Talent up, attendance stagnant

Nick Christensen

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004 | 10:49 a.m.

If a minor league hockey gets major league talent and nobody notices, does it really matter?

That's the question facing ECHL commissioner Brian McKenna as the NHL lockout drags toward its fifth month, leaving the ECHL with a plethora of American Hockey League-caliber talent but no major league drumming up interest in core markets.

McKenna was in Las Vegas on Tuesday in one stop of his visits to West Division cities.

"From an on-ice perspective, it's what we expected," McKenna said of the lockout. "The level of competition and the quality of players improved as a result of the lockout."

But because of the lockout, the lack of NHL on television and other media has generally decreased interest in hockey, and McKenna said that coverage of the lockout, particularly in northern cities, was not what he expected. And attendance in ECHL cities near NHL markets has generally been similar to last year's numbers.

Gwinnett, which plays in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth, is an exception. Gwinnett has had a 1,500-per-game increase in attendance from last year and draws an ECHL-high 6,551 spectators per game.

"Not having our major league on television and major media access is certainly not good for our sport," McKenna said. "In some markets there may be a little benefit, but that's a very short-term thing."

The league's average attendance this season is 3,914, essentially stagnant from last year's average of 3,913 fans at the league's 1,116 games.

The stall comes despite several tight division races. With most teams about 20 games into their 72-game regular seasons, only six of 28 teams are more than 10 points out of first place.

"It's been very good competition and a lot of parity in our divisions," McKenna said. "From a fan's perspective it's been very good."

The lockout has also brought several NHL players down to the ECHL for various reasons, such as wanting to play for their hometown teams. NHL All-Star Scott Gomez is the most high-profile of this year's ECHL players, playing for the Alaska Aces in his hometown of Anchorage.

"He's probably the best-known athlete in the state, and he's the highest profile of the other players in the league," McKenna said. "We expected to have probably 10 to 12 players, and we have six or seven and I suspect we'll get a few more."

Those who have come have not been far-and-above the rest of the league, a testament to the Double-A players against whom Gomez and other NHL veterans are playing.

"No one has come in and dominated," McKenna said. "I think it speaks very well for the quality of play in our league and the quality of players overall."