Vancouver Canucks: Empty seats may not be a big issue this season

The Vancouver Canucks had a few issues filling the stands last year during their dismal season. With no improvement in sight, a change in direction may ensure that fewer of those seats remain empty.

Over the years, there was this myth that Vancouver Canucks fans could not support a rebuild. That if everything was torn down, nobody would show up. Well, for the first time in a few years, the Canucks saw growth in the number of season ticket holders.

Jason Botchford covered this in the Athletic earlier, saying that the team was retaining season tickets by about 90%. Of course, the total is nowhere near where it was during their last height, but that’s noteworthy for a team that has been terrible and will continue to do so.

It appears that fans are buying into the rebuild, despite the roster being weighed down by mediocre veteran players. Brock Boeser injected hope and adding Elias Pettersson exponentially increases the draw for home games.

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Now, I’m not saying that every home game will be sold out. The tiered pricing structure will also come into play. Right now, you can still get tickets to the Canucks home opener today. There are a good amount of seats available in the lower bowl of Rogers Arena. Go on Twitter, and you will see tickets being given away.

However, I don’t think we are going to see as many empty seats as last year. Things got bad last December during that horrible stretch of six and seven-goal thrashings. But if the Canucks can find a way to stay in the top half in league attendance during a rebuild, that bodes very well for them.

It will be interesting to see if there are improvements in attendance during the lowest points of the season. If so, the fans are putting in the investment, so the team will have to deliver on that. A bold statement was made when Sam Gagner was waived, but that’s just the beginning.

We are being promised youth and of course more is better. But I guess we will have to settle as the veterans dragging the team down are being slowly phased out. The good news for the Canucks is that even if attendance dips, I don’t think people will notice. Everybody’s eyes will be drawn to the tire fire in Ottawa, which is spiraling out of control with each stunt by Eugene Melnyk. Ultimately, I think we will see a bump in attendance, but don’t expect the stadium to be fully packed all the time.