By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The Vegas Golden Knights’ season came to a screeching halt when the National Hockey League hit the pause button on the 2019-20 season on March 12 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Knights having another banner season in attendance after playing 37 home games. The 37 home games were tied with four other teams for the most home games when the season was suspended with the VGK leading the Pacific Division.
Through those 37 games, VGK averaged 18,310 fans per game – which was 13th out of 31 NHL teams. Chicago led the NHL in attendance at 21,441 fans a game through 34 home games, while Ottawa was last with 12,618 fans a game through 37 home games.
But the Golden Knights were filling T-Mobile Arena to 105.4 percent of capacity, which was the fifth highest in the league behind Dallas (113%), Chicago (108.7%), Winnipeg (108.2%) and Colorado (107.1%).
The capacity percentage is a function of what the team considers is capacity for its home arena. The Knights say capacity is 17,367 at T-Mobile Arena.
Four other NHL teams had also played 37 home games like the Golden Knights — Montreal with 21,085 fans per home game, Detroit (18,716), Winnipeg (15,784) and Ottawa (12,618).
The Golden Knights average game ticket is well over $100. Let’s multiply $100 by total VGK attendance of 677,499 and the Knights have well over $60 million in ticket revenue through 37 games. That’s not counting four preseason games, too.
The playoffs are a big money maker in ticket revenues because ticket prices go up in the postseason, with prices escalating as a team advances from round to round. Vegas was likely going to make the playoffs, though the season’s continuation is uncertain at this point. It’s unclear if or when the regular season would resume.
When the NHL halted games, there were 189 games remaining in the season. The regular season was scheduled to end April 4, with the Stanley Cup Playoffs starting the week of April 6.
Before the NHL put the season on pause, the Columbus Blue Jackets were scheduled to play the Pittsburgh Penguins at Nationwide Arena on Thursday without fans in response to an order banning mass gatherings in Ohio. The San Jose Sharks, responding to a similar ban in Santa Clara County in California, were planning to play their remaining home games this month without fans at SAP Center.
Now it’s wait and see.
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