>>As for the support for hockey, maybe it's good for college hockey (but I
>>doubt it, I hardly read or hear anything about college hockey in the Boston
>>media), but it's laughable for the pros.  According to the April 10, 1998
>>edition of The Hockey News, attendance for Bruins games to date this season
>>has been 82%.  That's 5 percent *lower* than last year, when the team was
>>arguably the worst in the NHL.  Only Carolina (41% !!!), Los Angeles (78%),
>>NY Islanders (74%), Tampa Bay (68%), and Washington (78%) had lower
>>attendance figures.  Now, Carolina's problems are obvious, Los Angeles has
>>notoriously bad fans (although the Ducks average 99%, go figure), the
>>Islanders are an abomination, Tampa Bay is the worst team I've ever seen
>>(and what a hideous sweater), and Washington. . .well, that's difficult to
>>explain -- good team, great sweaters, I guess their fans just suck.
 
As a Washington Capitals fan, I'd like to think I don't "suck" and I
hope Carl was just sort of kidding <g>. I know Washington's season
ticket base has declined in recent years. We just moved to a new arena
in downtown DC (the MCI Arena) and you'd think people would be jazzed to
go but there are still empty seats. I could complain about high ticket
prices but that's seems to be pretty darn constant anywhere. Most people
in the Washington DC area are not natives, they come from other parts of
the country. So, they already have preferences on teams. When teams like
the Penguins, the Rangers, the Flyers, etc come to town, the place fills
up. Professional hockey just doesn't seem as popular down here among the
locals as say football/baseball. Now, that's changing with lots of youth
hockey and hockey being played in high school. Maybe in future years we
will have a bigger fan base, who knows.
 
I guessing having two RPI alumni on the team isn't enough of a draw <g>.
 
Andy Loggia
RPI 1991
 
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