BattleBorn
50% to winning as many division titles as Toronto
I'd really like to see a study on this. It really runs counter to what we see in a lot of these college football bowl games. Half of them are played in front of half full (if they're lucky) stadiums, and yet they keep on adding them because the game is what people want to watch. I can't think of a time I've ever changed the channel because of a crowd. Heck, I tuned in to an Orioles game earlier this year just to watch a game without a crowd, lots of people did.Why would I, as a network, want to broadcast a game that is going to show 7,500 empty seats? I believe that when people see poorly attended leagues/sports on TV they are less inclined to watch. There have been studies done that support this.
I've watched some WJHC games in Europe where Canada is playing to about 120 people. It's hard to watch. Like the Ghost-game in Baltimore, it was neat....but really sucked the life out of the game for viewers.
I don't know man. While I agree that scarcity makes something more desired in most cases, I don't see the connection between that and television viewership. The crowd is nice and it acts as a soundtrack to the game, but it's not the reason people won't watch. ESPN recently experimented with having their commentators off site for some games (college basketball if I remember correctly.) Good crowd, people just didn't like it due to the lack of noise.Image plays a role in this too, a big one. If tickets are hard to get everywhere....tv audiences are seeing nothing but full arenas...merchandise is flying off the shelves, broadcasters and sponsors will take notice. If it appears to be a hot ticket...it becomes a hot ticket.
They're lumped in there in that they would be growing new fans, like you stated about Quebec - everyone there is already watching the NHL on TV and aside from ticket sales the league is already getting revenue from that market without a team. Las Vegas isn't like that...neither is Phoenix or Miami. There is so much room to grow, that doesn't mean you want lots of markets like this though. Just like you don't want a roster full of prospects, you don't want a league with too many of them either.
I agree. There should be a few frontier/growth teams. I figure it's sustainable to have 20% of the league in those locations, especially given the upside if they start taking off or the networks really value the ratings they're providing. However, those teams don't stay frontier or growth teams forever due solely to their location. Tampa is probably not a "frontier" market anymore and I don't think Nashville is either.