Golden Knights’ Revenues Running Strong in Season Two as VGK Defeat Isles, 4-2, in Comeback Win

By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

LVSportsBiz.com photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell

 

The Vegas Golden Knights continued their winning ways at home with a 4-2 victory over the New York Islanders Thursday night and also their financially-strong performance in season two with another 18,200 plus in attendance.

 

Average attendance heading into Thursday night’s game after 14 home dates was 18,292, filling T-Mobile Arena to 105.3 percent of capacity — tied with Minnesota for second highest in the National Hockey League behind Chicago. Fans were in the holiday mood.

 

 

 

Tonight’s attendance was 18,226, while continuing to do quite nicely in the revenue department.

 

LVSportsBiz.com has reported during the past year on the Golden Knights’ strong ticket sales, corporate sponsorships  and merchandise sales. And Forbes confirmed the excellent revenues and operating income in a recent story: “The Knights took in $180 million in revenue in the past year—the tenth highest in hockey—and $53 million in operating income, the fifth highest among the league’s 31 teams. The Knights are now worth $575 million, 15% more than their expansion fee.”

 

In addition, local TV ratings of Golden Knights games are outstanding, ranking in the top five in local hockey game ratings for cities in the country. That means AT&T SportsNet gains leverage in asking for higher advertiser prices as the Golden Knights challenge the Colorado Avalanche as the team of the Rockies.

 

The crowd size is impressive this season because hockey capacity is 17,367 for Golden Knights games at T-Mobile Arena and the attendance is consistently more than 18,200 a game.

 

Coach Gerard Gallant talked about the crowd giving a boost to the Golden Knights for the 4-2 win after the Islanders scored two goals late in the first period to take a 2-0 lead.

Forward Brandon Pirri scored his first goal of the year for the Golden Knights after being called up from Chicago. It was a crucial goal to cut the Isles’ lead to 2-1 in the second period.

VGK goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and defenseman Nate Schmidt have lockers in the corner of the locker room and they often can hear each other’s comments during post-game interviews. Schmidt caused a few laughs when he joked and described Fleury as a “nice player.”

And Fleury offered a few post-game comments himself.

And fans enjoyed the Golden Knights’ signature pre-game act before crowd favorite and go-to national anthem singer Carnell Johnson delivered another terrific anthem.

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