while the numbers aren't fake, they are likely very inflated. teams count all the unused season tickets and all the tickets given out as sponsorship deals. many times teams don't care because they still get some revenue from those empty seats, but its still a very important distinction because thats parking revenue lost, concessions revenue lost, and it hurts the atmosphere because fans dont want to go to a mostly empty barn with no real excitement. the unfortunate side is that it ends up being cyclical as the lack of fans erodes the casual fans.
as someone that spent 2 years trying to polish the turd that was the qc flames attendance problems, i know from experience you guys want to pretend that things are getting better, will be ok, etc. but let me tell you from experience it probably won't. perhaps abbottsford can survive by selling out the 4 home games a year against the canucks affiliate. personally, i think the fact that winnipeg is gone and they haven't yet established or announced any other west teams, means that the heat most likely don't have much more time.
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