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:
Note: Winnipeg’s capacity is 15,004.