Is Columbus a Hockey Town yet?

I've been having some back-channel dialogue with a friend about this past Saturday's Columbus Blue Jackets matinee home game against the Boston Bruins and thought I'd share to get your thoughts.

If you're reading this blog and don't know the lengths to which the Blue Jackets marketing folks built up the game experience for Saturday, I'd be very, very surprised.  Taking advantage of the Ohio State football bye week, the team moved the game from the usual 7PM puck drop to 2PM.  (Cue the reminder email from CBJ Central about the time change.)  They also had a pregame 'tailgate' starting at 11AM on the Front Street plaza outside Nationwide Arena, complete with food, beverages, games and a little music - but I can't recall if that was live music or piped in over the Arena District outdoor speakers.  Beyond that, the team was going to do an autograph session around the arena after the game.  (Cue the reminder email from CBJ Central about the party and autographs.)

Around the middle of last week, said friend shoots me a quick note, the text of which being this:

So, the Jackets have to 1) tailgate 2) pick-a-seat and 3) autograph session it up for a Saturday game against the Bruins? #HockeyTown

I forgot about the pick-a-seat component, being a ticket package holder already.  But the point is a fair one.  Is it possible for the Blue Jackets have done more to hype this game outside of having the defending Eastern Conference champs in town for the game?  Oh wait, they DID have the defending Eastern Conference champs in town.

So in the back and forth, I got to the crux of the matter.  He felt that the add-on components were over the top when you consider that the Bruins - a marquee team, Original Six and all that stuff that Tim reminded us about - were the opponent.  In a Hockey Town, the Bruins as the opponent alone should have sold the tickets.

I played nice on this one, giving the CBJ the benefit of the doubt.  It was a matinee game, I said.  Matinees grab a more family-oriented audience, I said.  The over-inflated event might help make some kiddos fans for life, I said.  (Knowing, of course, that mine would have rather had Zdeno Chara's autograph.  Sigh.)  So yeah, the Bruins should have been enough, but this was about family fun and fan-building, too...not just hockey, I said.  Give the CBJ a pass on this one, I said.

Then I went to the game.  Dressed in a Bruins sweater, granted, but I was there and filled a seat.  I was floored at how empty the arena was.

Officially, the attendance number was 14,092.  In an 18,500-seat Nationwide Arena, that's only three-quarters full on the presumption that every single person with a ticket was in the seats.

What gives?  I mean, think about it:

• It was an OSU bye week, and there were no incredibly huge community events to keep people away.  
• It was a Saturday matinee game with all the pre- and post-game trimmings, surely to appeal to families.
• It was the Boston freaking Bruins.

All that, and three-quarters full?  Oh man. I gave the team a pass for their (over-)hype of the game, but I can't fathom how they must be feeling after exerting all that effort only to see nearly a quarter of the seats sit unoccupied.  

HockeyDB's yearly breakdown of average announced
attendance for Columbus Blue Jackets home games

I've had a theory about the Blue Jackets fanbase for a while, and it seems like a good time to rehash it.  Since the team's attendance implosion that started after the 2005 NHL lockout and continued through the end of Doug Maclean's reign and on through Scott Howson's (bottoming out in 2010), the Blue Jackets fanbase has coalesced into a small, ridiculously loyal bunch. And great for them.  They're getting all the perks of fandom and more...because they're the ones who show up.

Problem is, as I see it, Columbus' casual sports fans haven't picked up the Blue Jackets baton again.  That's no indictment of the diehard fans, not in the least.  The diehard fans are keeping this team going in this town while they wait for the casual fans to come back.  (That and a really, really rich man in John McConnell.)  But it's one thing to survive, another to thrive and become a Hockey Town.  

No, it's all on the team.  I know that they're working their hardest to crack this nut - they're making moves to put a consistent winner on the ice, they're making players available to the public in a host of venues and they're pricing their tickets almost as cheaply as the Florida Panthers.  What more can they do?  I hope that is the question that they're asking themselves in their internal conversations.

I don't know.  I offer no answers.  But gee, 76% of capacity when the team gave the community all of those reasons to swing by and catch a pretty good team play a pretty good game against the best team in the conference?

No, Columbus isn't a Hockey Town.  Not yet.  Maybe someday, but not yet.