New Study Proves Tampa Is A Hockey Town
We’re deep into the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs and even though our Tampa Bay Lightning are out, Tampa is still proven to be a hockey town. While Bolts fans wait patiently for the resigning of captain Steven Stamkos, we’re stuck watching the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers battle it out in the Eastern Conference Final. And this year’s playoffs have some of the highest ratings in history.
Many people were invested in the first round of the playoffs with the Tampa Bay Lightning vs the Florida Panthers and the Boston Bruins vs Toronto Maple Leafs. The battle of the sunshine state brought in almost 1 million viewers on cable, and that was for only 5 games. The 7 game Boston/Toronto series saw a record breaking 3.2 million viewers.
WalletHub crunched the numbers to determine the best places for hockey enthusiasts. They ranked 76 U.S. cities based on 21 key indicators of a good hockey city. Their data set ranges from ticket prices to stadium capacity to the performance level of each city’s teams. So keep in mind, this study doesn’t include any Canadian viewership. They would blow the U.S. numbers out of the water since hockey is a religion in the great white north.
How Is Tampa A Hockey Town?
Well, our back to back cups and 3 consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances, constantly selling out games, and even hosting the NCAA Frozen Four should be enough to prove we love hockey in the Tampa Bay area. But Wallethub proves that Tampa is a hockey town. According to their findings Tampa ranks 8th overall for hockey towns in the U.S. (beat that Panther’s fans). Tampa ranked:
- 6th – Performance Level of NHL Team
- 12th – Avg. Ticket Price for NHL Game
- 8th – NHL Stadium Capacity
- 6th – Number of NHL Stanley Cup Wins
- 11th – NHL Attendance
- 8th – NHL Team Franchise Value
- 9th – NHL Fan Engagement
You can check out how each U.S. city ranked as a hockey town here.
