Battle in Seattle expected to net 72,000 fans Sunday
BULLS OF THE WEEK
Toronto FC and the Seattle Sounders FC are gearing up for another showdown this Sunday at Centurylink Field. It’s the third time in four years they’re squaring off in the Major League Soccer Cup final.
Among the elite MLS franchises on and off the field, they just keep on finding ways to win. On the pitch, both have one MLS Cup title to their credit.
Seattle, which has qualified for the playoffs in every single one of its 11 years in MLS, won in 2016 while the Reds captured top honours the following year.
More than 72,000 fans will be on hand to witness Sunday’s championship match.
Meanwhile, the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues are showing no ill effects from their recent visit to the White House. At 11-3-3 heading into the weekend, the Blues have the second-best record in the NHL, using a solid western trip to move to within one point of the champions from two years ago: the 12-2-3 Washington Capitals.
It’s a far cry from the Blues’ brutal start last season when they won the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 52 years of existence despite being dead last in the NHL in January.
Boston is also playing bullish hockey as the strongest Original Six club coming out of the gates.
Four of the top 10 teams in the NHL heading into Friday’s games were Canadian-based and they were all within a point of each other as they approach the quarter-season mark: No. 5 Edmonton, No. 6 Calgary, No. 7 Vancouver and No. 8 Toronto. Yet only Toronto, valued by Forbes Magazine as the second-richest franchise in the NHL at Us$1.45-billion, is selling out every game at an average attendance of 19,300 at Scotiabank Arena (which is the most expensive arena naming rights deal in the world at $40 million per year and $800 million over 20 years).
The Oilers and Flames are hovering around 94 per cent capacity as the ravages of a downturn in the Alberta economy begin to take their toll, despite promising starts on the ice.
BEARS OF THE WEEK
After a quarter-century in the playoffs, the Detroit Red Wings are in the third year of a painful rebuild.
Not since the 1980s has the moniker “Dead Wings” been used, but they’re languishing in the cellar with the worst record in the league at 4-12-1.
Yet Hockeytown USA is proving resilient in NHL economics.
Despite the losing, the Red Wings have the fifth-best attendance in the NHL, selling out 96.5 per cent of their capacity at Little Caesars Arena in Motown.
The biggest bear in the NHL, however, is the Ottawa Senators. At just five wins, they have the fourth-worst record. Worse, they are logging the poorest attendance numbers of any Canadian team in the last 25 years.
Canadian Tire Centre is a tire fire when it comes to fan engagement as the Senators are playing before the smallest crowds in the NHL at 11,259 per game. That’s just 59 per cent of capacity and that makes for a cavernous atmosphere in Kanata, Ont.
It seems as long as Eugene Melnyk is owning the franchise, it will be the weak link among the seven Canadian teams.
The Sport Market on TSN Radio rates and debates the bulls and bears of sport business. Join Tom Mayenknecht Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. for a behind-the-scenes look at the sport business stories that matter most to fans.