A New Ice Age?

Even some hockey executives were startled by the numbers.

They knew their sport was gaining slowly but surely in popularity. They saw basketball struggling with a variety of post-Michael Jordan ills.

Still, they did not expect midseason reports to show the NHL is drawing just as many fans a game as the NBA.

Through late last week, the NHL actually led the NBA by a slim margin--an average of 16,463 to 16,438--marking the first time since the late 1980s that hockey has outdrawn its glitzier cousin.

“I was definitely taken aback,” said Kurt Schwartzkopf, vice president of marketing and sales for the Kings. “Obviously, it’s a huge plus for our game.”

At league offices in New York, NHL executives were careful not to gloat, preferring to focus on the steady rise in attendance since a low point in the 1992-93 season.

“We gauge ourselves against ourselves,” said Jon Litner, the NHL’s chief operating officer.

Observers were less cautious.

“This is a pivotal step for the NHL,” said Kurt Hunzeker, associate editor of the Team Marketing Report in Chicago. “The NHL has always been looked at, in the public eye, as taking a back seat to the NBA. This proves they’re healthy and moving up.”

Attendance numbers are expected to fluctuate as the season progresses and, as of late Tuesday, NBA executives said they had nosed back into the lead. Yet they were mindful of their league’s downward trend.

“We don’t think it is something necessarily alarming,” said Bernie Mullen, senior vice president of team marketing and business operations. “We believe all leagues go through cycles.”

The situation in Los Angeles differs in that no one outshines the Lakers, who drew 18,906 through their first 28 home games. Even the Clippers, buoyed by a new arena and a more competitive team, were on pace to break team records with an average of 13,644.

The Kings, meanwhile, were averaging 15,739, keeping pace with attendance gains from last season’s move to Staples Center. In Anaheim, the Ducks reported 13,279 a game.

Nationwide, midseason attendance figures told the story of leagues heading in different directions.

The NBA was a marketing icon through the mid-1990s, leading the NHL by as many as 2,000 fans a game. Since then, while hockey has grown, average attendance at basketball games has fallen by nearly 1,000.

NBA Commissioner David Stern faces the void left by Jordan’s departure and concerns that the game is too sluggish because of too few fastbreaks and too much half-court offense. There has been embarrassing news about player behavior off the court.

“You have Charles Oakley saying over half the league uses marijuana,” Hunzeker said. “You have Stern answering all sorts of questions at the All-Star game, most of them negative.”

The NBA still has a broader fan base than the NHL and the demographic appeal to attract multimillion-dollar television and sponsorship contracts. NBA executives said attendance is down less than 1% from last season.

Also, the numbers reflect total tickets distributed, including handouts. Season-ticket sales have actually risen 5% from last season, Mullen said.

“We don’t expect to break attendance records every year,” he said. “But we don’t expect to continue the slide every year either.”

On the flip side, hockey executives believe they are reaping the rewards of hard work and an underdog’s attitude.

With none of the lavish TV and sponsorship deals the NBA enjoys, hockey has focused on selling tickets. That means keeping prices down. According to the Team Marketing Report, the average NHL ticket price is $47.69, compared to $51.02 in the NBA.

The NHL has also encouraged its teams to market on the Internet and to create special promotions to lure families to the arena.

“I don’t think any of us take anything for granted,” Litner said. “It has forced our teams to make sure they know their customers.”

On the ice, there has been a recent bump from the return of Mario Lemieux to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“You can liken it to the [Sammy] Sosa-[Mark] McGwire home run battle,” Schwartzkopf said. “The Penguins go into the Islanders’ barn and right away the attendance spikes 6,000. Everyone is seeing sellouts when that guy comes into the building.”

Even league executives, cautious as they may be, can envision attendance continuing to rise, which might allow the NHL to start competing with the NBA for some of those lucrative television and sponsorship dollars.

Said Litner, “It certainly can’t hurt.”

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Attendance Power Play

Average attendance at NHL games edged past the NBA last week, the first time since the late 1980s that hockey outdrew the NBA:

NBA

In thousands

‘95-’96: 17,252

‘98-’99: Shortened season

‘00-’01*: 16,438

*

NHL

‘92-’93: 14,046

‘94-’95: Shortenend season

‘96-’97: 16,548

‘00-’01*: 16,463

*through March 2