When it comes to the costs to attend a game, the Florida Panthers remain perhaps the best deal in the National Hockey League.
As of Wednesday, the Panthers sit atop the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division at 42-14-6 and 90 points, and they rank as the second-cheapest team for a family or group of four to attend a game ($319.74) per the newest Fan Cost Index.
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That’s thanks to the Panthers having the league’s lowest average non-premium ticket price ($41.79). They’ve had the cheapest average ticket cost for nine seasons.
The fan costs for the U.S. major sports leagues are calculated annually by Team Marketing Report, a Chicago-based sports business intelligence firm that since 1991 has crunched and published the numbers after conducting team surveys. The cost metrics are based on the average cost of four non-premium tickets, two beers, two sodas, four hot dogs, two souvenir hats (as a proxy for merch buying) and parking.
The rankings are known as the Fan Cost Index (FCI) for each sport.
The 2021-22 average NHL FCI is $462.58. That’s up from last season’s average of $439.91, driven in part by the expansion Seattle Kraken being added to the mix. Hockey’s fan costs have increased by nearly 8.8 percent since the 2019-20 season, based on that year’s pre-pandemic numbers.
NHL Fan Cost Index by seasons
| Year | FCI |
|---|---|
2021-22 | $462.58 |
2020-21 | $439.91 |
2019-20 | $425.22 |
2018-19 | $420.40 |
2017-18 | $420.40 |
FCI costs are largely driven by ticket prices: “The average weighted general ticket price for a 2021-22 NHL game clocks in at $82.58, a gain of $4.21, or 5.4 percent, from 2020-21’s average ticket cost of $78.37,” Team Marketing Report publisher Chris Hartweg wrote.
The only FCI lower than the Panthers is the $314.70 for the Arizona Coyotes, a franchise that has struggled on and off the ice for years.
The most expensive team for a family is the Toronto Maple Leafs at $697.75 (U.S.), a number driven primarily by their league-leading average ticket price of $145.60. That doesn’t include premium ticket costs.
While the Leafs continue to chase their first Stanley Cup since 1967, they’re not a bad deal this season: They currently sit third in the Atlantic Division, seven points behind the Panthers.
The Kraken rank second in total FCI at $672.89, mainly because they have the NHL’s second most expensive average non-premium ticket price at $130.85. In terms of wins-losses, the Kraken are the poorest value because the team is in last place in the Pacific Division with 44 points. Only the Montreal Canadiens with 43 points are worse, and they’re not much of a deal with an FCI of $552.57, which ranks seventh highest.
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The Kraken are an outlier because no one expected Seattle to immediately contend. They’re selling out every game because the team and arena are new and exciting for fans. But at some point, that wears off and fans shelling out that much cash will expect a winning product.
Other good deals include the Pacific Division-leading Calgary Flames, whose $377.73 FCI ranks 26th among the NHL’s 32 teams. The Carolina Hurricanes, who are first in the Metropolitan Division, are next at $377.70.
An Original Six club that’s a poor deal this season is the Chicago Blackhawks, who rank fifth in overall FCI at $573.76 but are near the bottom of the Central Division.
The biggest ticket price hike this season was by the New York Islanders, whose average is now $72.59 per ticket after leaving Nassau Coliseum for the $1 billion UBS Arena that opened in November. It’s common for teams to crank up prices when moving into a new venue.
The Islanders, by the way, rank 15th with an FCI of $445.84.
Here are all of the 2021-22 hockey costs:
2022 NHL Fan Cost Index
| Team | FCI | Yearly change |
|---|---|---|
$697.75 | 4.10% | |
$672.89 | ||
$649.72 | 8.20% | |
$645.42 | 3.20% | |
$573.76 | -0.50% | |
$569.96 | 1% | |
$552.57 | 4.80% | |
$538.53 | 6.80% | |
$526.49 | 0% | |
$479.40 | 1.70% | |
$474.24 | 0.20% | |
$468.60 | 2.90% | |
$456.77 | 0.10% | |
$456.69 | 1% | |
$454.07 | -0.60% | |
$445.84 | 15.70% | |
$434.74 | 5.50% | |
$432.13 | 1.50% | |
$428.50 | 3.10% | |
$421.54 | 1.40% | |
$418.39 | 3.80% | |
$407.60 | 3.80% | |
$390.74 | 4.60% | |
$386.54 | 0.80% | |
$380.70 | 1.70% | |
$377.73 | 1.50% | |
$377.70 | 3.10% | |
$354.17 | -1% | |
$348.06 | 0.30% | |
$346.76 | 1.60% | |
$319.74 | 5% | |
| $314.70 | -5% |
This season is the first since 2018-19 that the NHL will play all of its games. The pandemic cut short the season two years ago, when the league’s regular season ended up at 70 games for each club, and last season was just 56 games.
Driven in part by fan spending at games and by new TV deals, the NHL has predicted it’ll top $5 billion in 2021-22 league-wide total revenue, which would be a record haul and put it back on its pre-pandemic financial track.
Where does the NHL rank among U.S. major leagues in terms of fan costs? Only the behemoth National Football League, which has far fewer games and enjoys enormous TV viewership, is more expensive.
That said, Team Marketing Report has yet to publish its latest NBA, MLB and MLS data sets. Those leagues are expected in coming weeks.
Fan Cost Index by league
| League | Average FCI |
|---|---|
NFL | $568.18 (Nov. 2021) |
NHL | $462.58 (March 2022) |
NBA | $430.25 (Oct. 2020) |
MLB | $253.64 (Sept. 2021) |
MLS | $250.40 (May 2019) |
What’s predicted for fan costs in the near term? After all, the pandemic lingers, inflation (or profiteering) remains an issue, and the war in Ukraine is affecting prices globally.
“As in the other major league sports, the pandemic certainly helped keep prices in check, especially on season tickets. Now that we’re in an inflationary period, we expect much larger increases in all items for the 2022-23 NHL FCI,” Hartweg wrote.
(Photo: Eliot J. Schechter / NHLI via Getty Images)
