Despite having one of the largest venues by capacity in the NHL, the Calgary Flames’ attendance numbers have been dismal. The team is averaging less than 90% attendance this year through the first 11 home games. When you go to the game, even 90% seems generous- there seem to be fewer people in the stands than before, indicating that ticket sales may not be equivalent to attendance. That’s a problem.

And while the team will blame the poor performance on the ice, it is their inability to properly message that is driving people not to attend games.

The Flames are on track for the worst attendance in two decades

The team is no stranger to poor attendance of late. Since the pandemic, the team has not averaged more than 18,000 average ticket sales per season, according to data from HockeyDB. However, over the past four years, those numbers have steadily dropped, with the average this year sitting at just over 17,200 fans in the stands.

This is a major loss in revenue. Even if you averaged $200 per ticket per game, that’s a $400,000 loss per game that they are taking on ticket sales alone. Multiply that by 41 home games, and the team is down $16M, before accounting for other revenue like food, drinks, parking, or merch. Yikes.

But beyond revenue, it’s a telling issue for the team. It means that in a city that has grown substantially since the pandemic, they cannot bring people out to support the team. Fans would rather do other things with their money. In a city without an MLS, NBA, MLB, or NFL team, the Flames should have a near monopoly on the sports market, but somehow they are struggling to get fans into seats.

Even more than that, of the 17,200 people who do go, the games have been eerily quiet of late. The atmosphere in the arena has been quieter, fans have been less engaged, and the usual “go Flames go” chants have been fewer and further between.

Is it because of the Flames’ record?

While it probably plays a part, the team’s poor performance is only part of the problem. Fans in Calgary have shown that when the team is exciting to watch, even if they are losing, fans will come out to support. Through the last rebuild, from 2012 until they made the playoffs in the 2014–15 season, the Flames averaged nearly 100% attendance. Even as the team found their footing over the next couple of years with Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, and Matthew Tkachuk, the team still averaged around 19,000 fans per game in the regular season.

Across the league, teams have shown that rebuilding doesn’t have to come at the cost of fans in the stands. The Nashville Predators, who sit 31st in the league in attendance, average 100% attendance. Ditto that for the struggling Vancouver Canucks, Seattle Kraken, and highly inconsistent Utah Mammoth.

Sitting at the bottom of the attendance charts are perennial losers, the Buffalo Sabres, the San Jose Sharks, who have one of the smallest fan bases in the league, the Philadelphia Flyers, and the Ottawa Senators, who have an arena outside of the city.

How do the Calgary Flames get fans in the stands?

It is not hard for the Flames to get out of this predicament. They need to start by being honest with their fans, telling them exactly what the game plan is. There has been no attempt to create buy-in from anyone in the Flames’ fan base, even season ticket holders. The team has come out saying time and again that they need to just add a piece or two, and this team will be a contender. Even the most ardent supporters of the team won’t believe that anymore.

At least the starting point for the plan forward for this group will be better than what is happening now. Then the team needs to execute on that plan. If the plan is to get younger, the team needs to play their young players and actually allow them to wow the crowd. Nobody wants to watch boring hockey, and the Flames have muzzled their best young players or refused to play them entirely.

It’s time for the team to make room for players like Matvei Gridin and Zayne Parekh. Allow them to play heavier minutes, allow them to dazzle the crowd, and if they make a mistake, it’s okay. This is not the year the team makes the playoffs anyway. Let them have fun, let them entertain the crowd.

Give the kids something to inspire them. Nobody is inspired by Jonathan Huberdeau or Mikael Backlund, but watching a guy like Parekh walk the blueline or deke a guy or two, is what builds fandom in the next generation. How many kids were inspired by Gaudreau’s ability to deke through teams in the 2010s? Even when they were losing, people would go to games just to watch him shine. This team needs to do more than what they have.

It’s time for the Flames to make a difference

The pandemic was hard for fandoms across the world, and sports were no different. Teams are struggling to build and rebuild their communities post-COVID and to engage new audiences. Some sports like Formula 1 have done an outstanding job, but hockey, and especially hockey in Calgary, has not. This team needs to reach out to the community and bring in new fans. It’s not hard to do, but it takes developing an attractive product. They don’t have to win games, but they do have to be exciting.

Hockey is an entertainment product, and fans need to be entertained. If you’re not winning games, you need to be exciting. This team is neither. Don’t listen to the Flames’ management; they don’t need to win games to be exciting. It’s time for this organization to look itself in the mirror and make a change. The Calgary Flames’ attendance depends on it.

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