Carolina Hurricanes' Low 2014-15 Attendance Not a Reason for Panic

Thursday night's game against the Dallas Stars featured a Carolina Hurricanes comeback that fell short and a startlingly spacious PNC Arena of empty seats.

On a weeknight against an unappealing Western Conference opponent, the time conflict with the NC State-Duke basketball matchup in the ACC Tournament proved the nail in the coffin. Re-sale tickets were available for less than 12 dollars on game day. Official attendance was announced at 10,025, but such a figure appeared quite exaggerated.

The Hurricanes rank 29th in the NHL with an average attendance of 12,306 (per ESPN), ahead of only Florida and almost 1,000 per game below Arizona. The Hurricanes have drawn over 11,000 just once in four games during their current homestand.

It's become common for the upper rows of some sections behind the goals to go rows without a single fan and for some upper-level sections to contain only a single family or two. The season's worth of sparse crowds and appalling attendance has sparked plenty of discussion on Twitter about the team's future in Raleigh:

But the franchise's ticket revenue has fallen far less than the sheer attendance.

Over the past two years, the 'Canes average crowd has dropped by 30.1 percent, but the average ticket price has risen by 28.2 percent (per Team Marketing h/t Statista), essentially balancing out the decline.

Since 2011-12, moreover, the franchise's total value has risen from $169 to $220 million and annual revenue has increased from $81 to $91 million (per Forbes). 

Although the math fails to factor in a subsequent decline in concession sales, the team's finances likely aren't nearly as empty as PNC Arena has been recently.

Season	Attendance
2010-11	16,415
2011-12	16,043
2012-13*	17,560
2013-14	15,484
2014-15	12,306

The attendance outlook is due to improve significantly over the remainder of the season, too.

Eight of the team's final nine home games feature an Eastern Conference opponent. Eastern foes have drawn 15.6 percent higher attendance than Western opponents so far this season.

Among those nine opponents are a plethora of high-profile, high-interest clubs: the Rangers (March 21), Blackhawks (March 23), Penguins (March 26), Bruins (March 29) and the Red Wings in the April 11 season finale. The cheapest re-sale tickets for any of those marquee matchups start at $25 on StubHub, a stark contrast to the $12-$16 get-in prices of recent games.

Gregg Forwerck/Getty Images

From a longer-term perspective, the 'Canes future box office success will rely almost solely on the team's on-ice success. 

Abrupt leaps from the bottom to the top of the NHL attendance rankings are relative commonplace. The last time the 'Canes ranked 29th in average attendance—the 2003-04 season—they were joined in the league's bottom six by Washington (25th), Chicago (27th) and Pittsburgh (30th).

All of those teams' 2014-15 attendance lies above 100 percent of arena capacity, and it's largely due to the emergence of each as top Stanley Cup contenders in recent years.

Gregg Forwerck/Getty Images

Ron Francis' well-developed plan for Carolina's rebuilding project, which impressed in its first implementation at the trade deadline, could possibly set the Hurricanes down a similar path.

If the plan indeed proves successful, PNC Arena attendance would likely reflect the resulting improved fan morale and interest. Carolina averaged over 16,400 per game as recently as 2010-11, when the team lasted until the final day before being eliminated from playoff contention.

I've recently received a number of questions from alarmed 'Canes fans (and hopeful Hartford hockey enthusiasts) doubting the stability of the franchise's future in Raleigh. Naturally, but perhaps inaccurately, many presume the density of crowds at home games to be a parallel indicator to the financial state of the team.

But such concerns are premature, at least for now. Another half-decade without playoff hockey could change such a reassurance, but the 'Canes are fairly secure in North Carolina as of 2015.

Attendance information per ESPN data.

Mark Jones has been a Carolina Hurricanes featured columnist for Bleacher Report since 2009. Visit his profile to read more or follow him on Twitter.