Post by wagner3 on Mar 22, 2009 2:06:08 GMT -5
Poor attendance may cost Thrashers revenue cut
MONEY RACE: The Thrashers are out of the playoff race but remain in an attendance race with millions of dollars at stake. Entering Friday night’s game against the Red Wings, the Thrashers were averaging 14,323, their worst announced attendance since 2002-03. Another, unannounced attendance figure is the one that counts, though.
The Thrashers need to match the league’s average revenue growth rate and reach a paid attendance threshold of 14,000 or the average NHL paid attendance, whichever is lower, to receive the full amount of NHL revenue sharing aimed at helping teams in non-traditional hockey markets.
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• Sports TV Listings“Right now, it’s touch and go,” general manager Don Waddell said. “We want to try and sell as many tickets as we can [for the five home games] between now and the end of the year.” A Nashville Predators owner said this season his ownership group would consider buying tickets to Predators games to achieve the attendance benchmark, though a later statement said that wasn’t necessary.
Thrashers co-owner Bruce Levenson said this month his group wouldn’t buy Thrashers tickets to meet the benchmark and wouldn’t need to do so. “There’s tiers to that [revenue-sharing] program,” Levenson said. “I don’t know if we’ll hit the top tier, but we’re still going to be in line for substantial, very substantial revenue sharing.”
www.ajc.com/services/content/sports/thrashers/stories/2009/03/20/atlanta_thrashers_attendance.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=21
MONEY RACE: The Thrashers are out of the playoff race but remain in an attendance race with millions of dollars at stake. Entering Friday night’s game against the Red Wings, the Thrashers were averaging 14,323, their worst announced attendance since 2002-03. Another, unannounced attendance figure is the one that counts, though.
The Thrashers need to match the league’s average revenue growth rate and reach a paid attendance threshold of 14,000 or the average NHL paid attendance, whichever is lower, to receive the full amount of NHL revenue sharing aimed at helping teams in non-traditional hockey markets.
RELATED STORIES
Thrashers dump Tampa Bay in shootout
Bryan Little a bright spot in Thrashers' dim season
Thrashers fall to Red Wings
More Thrashers coverage
• Sports TV Listings“Right now, it’s touch and go,” general manager Don Waddell said. “We want to try and sell as many tickets as we can [for the five home games] between now and the end of the year.” A Nashville Predators owner said this season his ownership group would consider buying tickets to Predators games to achieve the attendance benchmark, though a later statement said that wasn’t necessary.
Thrashers co-owner Bruce Levenson said this month his group wouldn’t buy Thrashers tickets to meet the benchmark and wouldn’t need to do so. “There’s tiers to that [revenue-sharing] program,” Levenson said. “I don’t know if we’ll hit the top tier, but we’re still going to be in line for substantial, very substantial revenue sharing.”
www.ajc.com/services/content/sports/thrashers/stories/2009/03/20/atlanta_thrashers_attendance.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=21