Playing With Attendance Numbers

I finally came across some league-wide attendance numbers for the two seasons the Scouts played: The average attendance at an NHL game was 13,224 in 1974-’75 and 12,644 in’75-’76. This helps put the Scouts attendance of 8,529 in ’74-’75 in better perspective (I don’t have a number for ’75-’76 yet). That means the Scouts drew only 64% of the league average in their first year. That is the equivalent of drawing 11,261 fans per game in 2008-’09, or 2,512 fewer than the Islanders’ league-worst 13,773 average last season. Which sounds pretty bad. Because it is. But of course, countless conditions have changed in the last 30 years.

Perhaps most importantly, the KC metro population has grown from 1.4 million in 1976 to 2 million today, a 143% increase. That projects as an additional 3,667 butts in seats per game. Add that to the above 11,261 number, and you get an average of 14,928 per game. That would have ranked 28th in the NHL last season, ahead of Phoenix, Atlanta and the Islanders.

League-wide attendance increases over the last 30+ years are due in no small part to population increases in NHL towns, so it’s probably double-dipping to increase Scouts attendance numbers by both league attendance trends and KC population trends. Another potential factor is that the Scouts were competing for sports fans’ dollars with the NBA Kansas City Kings at the time, something a team of today wouldn’t have to contend with. For those and many other reasons, the above numbers are mostly useless to project what the reality would be if Kansas City were to gain an NHL franchise—I just thought they were interesting to play with.

In the end, how an NHL team would draw in Kansas City today doesn’t have a lot to do with how the Scouts, Blades or Outlaws drew, or how the Mavericks will draw. Attracting a respectable number of fans would rely primarily on how successful the team was on the ice (which is why an expansion franchise might be on shaky footing until/unless they start winning). Secondarily, it would take strong, patient ownership that was dedicated to a long-term goal of making the NHL stick in Kansas City. Thirdly, the team would have to be innovatively and aggressively marketed. The Scouts had none of those things going for them.

This chart shows just how brutal Scouts attendance was. I'm missing numbers from four games, but in the 36 games I do have, the Scouts only had an NHL average crowd twice in their entire first season. Almost makes you sympathetic towards owner Ed Thompson for bailing after two years.

The AHL Not In Kansas City

My original intent for this blog was to focus solely on the past and future of the NHL in Kansas City. But the more I’ve thought about it since starting this blog, the more I think that the AHL would be a fantastic fit for Kansas City, and the more confused I get about why the AHL in KC is never even brought up as a possibility.

PucKChaser has already covered this, but it was announced that Oklahoma City is leaving the CHL, apparently to clear the way for the Edmonton Oilers’ AHL affiliate to begin play there in 2010.

Why does Kansas City not even gett a sniff from the Oilers, or other teams that have relocated recently? Like PucKChaser, I’m left to guess that AEG has no interest in putting AHL hockey in the Sprint Center. Which baffles me. I can certainly understand if their top priority is to go for the best, and get an NHL or NBA team. But I don’t think that goal is mutually exclusive with a secondary goal of landing an AHL team in the meantime. In fact, I would think an AHL team would help the cause.

KC has what would surely be one of the nicest arenas in the AHL, and a populace dying for sporting events to attend in it. And while KC would rank near the bottom in population as an NHL team, we would be the fourth largest US market in the A.

Here’s a look at AHL markets in the US, with Oklahoma City and KC thrown in (metropolitan populations have been used where possible):

Scouts Concepts, Potential Names

That there is a Scouts “concept jersey” from yours truly (based on an old Bruins design). I’m a geek for the design aspect of sports. One of my favorite websites is Uni Watch, which obsesses over sports uniform minutiae. A couple of other good websites specific to hockey are Icethetics and PuckDrawn.
Scouts concepts have shown up quite a few times on Icethetics. PuckDrawn has a funny Islanders/Scouts logo mash-up. (PuckDrawn has plans for a series of concepts called “Totally Reebok” in which they’ll imagine what jerseys would look like today for various teams of the past, including the Scouts. I’ll point you that way when it’s posted.)

All of which is good fun, but there’s zero chance that a new NHL team in KC would be called the Scouts. It might be more interesting to hear ideas for potential team names and see ideas for logos and jerseys. My preference would be a name that would carry on the tradition of royalty/leadership related names (Monarchs, Royals, Chiefs, Kings, Scouts), but I don’t know exactly what. Presidents maybe? Emperors? Or bringing back the Monarchs name? There is an AHL Monarchs, so that might not be a possibility. I’m not sure how I’d feel about using that name—the Negro league baseball Monarchs have such an amazing story and history that the name is almost sacrosanct to me.

It’s just frivolous fun, and of course wildly premature, but I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Adam Proteau of The Hockey News: Coyotes Will Land In KC

From The Hockey News columnist Adam Proteau: “If Relocating Coyotes Is In The Cards, Look To Kansas City”

Proteau predicts that the Coyotes will continue to hemorrhage money in Arizona for a few more years and move to KC. Bizarrely, Proteau calls KC “about as good as it gets” for an NHL market. Even those of us dying to see NHL hockey in KC realize there are plenty of reasonable doubts about how the NHL would fare here. But Proteau may be correct that AEG’s ties to the league and KC playing by league rules and wishes puts us first in line for a team.

Proteau gets some interesting quotes from an anonymous member of the NHL board of governors:

“You see the connections (Kansas City) has to the (NHL board of) governors – Anschutz, (AEG president and CEO Tim) Leiweke – and it’s hard not to see them influencing the process in K.C.’s favor. I think the Balsillie debacle has proven that if (the league is) bringing other teams or more teams back to Canada - and a bunch of other U.S.-based franchises don’t fall apart in the meanwhile - the NHL is going to demand huge expansion fees for anyone interested.

“Not so in Kansas City, though. There’s your classic market that the league would lower expectations for in order to keep team locations close to Gary’s overall blueprint for the product. And any league business venture that helps an existing board member’s interests is going to be looked at and embraced before any other.”

The Pitch Calls Out McGannon

So the enthusiasm I displayed in my last post about Paul McGannon’s claim that there are 100 Kansas Citians just waiting to buy an NHL team is a little embarrassing. I didn’t really take it at face value—I think it just made me hope that there could be some rich dudes in KC at least discussing or considering such a thing.

Pitch reporter David Martin picked up on McGannon’s claim, and asked the pertinent question: “Who the hell is McGannon talking about?” He asked McGannon, and McGannon was happy to talk about the Kings-Islanders game coming up. From Martin’s piece:

But what about the company founders and CEOs who seemed (in McGannon’s telling to an out-of-town newspaper) to be chomping at the bit to capture an NHL franchise?

“I don’t know if they’re chomping at the bit,” McGannon says. “They’re waiting for further information on what opportunity would be available at the appropriate time, which we’ve been told is not now.”

There is a lot of passion for the NHL in the civic community, McGannon adds. “But they don’t want to reveal themselves.”

Curious that these enthusiastic hockey supporters want to stay anonymous. Seems if someone was actually interested in helping to bring a team here, they’d be front and center waving money around, don’t you think? Or submitting a bid on the Coyotes?

It’s hard to know what to make of Paul McGannon. I don’t doubt that his heart is in the right place, and that he truly is passionate about bringing a team here. But it seems one of his strategies is to say anything and everything to get attention for KC, truth be damned. My guess is that he’s highly optimistic and a dreamer. And there’s not necessarily anything wrong with that—it might be just what will be necessary if we’re ever to gain an NHL franchise.

100 Kansas Citians Willing To Buy Into NHL?

It recently came out that the Columbus Blue Jackets have lost $80 million over the last seven years, and premature speculation about relocation immediately started up. It's really a non-story at this point, but buried in an article in a Columbus weekly is a bit of a bomb-shell from NHL21 honcho Paul McGannon: “(NHL21 membership includes) 100 civic leaders who, if asked, would participate if local ownership (of an NHL franchise) was requested.” Wha?! That's huge news if there are really 100 Kansas Citians willing to form an ownership consortium.

Scouts Notes: October 1975

• After having to endure an eight-game road trip to start their inaugural season, the Scouts got to open the ’75-’76 season at home against the New York Islanders on October 8. And after waiting six games to earn their first point in ’74, the Scouts didn’t waste time in ’75 and tied the Islanders, who had made the Cup semifinals the year before, 1-1. From Ken Rudnick’s game wrap in the next day’s Times: “‘We checked well,’ said (coach) Bep (Guidolin). ‘We had a meeting this morning and our guys played just like we talked about. I told them we weren’t going to beat a good team like New York by five goals, so we had to check them tight.’” The Islanders thought they may have pulled out the win when J.P. Parise (father of Zach) put the puck in the net with 27 seconds left, but the ref immediately signaled Parise had batted the puck with a high-stick, and the goal was not allowed. “I didn’t know what happened,” said Guidolin. “I just saw the red light go on. Then the guys on the bench started yelling, so I started yelling.” Appropriately, Guy Charron had the goal for the Scouts. Numbers-wise, he was about the only thing going for the Scouts in ’75-’76 (78GP, 27G, 44A, 71P). Ed Gilbert became the Scouts “iron man” as the only player to appear in all 81 Scouts games to date.

• Islanders head coach Al Arbour had this take on the opener: “I think the Scouts are a vastly improved team. Defensemen like Gary Bergman, Larry Johnston and Jean-Guy Lagace have helped them. Last year they had a couple of forwards who had never played in the league. Now they have experience. Players like Denis Dupere and Craig Patrick will help them up front and Denis Herron is a good young goalie. I wasn’t pleased with the way we played…it could be that Kansas City just wouldn’t let us get going.” (10/9/75 Star)

• From Star reporter Joe McGuff: “The only disappointing aspect of opening night was the crowd of 6,819, but then it’s a little hard to be hockey-minded on an Indian summer night. If the Scouts are as much improved as they appear to be, selling hockey in Kansas City should become an easier job.” (10/9/75 Star) It’s flabbergasting that an opening night crowd could be so minuscule. Owner Ed Thompson had to be let down, but tried to put on a happy face: “I wasn’t disappointed because we expected it. You can usually tell by the advance sale. If we keep playing good hockey, things will pick up. I think at the end of the season our attendance will be better than last year.” (10/11/75 Star)

• The first bad break of the season came in practice the very next day after the opener when (G) Bill McKenzie and (F) Denis Dupere suffered a chance collision during a “standard skating drill” (10/11/75 Times). McKenzie escaped with some soreness, but Dupere’s collarbone had snapped. “I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years of hockey,” said Bep. Dupere was lost for the first half of the year, a major blow to the team. Dupere had set up Charron for the Scouts goal in the opener, and was penciled in to play on the top two lines. Mr. Dupere was kind enough to send a reply to an autograph request and letter from me, in which he wrote: “We couldn’t blame the fans for the poor support since we weren’t a very good team. I missed most of the season with a broken collarbone. On the bright side, me being a great baseball fan, I was lucky to meet George Brett and I am sure you know who I am talking about!”

• The club went 3-2 in their next five games to give them a surprising .583 start, but then dropped the last three contests of the month to finish October at 3-5-1 (.389).

• (C) Rich Lemieux and a 1977 2^nd round draft pick was traded to Atlanta for (RW) Buster Harvey on the 13^th.

• The Scouts obviously didn’t have much TV support in Kansas City: “Reiterating that there would be at least some Scouts games on television this season, Bob Wormington, general manager of KBMA-TV, said that no definite schedule has been set. ‘We should know something in a week or two,’ he said. ‘It depends on a couple of major advertisers.’ He indicated the bulk of the televised games would probably take place after the football season.” 10/14/75 Times

• New backup goaltender Bill McKenzie made his Scouts debut in Washington, D.C. on the 22^nd and managed a 4-2 win. Unfortunately for him and the Scouts, he went 0-16-1 the rest of the way.

• On the 23^rd, the Scouts met the Bruins in Boston, and stunned them 3-2. The two wins in Boston (one each season) were probably the biggest feathers in the Scouts cap. It helped that Bobby Orr was on the sidelines for this game due to knee surgery, but it still rates as a major upset.

• The average attendance for the five home games in October was just 7,755.