NLL Attendances – An Up and Down Friday
Week 17 of the NLL season began with a positive and negative performance for attendance as back to back OT thrillers commenced.
courtesy: Daniel Wagner via Facebook. A view of Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, TX gives a better perspective for the reported Panther City attendances.
BanditLand Packs Dickies Arena
Panther City (vs BUF): 3,045
- 2nd highest of the season (vs LV on 12/10/23; 7 home games played)
Multiple Buffalo Bandits fans made the trip to Fort Worth, Texas. Some were vocal in Buffalo Facebook groups about the lack of fans that seemed to be in support of the home team. As mentioned in a previous article, the number of 2,000 can be taken away. This brings the most likely total to 1,545 maximum, which seems a bit more believable based on the picture above and the ESPN+ broadcast.
As for the game itself, Panther City blew a 4th quarter lead, but rallied and won in overtime. Callum Crawford was listed as questionable (upper body) for the Texas squad, but played. He then limped much of the last 2 frames, but played through the pain and had a major role in crunch time.
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Good Number, but Not for Calgary
Calgary (vs ALB): 9,656
- lowest of the season (7 home games played)
Make no mistake: This is a good number. However, it doesn’t match the standard that the Roughnecks have set for themselves, including a huge showing last weekend. Thankfully, the ‘Necks won it in overtime, keeping their Playoffs hopes alive.
How about those jerseys? WestJet has been sponsoring the Roughnecks, which meant the old red and black jerseys were gone. Thankfully, for Marvel Night, Calgary wore ‘Black Widow’ jerseys. Which one is better?
courtesy: Calgary Roughnecks website. Eli Salama in his red jersey.
Courtesy: nllroughnecks via Instagram. Jesse King wears the ‘Black Widow’ jersey in a promotional video.
Weekend Attendances Predictions
- Toronto (vs HFX): It wouldn’t surprise anyone if the Hamilton crowd showed out against a very good and close to home Halifax team
- Philadelphia (vs VAN): Philly fans usually show out, and one could imagine a good attendance for the last grasp at a Playoff push
- New York (vs SASK): 2nd to last home game in Long Island, but realistically it might stink
- Colorado (vs ROCH): Trading away some key pieces and the team is struggling, this could be an interesting test to Colorado’s fanbase
- San Diego (vs LV): Seals are riding high, so expect a good attendance as the team tries to avenge a loss from earlier in the season
- Georgia (vs SASK): Very disappointed last weekend; not sure what to expect