A mere 10,494 people went to Nationwide Arena on Monday to see the Columbus Blue Jackets play the Anaheim Ducks, a franchise-low by more than 1,300 fans.
The Jackets are struggling so far this year and are the only franchise in the NHL to have never made the playoffs, so I can understand why fans won't show up in droves on a Monday night.
But it's only hockey. They play it in Canada, how good can it be? Who cares about hockey?
Well more people than those who care about basketball.
Friday night the Cleveland Cavaliers played the Washington Wizards at the Schottenstein Center. I was downtown happily covering the Jackets-NY Rangers game and apparently a lot of other people in Columbus, Ohio State students included, had other places to be, too.
A pitiful 10,404 fans showed up at the Schott on Friday to watch the LeBrons.
The only thing worse was the 8,221 who showed up to watch the defending champion Boston Celtics play the Cavs at the University of Pittsburgh.
That's awful.
If you're a Cavs fan, a real Cavs fan, not one of the band-wagoners who jumped on board once LeBron was drafted and will surely forget the Cavs exist once LeBron flees to one of the New York teams (hopefully the Nets), you should be embarrassed.
Even if you're a band-wagon-jumper you should be ashamed. You had a chance to see King James and Co. at a reduced price ($10 for OSU students) and you didn't.
The Lantern tried to give tickets away through a contest and we got one response, ONE!
Before you fire up your laptop and send me hate e-mail telling me it was a preseason game against the Arenas-less Wizards or some other lame excuse, do yourself a favor and stop now.
Not only did the Blue Jackets outdraw the Cavs Friday night (14,724) the lowly Jackets outdrew the Cavs in every single one of their preseason games as well. Friday Sept. 26 vs. Nashville (11,964), Monday Sept. 29 vs. Chicago (10,508), Thursday Oct. 2 vs. Buffalo (11,314) and Friday Oct. 3 vs. Minnesota (11,794), no matter what opponent or which night of the week, the Blue Jackets had a greater attendance than the Cavs did Friday.
The Cavs are going to be on national TV a lot this season, 10 times on TNT and they're maxed out on ESPN. It's clear the national audience wants to watch LeBron but fans in the same state don't even care.
I can't wait to see him in a Brooklyn Nets jersey in two years.
I'll actually go to the game to see it too.
James Crepea can be reached at crepea.1@osu.edu.
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