IceGators attendance 09 - 10 season?

[RCAJUN90]

What do you think will be their average attendance?

[gator28fan]

I don't think the Blackham seats 7000, and 5000 would be just about sellouts every game so I think a good amount is 3000. More is better.

Geaux Gators!!!

Marlene

[RCAJUN90]

I don't think the Blackham seats 7000, and 5000 would be just about sellouts every game so I think a good amount is 3000. More is better.

Geaux Gators!!!

Marlene

I've never been in Blackham so it was just a guess. I don't live in the Lafayette area so I'm just trying to see how much interest there is in the IceGators.

[BeauCajun]

I don't think the Blackham seats 7000, and 5000 would be just about sellouts every game so I think a good amount is 3000. More is better.

Geaux Gators!!!

Marlene

It used to seat around 8500 for basketball. Hockey will be less.

[Frenchie35]

Maybe 3000+ first few games if they are winning, than 2200 avg.

[RCAJUN90]

Maybe 3000+ first few games if they are winning, than 2200 avg.

Really that low? I would think sellouts for the first few games. What is the mood in Lafayette? From what I've seen online people seem really excited.

[Duggie35]

I think early on, attendance will be fairly good due to the newness and novelty. However, because the league will not be as good as the ECHL and Blackham will not be as comfortable as the Cajundome, I think attendance will drop off substatially as the season progresses. I enjoyed going to IceGator games in the early days (like everyone else did), but the fact of the matter is that hockey is NOT a southern sport! Kids don't grow up with it and not many really understand the rules. I wish the New IceGators the best of luck and will probably attend a few games, but I think this will once again be a limited engagement.

[RCAJUN90]

I think early on, attendance will be fairly good due to the newness and novelty. However, because the league will not be as good as the ECHL and Blackham will not be as comfortable as the Cajundome, I think attendance will drop off substatially as the season progresses. I enjoyed going to IceGator games in the early days (like everyone else did), but the fact of the matter is that hockey is NOT a southern sport! Kids don't grow up with it and not many really understand the rules. I wish the New IceGators the best of luck and will probably attend a few games, but I think this will once again be a limited engagement.

True it is not a Southern sport. However hockey has thrived on the NHL level in places like Dallas, L.A., Tampa and in Carolina. It will be interesting to see what type of reception they do get. The early years of the IceGators were awesome. The atmosphere of the Cajundome was electric. Can Blackham reproduce this? Will people really notice a big drop from the ECHL to the SPHL? All I know for sure is that I'm looking forward to October.

[cajun4life]

They will average 4 times the amount of people that the Cajuns will for basketball.

[LSUConnMan]

I'd imagine it will depend on ticket prices, or the specials offered. I think the Mudbugs completely over priced their tickets, and it had a profound affected on the end of season attendance.

[RCAJUN90]

I'd imagine it will depend on ticket prices, or the specials offered. I think the Mudbugs completely over priced their tickets, and it had a profound affected on the end of season attendance.

Hockey should be a little different in that it is a unique sport for the South. However many point to the greed of the IceGators and ever increasing ticket prices was a reason for their demise. Let's hope the IceGators don't get to greedy and price themselves out of the market.

[Rebel02]

True it is not a Southern sport. However hockey has thrived on the NHL level in places like Dallas, L.A., Tampa and in Carolina. It will be interesting to see what type of reception they do get. The early years of the IceGators were awesome. The atmosphere of the Cajundome was electric. Can Blackham reproduce this? Will people really notice a big drop from the ECHL to the SPHL? All I know for sure is that I'm looking forward to October.

Hockey has survived in those areas you listed because of the population size of those areas. It's not hard to sell out 17k seat arenas in those areas when you have over a million people in the metro areas. You listed those L.A., Dallas, etc as places where hockey has thrived. I give you one where it hasn't.Phoenix.

Look, the Icegators will get some decent numbers for the first few games, but the novelty of the "Icegators" being back will wear off. This league is not even close to the level of talent in the ECHL. The talent drop off will be noticeable.

[RCAJUN90]

Hockey has survived in those areas you listed because of the population size of those areas. It's not hard to sell out 17k seat arenas in those areas when you have over a million people in the metro areas. You listed those L.A., Dallas, etc as places where hockey has thrived. I give you one where it hasn't.Phoenix.

Look, the Icegators will get some decent numbers for the first few games, but the novelty of the "Icegators" being back will wear off. This league is not even close to the level of talent in the ECHL. The talent drop off will be noticeable.

I wasn't trying to compare Dallas to Lafayette! I was just trying to show that in a Southern market hockey can be successful even on the NHL level. I knew about Phoenix. What's curious is they couldn't even keep their ECHL team. You would think that a big city like that could keep a minor league hockey team.

The difference in leagues will be interesting. I went to a Sea Wolves game last year in Biloxi and the level of play wasn't as high as I remembered. I don't know if I could get into it getting any worse. From the videos I've seen on youtube, the SPHL looks about the same as the ECHL just their are very young guys and some really old ones. It also seems like a fighting league which will go over well in Lafayette. It could be argued that as the IceGators fought less the less interest they generated in Lafayette. I think a big plus is the SPHL is a weekend league. A big minus is it's a very small league. Can you really get pumped playing the Mississippi Surge 10 times a year?

[Frenchie35]

Really that low? I would think sellouts for the first few games. What is the mood in Lafayette? From what I've seen online people seem really excited.

The excitment is coming from the old die hard fan's that showed up at the end of their 10 year trip. You will have about 1000 of the not so die hard fans show up. The price will keep some of them away. So if we get 3-3500 they will make money. The break even at the dome was about 3500 fans. I would like to know how much the rent will be for Blackham. It was $8500 per game plus rent of office space, security and the cost of changing from basketball to hockey and back. Also the cost for the concert change. Promote it big time and they will show up. I remember the first game in the dome. Now that was something to see. The second game brought fans out the wood work just to see what people were talking about. And they came back. Over 400,000 fans the second season. I think the first season had 395,000. The record still stands in the ECHL.

[CajunCrazy]

I think the Gators have a better shot with attendance than the Mudbugs ever had. Now don't take this the wrong way; the Mudbugs had a good team and all but the way everything was setup, the presentation/lack of organization of the game and the facility was embarrassing. The high ticket prices and old turf didn't help as well. I believe that with the past success the Ice Gators had along with it being something "new" to the area it will have promising results.