Thursday, February 25, 2010

Toronto Marlies Attendance

Attendance has been the underlying issue for the AHL affiliate of the Leafs in a city that seems to only have enough love for one team. The first ever home playoff game brought out 2,800 which is well below 50%. Attendance has been embarrassing and it’s certainly noticeable. 2008 saw another miserable crowd turnout of 1,063 fans, proving that no matter how well the Toronto Marlies due there are no fans showing up.

John Mitchell had this famous quote to say: “We have our booster club, the faithful fans who always come out, and we're thankful for that," Mitchell said. "But some nights you can almost count every face and know a lot of the people in the stands."

What does the franchise have to do to bring in the fans? I admittedly have only been to a handful of games at the Ricoh Coliseum and in each of those there were low turnouts, but the atmosphere was surprisingly great and the ones that do show up are sure up to the task of making the noise.

So the age old question, why does nobody show up?