Attendance at Thursday’s Canucks game was the lowest in 15 years

It’s no secret that the Vancouver Canucks have entered a rebuilding phase.

It’s been a steady decline since the team came within one game of winning the Stanley Cup in 2011 and with that has come a dip in attendance.

😐 pic.twitter.com/MNwZC9Qbya

— Jason Brough (@JasonBroughTSN) October 13, 2017

The team’s 12 year, 474 game sellout streak ended in October 2014 and now, three years later, the team has hit a new low.

The official attendance announced at Roger’s Arena on Thursday was just 15,589, which is the first time there have been less than 16,000 at a Canucks game in nearly 16 years.

#Canucks attendance last night 15,589.
Lowest home attendance since Dec. 10, 2001 (15,370 for a 1-1 tie vs. Tampa).https://t.co/BpPtQVPWbB

— Sir Earl (@Sir_Earl) October 13, 2017

Home games with under 16,000 attendance:
97/98: 11
98/99: 26
99/00: 30
00/01: 10
01/02: 4
02/03-16/17: 0
17/18: 1 so far#Canucks#DarkDays

— Sir Earl (@Sir_Earl) October 13, 2017

It’s the lowest attendance since the last time less than 16,000 fans showed up to the rink, which was when 15,370 watched the Canucks play the Tampa Bay Lightning on December 10th, 2001.

A few names from that 2001 roster include Markus Naslund, Murray Baron, Andrew Cassels, Jan Hlavac, Dan Cloutier, Brent Sopel and current team president, Trevor Linden.

Things will likely get worse before they get better, with 38 more home games this season and a team that will almost certainly finish near the bottom of the standings.

Lower ticket prices would be one way to attract more fans to the games, but that is unlikely to happen.

Realistically, attendance will continue to struggle until the Canucks’ young prospects start to establish themselves and the team makes a move up the standings.

Until then, there will be many more nights like Thursday, where plenty of red seats are visible at Roger’s Arena.