were gaining a lot of success with Wayne Gretzky being the center of attention leading them to the Stanley Cup Finals. Pittsburgh was coming off of two consecutive Stanley Cup reigns. The Rangers were in contention for a Stanley Cup. Eric Lindros was making a big impact at a young age for an average (at best) Flyers club. The Red Wings had established themselves as one of the most dominant clubs during the regular season and created stars in Fedorov and Lidstrom. The Ducks were starting to become a respectable club with Paul Kariya and the acquisition of Teemu Selanne.
Nowadays the NHL is missing that big name, superstar player that brings butts into seats and gets the media talking about them. Nobody other than hockey fans know who Markus Naslund, Peter Forsberg, Marian Hossa, Ilya Kovalchuk are, and the NHL can’t afford that to happen with Sidney Crosby. They have to get his name and his talents out there for people outside of the hockey circles start talking about him, just like Lebron James did with basketball, Michael Vick with football and Tiger Woods with golf.