Cashing In On Sports
No Minor Miracle
By Guy Junker

It's May and we should be in the thick of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Not this spring. And there's not much to do about it.

Back in February, we beat the lockout blues one Saturday night by taking a group of Amateur Penguin Squirt players to Johnstown for a Chiefs' game at the Cambria County War Memorial. It was hard not to notice all the people wearing Penguins' gear. Kids from the Allegheny Badgers skated between periods and a guy from Greensburg shot in a scoring contest during the other intermission. If the building were larger, it would have seemed like Mellon Arena. It wasn't a sell-out, but it was close. The NHL's loss appeared to be minor league hockey's gain. Surely a team so close to Pittsburgh would benefit from the dark building 70 miles away. That's what the Chiefs thought too.

"With the lockout, we thought it would be gravy," says Chiefs' public relations director Kevin McGeehan. "But it worked the other way. Apparently with hockey out of sight, it was also out of mind."

In fact, their attendance actually dropped from a season ago. In a building that holds 4,000, the Chiefs averaged 2,383 fans a game.

There is more to the story. A year ago, the Chiefs had former NHL goalie Arturs Irbe for a portion of the season, and they had their best record in the last 50 years in Johnstown. In 2003-2004, the Chiefs won 28 of their 36 home games, helping them to six sellouts. This season, when they didn't make the playoffs, they had just two.

The story was a little brighter in Wheeling, where the Nailers play. In addition to WesBanco Arena being closer to Pittsburgh, Wheeling is also a Penguins' affiliate, offering fans a chance to see guys who might one day play for the Pens. Nailers' owner Rob Brooks says, "It really helped for Penguins' fans to see recognizable names like Andy Chiodo, Ben Eaves, Cam Paddock or Drew Fata."

Yet attendance figures were up only slightly from a year ago, drawing 234 more bodies per game.

"We got a big spike on Saturdays," says Brooks. "The Penguins encouraged season ticket holders to visit Wheeling and we gave them ticket discounts."

But overall, there wasn't the rush they hoped for.

There was one place where minor league attendance really got a boost due to the lockout: the American Hockey League, where they set an all time attendance record, averaging nearly 6,000 fans per game. The AHL is the best minor hockey league in the country, and it was even better this season with many NHL players biding their time on AHL rosters.

In the end, a good team is still the best draw in sports. For the fans in Wheeling and Johnstown, there is just no substitute for winning. And for the hockey fans in Pittsburgh, there's just no substitute for the NHL. What sounded so good in theory last fall didn't pan out.

Just like the NHL season.

Guy Junker co-hosts the "Junker & Crow Show" weekdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on ESPN Radio 1250.