Even with the parent club in Boston likely shut down for the season, the local
affiliate Providence Bruins aren’t expecting to see much of an effect on their
attendance numbers one way or the other.
Matt Poore, the Providence team’s COO, said attendance averaged between 7,000 and 7,500 fans per game during the 2003-04 season and his expectation is for those numbers to stay about the same for the upcoming season. With half of the season’s 80 games in the American Hockey League scheduled for the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, the city will again greet more than 280,000 fans over the next three and a half months. And if the P-Bruins return to the Calder Cup playoffs, the numbers could easily swell to more than 300,000.
As expected, the owners of the parent teams in the National Hockey League locked out the players union recently, insisting on the implementation of a hard salary cap during negotiations for a new contract with the union.
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“I think reports that this is going to be a boon to teams in the International League have been tremendously overblown,” said Poore, who said the operations budget for the team would remain about the same as last year. “Anytime people can’t see the NHL on ESPN, that’s one less reminder they have about us.”
And Poore stressed that the P-Bruins are inherently a different product, targeting young children and families, not the higher-end clientele and business community that the NHL looks to for its revenues.
“In the short-term, there may be some minimal benefits,” Poore said, mentioning the possibility for increased media coverage and a small attendance trickledown boosting the fan numbers. “But in the long run, it’s probably going to hurt us,” he said, recalling the baseball strike of 1995 that lead to low attendance numbers for the following seasons.
If not in the stands, the team will see a couple of noticeable additions to their roster thanks to the lockout. Two players who made contributions last season with the Boston Bruins – Patrice Bergeron and Andy Hilbert – have both signed contracts for the season with the Providence club.
Boston operates the hockey side of the team, typically handling personnel decisions about what players are on the P-Bruins’ roster.
While other NHL players opted to head to leagues in Europe, both Bergeron and Hilbert joined the P-Bruins in time for training camp this fall. The two are still technically Boston’s property, meaning the parent team could still recall players in the unlikely event the NHL season is saved.
The P-Bruins home opener was Oct. 15 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, where all their home games are played. Of the 40 home games, 38 are scheduled for weekend dates – 20 on Friday evenings and another 18 on Sunday afternoons. The remaining two games are scheduled mid-week, during local school vacations in December and February.
It will be the 13th season in franchise history for the local Bruins; they play in the seven-team Atlantic Division, and will meet each of their divisional opponents 10 times under head coach Scott Gordon.
Last year, the team made the playoffs, although like the parent club, they lost in the first round.
In early October, they opened their preseason at the University of Rhode Island’s Boss Arena for the third year in a row – a shift to the southern part of the state where Poore said the fan is a “different animal.” Playing one of their four preseason games in Kingston gives South County fans, who might not normally make the drive up to Providence in the winter, a chance to see the team, he said.
As one of the Dunkin’ Donuts Center’s biggest tenants, Poore said he hasn’t been approached to participate in talks about new management taking over the center although he hopes whoever does take over the facility will invest in improvements.
“It’s a great market here in Providence,” Poore said. “But there’s no question it’s the worst facility in the league. … It’s something that’s a much-needed facility for the city and the state.”
Nonetheless, Poore said the team has strong ties to the city and sees a long future here. The Professional Hockey Players Association handles labor agreements for the AHL, and there’s no threat of a strike or lockout, with the current contract having been extended for another year and another three added on to it.
“The Bruins are a partner of ours, it’s tough to bask in the glory of their not being able to get a deal done,” Poore said. “Anytime hockey is not being played at the highest level, there’s no question it’s not a good thing for the sport. … But we’re looking forward to another good season down here for our team and for our fans.”
More information on the Providence Bruins schedule and ticket packages is
available by calling the team ticket office at (401) 273-5000 or by visiting
the team’s recently redesigned Web site at www.providencebruins.com.
Alicia Korney is a contributing writer to PBN.
