It's really not that far out of line to say the Predators have had issues with attendance since the beginning. 

In fact, you might even say they've had them since before the beginning even took place. 

What is now known as the Sommet Center was originally built in 1996, well before the city had a major league tenant to move in. And by that point, the relationship between Nashville, Tennessee, and the NHL was already in full bloom. 

A year earlier, you see, the New Jersey Devils, recent Stanley Cup champs, played a little bit of relocation poker with the fine folks of Nashville, and took a long, hard look at selling to a group that would take advantage of the city's offer of millions up front and low, low annual rent for any team that would fill what was then called Nashville Arena. 

That move, obviously, never ended up happening. But the city's hard sell intrigued the NHL enough that, when it came time to look at expansion in 1997, Nashville was front and centre among the eleven bids and nine cities in play — groups that were looking to bring teams to Hamilton, Houston, St. Paul, Atlanta, Columbus, Raleigh, Hampton Roads (!) and Oklahoma City. 

Many had larger populations or a richer history of supporting hockey than Music City, USA, but Nashville had two things in its back pocket that no other bid could match: 

(a) A brand new NHL-calibre building ready for a tenant, and 
(b) A city prepared to pay more than $20-million of the $80-million expansion fee

As Kramer would say, giddy up. 

So, 12 years ago, the NHL granted franchises to Atlanta, Columbus, Nashville and Minnesota, creating what we now know as the 30-team NHL. And not only were the Predators part of the party, they were the first ones in the pool, beginning play a year later in order for owner Craig Leipold to get a jump on the NFL's Tennessee Titans (who were coming to town a year later in 1999).

One of the stipulations with getting an NHL franchise was the fact that teams had to sell 12,000 season's tickets by late March of their first season, and that was a deadline the Predators very nearly missed. There were even rumours the team would relocate to Houston before their inaugural season got started. 

Ultimately, they crawled over the line during a fan rally on March 28, 1998, to finish with 12,139 season's ticket holders in Year 1.

A few years later, that number had fallen to about 6,000.

So that's the history. Here's what's happened since, a quick snapshot of the Predators' average announced attendance throughout their 10-season history: 

Now, some of that's due to team performance, definitely. The Predators didn't make the postseason until 2003-04, and this is a franchise that has never won a playoff round in its existence. Nashville was the third-best team in the NHL in 2006-07 and obviously had some momentum at the gate there, but then Leipold decided to sell, gut the roster and as a result sink a lot of the fandom being developed in what was still a fragile market. 

But there's also a bigger trend to attendance in Nashville, one that I pretty much had to go to town and talk to those there to pick up on. And it's really quite dramatic if you crunch the numbers. 

First up, here's the team's game-by-game attendance so far this season: 

Lots of peaks and valleys. But if you distill the trend a little bit, and break Nashville's attendance down into a month-by-month basis over the past few years, you can see when they're selling their tickets (and when they're not): 

From March on, the Predators pretty well sell out their building. One thing that doesn't get a whole lot of publicity is just how small the Sommet Center is for hockey with just 17,113 seats, and the one game I was at against the Coyotes, with 15,000 fans, felt pretty nearly full. 

An average attendance of 16,000 fans would rank just 23rd in the NHL, but in Nashville, it means the building is about 94 per cent full. 

Leipold wanted to start a year before the Titans got to town for a reason. Football is king in Tennessee, and it's really not until the NFL season ends in January that ticket sales for the hockey team pick up. That's the reality they live with, and that's the fight Predators ownership is going to have every single season of its existence. 

It's a minnow up against a behemoth, a team in a non-traditional sport that earns four times less revenue per season and plays in a largely overlapping season. And that's not even taking into consideration the NCAA and high school seasons that draw all kinds of fan support.

It's quite a mountain to climb. 

Despite what you've heard, this is not just a two parter, and I'll have more this week on the Predators. If you missed it, Part 1 is here.