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Phoenix Coyotes 2012 - 2013 Season Attendance Recap

The Coyotes saw their best season on the ice in the history of the franchise in the 2011-12 season. Unfortunately, it was to be followed by a NHL league wide lockout which delayed the 2012 - 2013 season by nearly four months, Greg Jamison's ownership bid falling through, and a disappointing season on the ice with the team ending up falling short of a fourth straight playoff berth. However, through it all Coyotes fans showed their support by filling the stands and increasing attendance 8% year over year.

By Ben Shroyer
Christian Petersen

The chart below has 3 sets of data; 2012-2103 game attendance, and 2011-2012 game attendance (both with a running total and average). The third set is the 12-13 attendance numbers, but it's offset to match the timing of the delayed season.

GM# 12-13 Atnd. Total Average 11-12 Atnd. Total Average 12-13 Atnd. GM#
1 17,363 17,363 17,363 17,132 17,132 17,132
2 8,355 25,718 12,859 11,051 28,183 14,092
3 14,780 40,498 13,499 7,128 35,311 11,770
4 8,581 49,079 12,270 6,948 42,259 10,565
5 12,955 62,034 12,407 7,434 49,693 9,939
6 12,151 74,185 12,364 10,379 60,072 10,012
7 9,508 83,693 11,956 6,738 66,810 9,544
8 15,096 98,789 12,349 13,381 80,191 10,024
9 15,425 114,214 12,690 14,138 94,329 10,481
10 17,208 131,422 13,142 9,124 103,453 10,345
11 11,547 142,969 12,997 14,569 118,022 10,729
12 15,227 158,196 13,183 10,036 128,058 10,672
13 11,024 169,220 13,017 14,913 142,971 10,998
14 11,482 180,702 12,907 10,976 153,947 10,996
15 15,842 196,544 13,103 9,397 163,344 10,890
16 15,075 211,619 13,226 12,172 175,516 10,970
17 17,220 228,839 13,461 12,650 188,166 11,069
18 17,428 246,267 13,682 17,459 205,625 11,424 17,363 1
19 12,934 259,201 13,642 13,350 218,975 11,525 8,355 2
20 16,623 275,824 13,791 12,757 231,732 11,587 14,780 3
21 16,648 292,472 13,927 15,067 246,799 11,752 8,581 4
22 13,094 305,566 13,889 12,714 259,513 11,796 12,955 5
23 12,588 318,154 13,833 8,061 267,574 11,634 12,151 6
24 16,011 334,165 13,924 10,579 278,153 11,590 9,508 7
25 12,979 291,132 11,645 15,096 8
26 12,687 303,819 11,685 15,425 9
27 10,048 313,867 11,625 17,208 10
28 17,353 331,220 11,829 11,547 11
29 16,604 347,824 11,994 15,227 12
30 10,842 358,666 11,956 11,024 13
31 16,691 375,357 12,108 11,482 14
32 10,989 386,346 12,073 15,842 15
33 13,579 399,925 12,119 15,075 16
34 11,716 411,641 12,107 17,220 17
35 14,994 426,635 12,190 17,428 18
36 11,518 438,153 12,171 12,934 19
37 14,938 453,091 12,246 16,623 20
38 12,585 465,676 12,255 16,648 21
39 14,446 480,122 12,311 13,094 22
40 15,856 495,978 12,399 12,588 23
41 13,263 509,241 12,421 16,011 24

That's whole lot of numbers, so here's some more. Here we have a breakdown on games what night of the week they occurred and their opponents.

Game Date Opp. Attend. % Full Total Sun. Mon. Tue. Wed. Thur. Fri. Sat.
10/15/11 WPG 17132 100.04% 17132 17132
10/18/11 CHI 11051 64.53% 28183 11051
10/20/11 LAK 7128 41.62% 35311 7128
10/25/11 DAL 6948 40.57% 42259 6948
10/27/11 NJD 7434 43.41% 49693 7434
10/29/11 LAK 10379 60.61% 60072 10379
11/3/11 NSH 6738 39.35% 66810 6738
11/5/11 EDM 13381 78.14% 80191 13381
11/10/11 MTL 14138 82.56% 94329 14138
11/23/11 ANA 9124 53.28% 103453 9124
11/25/11 VAN 14569 85.07% 118022 14569
11/26/11 DAL 10036 58.60% 128058 10036
12/3/11 PHI 14913 87.08% 142971 14913
12/10/11 MIN 10976 64.09% 153947 10976
12/15/11 EDM 9397 54.87% 163344 9397
12/17/11 NYR 12172 71.08% 175516 12172
12/23/11 STL 12650 73.87% 188166 12650
12/28/11 BOS 17459 101.95% 205625 17459
1/7/12 NYI 13350 77.96% 218975 13350
1/16/12 COL 12757 74.49% 231732 12757
1/19/12 DET 15067 87.98% 246799 15067
1/21/12 TB 12714 74.24% 259513 12714
1/24/12 OTT 8061 47.07% 267574 8061
1/31/12 ANA 10579 61.78% 278153 10579
2/4/12 SJS 12979 75.79% 291132 12979
2/6/12 DET 12687 74.08% 303819 12687
2/9/12 CGY 10048 58.67% 313867 10048
2/11/12 CHI 17353 101.33% 331220 17353
2/18/12 DAL 16604 96.96% 347824 16604
2/21/12 LAK 10842 63.31% 358666 10842
2/28/12 VAN 16691 97.47% 375357 16691
3/1/12 CGY 10989 64.17% 386346 10989
3/3/12 CBJ 13579 79.29% 399925 13579
3/8/12 MIN 11716 68.41% 411641 11716
3/10/12 SJS 14994 87.56% 426635 14994
3/12/12 NSH 11518 67.26% 438153 11518
3/22/12 COL 14938 87.23% 453091 14938
3/25/12 STL 12858 75.08% 465949 12858
3/29/12 SJS 14446 84.36% 480395 14446
3/31/12 ANA 15856 92.59% 496251 15856
4/3/12 CBJ 13263 77.45% 509514 13263
Game Date Opp. Attend. % Full Total Sun. Mon. Tue. Wed. Thur. Fri. Sat.
1/20/13 CHI 17363 101.39% 17363 17363
1/23/13 CBJ 8355 48.79% 25718 8355
1/26/13 LAK 14780 86.31% 40498 14780
1/28/13 NSH 8581 50.11% 49079 8581
1/30/13 EDM 12955 75.65% 62034 12955
2/2/13 DAL 12151 70.95% 74185 12151
2/4/13 MIN 9508 55.52% 83693 9508
2/7/13 CHI 15096 88.15% 98789 15096
2/16/13 CBJ 15425 90.07% 114214 15425
2/18/13 CGY 17208 100.48% 131422 17208
2/28/13 MIN 11547 67.43% 142969 11547
3/2/13 ANA 15227 88.92% 158196 15227
3/4/13 ANA 11024 64.37% 169220 11024
3/7/13 STL 11482 67.05% 180702 11482
3/9/13 DAL 15842 92.51% 196544 15842
3/12/13 LAK 15045 87.85% 211589 15045
3/21/13 VAN 17220 100.55% 228809 17220
3/25/13 DET 17428 101.77% 246237 17428
4/2/13 LAK 12934 75.53% 259171 12934
4/4/13 DET 16623 97.07% 275794 16623
4/6/13 COL 16648 97.21% 292442 16648
4/15/13 SJS 13094 76.46% 305536 13094
4/24/13 SJS 12588 73.51% 318124 12588
4/26/13 COL 16011 93.49% 334135 16011
Sun. Mon. Tue. Wed. Thur. Fri. Sat. Average
2011-2012 Totals 12858 12321 11062 13292 11094 13610 13761 12571
First 24 games avg. 11590 67.68% 278153 12757 9160 13292 9984 13610 12784 11931
Last 24 games avg. 13390 78.19% 321075 12858 12321 11887 17459 12867 14679 13678
2012-2013
24 Game Average 13922 81.30% 334135 17363 12807 13990 11299 14394 16011 15012 14411

The last spreadsheet I swear. This one shows just weekday nights, all nights show gains, except for Wednesday.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday
 Thursday Friday Average
2011-2012 11386 11887 11973 12592 13610 12290
2012-2013 12807 13990 11299 14394 16011 13700

Some bullet points from all the data above:

  • 2013 attendance was up 8% year over year. (Holding for the same time period too, i.e. Spring to Spring)
  • From February on the Coyotes averaged 14,734.
  • Coyotes had nine games over 15,412 (90% of arena capacity) this past season compared with three games in the 20111-2012 season.
  • Coyotes increased weekday attendance averages by fourteen hundred people.
  • If the Coyotes maintain a growth rate of 8% (which has held steady w/no owner, little marketing)there 2013-2014 average attendance will be 14,969.
  • Coyotes median attendance during the 2011-2012 season was 12,757. Coyotes median attendance this past year was 14,928. *Using The median is better suited for skewed distributions to derive at central tendency since it is much more robust and sensible. Average is not a robust tool since it is largely influenced by outliers. (More info here)

To the naysayers who claim these numbers are inflated from ticket giveaways, Coyotes COO Mike Neely stated that complementary tickets are down from thousands a game to "couple hundred and definitely less than 1,000" per game. One promotion often targeted by opponents is the kids night promotion, where on select Monday games, the purchase of one adult full price ticket would get you up to two kids tickets. What is often missed is that this promo is sponsored by SoBe, and the cost of the free ticket(s) would be recouped by the Coyotes from the sponsor. Inevitably ticket giveaways do happen, and when they do, they are usually for causes like this.

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