According to the puck some nice boy gave Beth last Friday, this is the tenth season for the FHL.* Like any young league, it has had its ups and downs getting established, but it seems to be moving in the right direction now. The league is up to ten teams now, most of which have a few seasons under their belt. Danville is the most established team at this point, having joined way back in 2011, though there have been teams in the Watertown and Danbury areas on and off since the league's founding in 2010. So, now, a decade later, let's take a look at where the teams are playing and how they are drawing. *Well, apparently the "Federal Prospect Hockey League" or FPHL now, but I think that name is stupid clunky and I'm refusing to use it anywhere else here. I have taken screenshots of all the arenas in the league using Google Maps, both overhead and at street level. Of course, some pictures are better than others. Delaware especially just did not have a good street level picture. I did my best, I promise. The overhead views are more to get an idea of how the arenas are situated in their respective cities. I have also included links to each teams most recent home game as I could find on YouTube which will give a good idea of what the inside of each arena looks like. Of course, this gives an idea of the ice and seating areas. It is doubtful these broadcasts are going to give any sort of sense of the concourses and amenities of each arena, but I still think this will give a good sense of the state of the league after its first ten years. If you are just now learning about the league and are curious about your local team, the league does provide a full team directory, and here is a graphical footprint for the league if you want to get an idea of how far these buses are traveling between games. Battle Creek Rumble BeesFounded: 2019 Current Record: 1-27-0-0 (3 pts.) Arena: The Rink at Battle Creek Capacity: 1600 Average Attendance: 355 Total Attendance: 3545 Population: 51,247 (2018 estimate) Carolina ThunderbirdsFounded: 2017 Current Record: 21-3-1-1 (66 pts.) Championships: 1 (2019) Arena: Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Annex Capacity: 3050 Average Attendance: 2897 Total Attendance: 23,173 Population: 255,969 (2019 estimate) Columbus River DragonsFounded: 2019 Current Record: 8-15-3-1 (31 pts.) Arena: Columbus Civic Center Capacity: 7259 Average Attendance: 2708 Total Attendance: 18,954 Population: 194,160 (2019 estimate) Danbury Hat TricksFounded: 2019 (Previously Danbury Whalers [2010-2015], Danbury Titans [2015-2017]) Current Record: 18-6-1-2 (58 pts.) Championships: 1 (2013, as Whalers) Arena: Danbury Ice Arena Capacity: 3050 Average Attendance: 1063 Total Attendance: 8504 Population: 84,730 (2018 estimate) Danville DashersFounded: 2011 Current Record: 15-10-1-2 (49 pts.) Championships: 2017 Arena: David S. Palmer Arena Capacity: 2350 Average Attendance: 948 Total Attendance: 7587 Population: 30,898 (2018 estimate) Delaware ThunderFounded: 2019 Current record: 8-17 (24 pts.) Arena: Centre Ice Arena Capacity: 700 Average Attendance: 555 Total Attendance: 3886 Population: 3643 (2018 estimate) Elmira EnforcersFounded: 2018 Current Record: 11-12-2-2 (39 pts.) Arena: First Arena Capacity: 3784 Average Attendance: 3110 Total Attendance: 27,991 Population: 27,204 (2018 estimate) Mentor Ice BreakersFounded: 2018 Current Record: 13-13-0-2 (41 pts.) Arena: Mentor Civic Arena Capacity: 1600 Average Attendance: 500 Total Attendance: 2498 Population: 47,273 (2018 estimate) Port Huron HowlersFounded: 2015 Current Record: 13-9-0-2 (45 pts.) Championships: 1 (2016) Arena: McMorran Arena Capacity: 3568 Average Attendance: 1165 Total Attendance: 5827 Population: 28,927 (2018 estimate) Note: I could not find a current broadcast for the Prowlers for whatever reason, so this still image of the arena is the best I can offer. Watertown WolvesFounded: 2014 Current Record: 14-10-1-2 (46 pts.) Championships: 2 (2015, 2018) Arena: Watertown Municipal Arena Capacity: 2000 Average Attendance: 916 Total Attendance: 7328 Population: 25,290 (2018 estimate) Some final thoughts after that info dump. When the FHL first came to Danville, I was very hopeful but guarded at first. Danville had tried so hard to find a good replacement since losing the Wings to Indianapolis. The Wings were great hockey, and I remember them drawing very well. I actually remember them drawing better than the current Dashers, but some research has shown that actually isn't true. The Dashers are drawing at the exact same level as the Wings ever did. In any case, I'm sure I've written about it before, and one day I'll probably write a book about this. After the Wings left, there was a couple year gap until the Pounders came in 2006. That was just, to be blunt, such awful hockey. Games were routinely played in the 20's, which coincidentally was probably also about what the average attendance was for those games in Danville. After that league moved on, Danville had another junior team, the Inferno. That was pretty decent hockey that drew well again, but again the team moved to Indianapolis after a few seasons and then almost immediately folded. The Dashers picked up right where the Inferno left off and never looked back.
The FHL provides a really solid level of play for a great price. I guess I haven't checked other teams prices, but Danville charges $11 for an adult ticket. It's hard to beat that for a professional ticket. I also barely spent more than that on concessions to feed myself and Beth last weekend. The play is great, the atmosphere is good, and it would only be better if the arenas were more full. That's where I'm left scratching my head a little bit. I don't understand why this league isn't drawing better than it is. I don't know what kind of advertising is happening in each of these cities, but I'm assuming they are doing what they can to get the word out. And maybe this sort of attendance is just what you would expect for low-level professional leagues. Not everyone is naturally drawn to this level as I am, I suppose. But, let's go back through these numbers. By percentage, here are the most full arenas: Carolina: 2897/3050 - 95% Elmira: 3110/3784 - 82.2% Delaware: 555/700 - 79.3% Watertown: 916/2000 - 45.8% Danville: 948/2350 - 40.3% Columbus: 2708/7259 - 37.3% Danbury: 1063/3050 - 34.9% Port Huron: 1165/3568 - 32.7% Mentor: 500/1600 - 31.2% Battle Creek: 355/1600 - 22.2% Only three teams are more than half filling their arenas, and one of those is only a 700-seat arena. If you'd like, though, just swap Delaware for Columbus, as Columbus is drawing the third-most fans per game, but are playing in a building that is clearly pretty outsized for this league. These numbers just seem too low for the level of play demonstrated by the FHL. I really hope more people start tuning in, so to speak, now that games are available for free on YouTube as well. I'm hopeful that will allow people to be more plugged into these teams for the full year, not just the games happening at home. And more people plugged in hopefully generates more word of mouth buzz, which generates more interest, and the thing keeps growing. That's obviously what the FHL is banking on, too. The people are there. To use Danville as an example, as of the last census, there are a little over 33,000 people in Danville alone. That's not even counting some pretty immediate suburbs (in no particular order) like Covington (2645), Georgetown (3474), Westville (3202), and Oakwood (1502). Add those four together, we'll call the Danville metro area something like 44,000 people. That's not even counting some bigger cities a bit further away that might draw some fans, like Lafayette (in my case) and Champaign, to name two cities with Big Ten universities without varsity hockey. Crawfordsville (15,915) is another potential draw, only being about a half hour's drive away, also with a potential audience of college kids. Out of all those people, it really seems like squeezing out another thousand people shouldn't be that big of an ask. Routinely drawing 2000 people to a 2350 seat arena would be a much different and more exciting feel than just under a thousand.* And it definitely ought to be in reach for an area that size. *If you were curious, that would be 85.1% capacity crowd. Like I said, I can't blame the players. They're bringing the product. I haven't put in the research for these other markets, but I would imagine they are all in a bit similar situations. Lots of untapped potential. I hope the FHL has some smarter people than me on how to get these people into the arenas, because the players deserve it. Editor's note: I've thought a lot about this article since I wrote it. I decided against writing an entirely new post, so this one was updated on 1/16/20 to include the city population, to give an idea of the various market sizes of the league. I also updated the records of the teams at that point as well, because why not? I did not change the attendance numbers, because I used them later in the article and I didn't want to rewrite that portion. |
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