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No other US city can get nearly 20K inside & another 6K-8K outside watching a playoff game on a big screen in freezing rain ..... Buffalo wins this contest easily. Buffalo & Pittsburgh also double every other US markets TV ratings for local/home NHL broadcasts.
I am Canadian and when travelling in the U.S. and also meeting Americans abroad, the ones that really stand out as being able to and wanting to talk NHL hockey are people from the Detroit area. They would be followed by people from the Buffalo and Twin Cities areas, followed in no particular order by the Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago areas.
No other US city can get nearly 20K inside & another 6K-8K outside watching a playoff game on a big screen in freezing rain ..... Buffalo wins this contest easily. Buffalo & Pittsburgh also double every other US markets TV ratings for local/home NHL broadcasts.
Pound for pound you very well may be right. I know for the Flyers they have a very loyal following and are very passionate but are by no means a majority. In Philly the Flyers are very much the third team well behind the Eagles and Phillies overall within the city. Now obviously some fans are bigger Flyer fans than the others but the breadth and degree of fandon does not come close to football and baseball in Philly. In Bufalo it seems the Sabres would be number one; though in the Burgh it is Steelers all day long as the top team
I must say I am not terribly impressed by Pittsburgh as a hockey town. They have had the almost unbelievable luck of getting for their team via the draft two of the top three players produced in the last 30 years by the top hockey country in the world: Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby. (The other being Wayne Gretzky obviously.)
Note that the Penguins attendance sank to dangerously low levels in the period between Lemieux and Crosby, and the team was virtually bankrupt and there was talk of moving it. Not every team can consistently land the best player in his generation in order to remain a "hockey town".
I am not fond of the Flyers but Philadelphia is the best hockey town in Pennsylvania and one of the best in the U.S.
I must say I am not terribly impressed by Pittsburgh as a hockey town. They have had the almost unbelievable luck of getting for their team via the draft two of the top three players produced in the last 30 years by the top hockey country in the world: Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby. (The other being Wayne Gretzky obviously.)
Note that the Penguins attendance sank to dangerously low levels in the period between Lemieux and Crosby, and the team was virtually bankrupt and there was talk of moving it. Not every team can consistently land the best player in his generation in order to remain a "hockey town".
I am not fond of the Flyers but Philadelphia is the best hockey town in Pennsylvania and one of the best in the U.S.
It's been much better since the lock out. The Pens have sold out every game for over 4 years now (even in the early 90's when the Pens had two cups in a row they didn't do this so hockey has indeed gotten a following among the younger crowd here), have some of the highest TV hockey ratings in the country, the amount of drafted players from Pittsburgh is starting to increase, and can get several thousand people outside to watch playoff games on a big screen.
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