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Coyotes president touts off-ice turnaround

Coyotes fans

The Phoenix Coyotes are dead last in NHL attendance. On Saturday, an announced crowd of just 11,697 showed up to Jobing.com Arena to watch the home team lose, 3-1, to Carolina.

But despite what may seem like a still-dire situation in the desert, Coyotes president and CEO Anthony LeBlanc is seeing signs of progress.

“Our next home game on December 27 against San Jose is going to be a sellout,” LeBlanc said yesterday on Arizona Sports 620 radio (audio). “So, the fact that we’re finally starting to sell out against some of these rivals in California -- that’s a good sign. “

He added: “From a paid attendance perspective, we’re up somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 percent year over year; sponsorships we can’t even compare to the previous years -- things are going so well for us.”

According to LeBlanc -- who admits things could still be better and wouldn’t use the word “happy” to describe how he’s feeling about the business -- making the playoffs will be “incredibly important” for the Coyotes in terms of helping the new ownership group in their turnaround plans.

Unfortunately, a postseason berth is far from guaranteed at this point.

Bottom 10 in NHL attendance:

Attendance

Note: Winnipeg’s capacity is 15,004.