Last season the Wizards averaged 17,089 fans a game compared with 15,762 for the Capitals. The basketball team drew four times as many television viewers as the Capitals last year, according to Home Team Sports television. But sports marketing experts say that the Capitals enjoy a tight, fiercely loyal fan base while the Wizards have had a broader, softer following that is more susceptible to the whims of a won-loss record. When you get to hockey, the fans seem to be pretty loyal . . . The hockey fans are dressed nicely, but more casual.
Basketball is much more corporate . . .
Sports marketers say one reason the NBA has a more corporate atmosphere is because executives who call the shots on luxury suites and club seats grew up playing hoops instead of hockey. I basketball more, but I see both as a great form of customer entertainment. They are catering to a downtown corporate crowd, and less of the pure fans from the suburbs are going to follow the teams downtown. Not only will you see more people from corporations, but they are going to be the ones in the best seats. DiGiulian has already seen change in the first rows surrounding the US Airways Arena rink, where longtime fans have been replaced by business people, many of whom have a limited knowledge of hockey.