NHL Moves Southward Part II

by The Falconer on Jan 28, 2009 6:00 AM EST Comment 6 comments

I wrote a post recently about how the US population is moving toward the South (I'm one of those people since I was born in Indiana). One point I've made before is that some non-traditional markets have a remarkable number of "Yankees" or northern-born residents. I sat down and went through the official US Census data by metro areas.

This reveals the number of "northern-born" in major markets. Keep in mind that these numbers are from the 2000 Census and are nearly a decade old--I expect that all of these numbers will be higher in the 2010 Census.

Northern-born (Northeast + Midwest) population for Southern and Western Metro Areas (NHL markets in bold)

1,886,000 Los Angeles
1,407,000 Washington/Baltimore
976,000 Phoenix
967,000 Tampa/St. Pete
916,000 S.F./S.J.
812,000 Miami
727,000 Atlanta
637,000 Dallas
570,000 Seattle
544,000 Orlando
532,000 S. Diego
453,000 Houston
404,000 Las Vegas
325,000 Norfolk
317,000 Portland, OR
238,000 Raleigh-Durham-C. Hill
237,000 Jacksonville
235,000 Charlotte
183,000 Nashville
161,000 S. Antonio
126,000 Oklahoma City
108,000 Memphis
98,000 Salt Lake City
74,000 New Orleans

The top 8 non-traditional markets all have well over half a million northern born population. The markets of Los Angeles and Washingon-Baltimore actually have more northern born residents than the Buffalo and Columbus metro areas which are located in the north.

The relative scarcity of Yankees in Raleigh and Nashville leave those two markets at a disadvantage. It doesn't mean they can not have a sustained fan base, but the task is more challenging in those two locations.

In the case of Atlanta, one out of every six native US residents was born in the north. In Tampa two out of very five native US residents was born up north.

And just for fun here are the number of Canadians living in NHL markets:

68,919 Los Angeles

48,443 New York

41,963 Boston

36,791 Detroit

35,055 S.F/S.J.

25,937 Miami

19,226 Tampa

17,876 Phoenix

16,531 Chicago

15,775 Washington

11,717 Dallas

10,045 Atlanta

9,292 Philadelphia

8,555 Buffalo (surprising that Buffalo is so low on this list)

8,540 Minneapolis

4,722 Raleigh

2,958 St. Louis

2,663 Pittsburgh

2,518 Columbus

2,206 Nashville

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Is the NHL dead in Atlanta?

This might be the year the morons over at AS and their toady Don Waddell finally drive the stake into the heart of professional hockey in the downtown area. No improvement, no signs of improvement on the horizon, and a shrinking fan base that gets smaller with each loss. I didn’t even watch the game last night. Thank God for Center Ice.

by Bongo on Jan 28, 2009 12:42 PM EST reply actions

Pretend I'm Candien Media....

It is obvious from the numbers that we have what should be enough northern relocators to have a base that understands hockey and its tradition and should in theory be in the target fan-base demographic. But in the spirit of playing devil’s advocate, also remember that the south provides many competing opportunities that aren’t available in traditional markets during the season. I mean, how often are you going to go hiking in Buffalo or Detroit during November or March?

by godsendjen on Jan 29, 2009 11:22 AM EST reply actions

Hockey has to compete with competitive bowling and curling leagues up north :)
While hockey does have to face different competition in the south, the north also has many worse nights in terms of traveling to games.

by The Falconer on Jan 29, 2009 12:50 PM EST reply actions

And yet people still do it…

Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand. --Homer Simpson

by hildymac on Jan 30, 2009 9:21 PM EST up reply actions

More yankees than you think in Raleigh

I find it sorta hard to believe about the lack of Yanks in the Raleigh area. I’m a Raleigh native, and its gotten sort of hard to find native North Carolinians around here these days.

Carolina On Ice: All Things Hockey in the Carolinas!

by wuffy on Feb 2, 2009 10:32 AM EST reply actions

I’m sure there are more Yankees in 2009. The numbers that I posted are from 2000 Census. Unfortunately they are only updated every 10 years so I’ll have to wait until 2010 to see the new figures. Raleigh added grew very rapidly in percentage terms so far this decade.

by The Falconer on Feb 3, 2009 3:59 PM EST up reply actions

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