Vaughn had a population of 238866 in 2006 Statistics Canada 2008

This proves that theoretically any city with 1,109,338 can support an NHL team, based on their population. Population is important to any sports franchise but not as important as their fan base Let’s take two cities for example; Dallas and St Paul’s, Minnesota. Dallas is the seventh most populated city that houses an NHL franchise at 1,232,940. The average attendance for the Stars in the 2008-2009 season was 17,680, which was the 14th best attendance in the league (ESPN , 2009) St. Paul’s was the 25th most populated city on the list at 287,151, yet Minnesota’s average attendance last season was 18,568 which was the ninth best in the league and better than Dallas.

Minnesota is known as the capital of hockey in the United States and it is the birthplace to most American NHL players. In some cases, Metro population has more to do with the team’s popularity and financial success then the actual city population. Teams such as the Devils, Islanders, Coyotes and Panthers all rely on the major cities surrounding them to contribute to the fan base and the attendance. An example would be the New Jersey Devils, who reside in Uniondale, New Jersey which only has around enough residents to fill the stadium. But, they are not far from Manhattan, one of the most well known cities in the world, with a population of over eight million people. Along with the rest of the state of New Jersey, the Devils rely on the fact that people will commute from Manhattan to see a game.

This situation would be similar to the one in Hamilton or Vaughn, if they were ever to acquire an NHL team. Vaughn had a population of 238,866 in 2006 (Statistics Canada, 2008). They would need to assume that some of the residents in Toronto would commute to attend the games. Overall Hockey PassionAn issue that also is raised when moving a hockey team, is whether the future city has a big enough market, and generate enough interest to make some money.

Last year in Canada, 33.8 of boys, who participate in organized sports, ages 4-14, played hockey. 25.2 of men ages 15 and over, who participate in organized sports, played hockey (Statistics Canada, 2008). In Canada, soccer was the only sport that outshot hockey in participation rates from active children ages 4-14, and golf was the only sport that outshot hockey for those men ages 15 and over (Statistics Canada, 2008). Another indicator of passion for hockey in a city is TV viewership. The NHL ratings have drastically shot down since the 2004-2005 lockout, but they are slowly climbing back Versus, the NHL’s main network in the U.S. during the week, sees around 311,000 viewers per game while TSN, Canada’s main network, catches 483,000 viewers per game.