MIXED REVIEWS FIRST MONTH OF THE NHL'S RETURN LOOKS LIKE A GOOD NEWS-BAD NEWS SCENARIO.

Byline: Rich Hammond Staff Writer

To hear NHL officials talk, the league's outlook couldn't be rosier. Attendance is strong, fans are energized and the game is more appealing to watch and has a certain positive buzz about it this season.

But here's what won't end up in the league's next glowing news release: Colorado's decade-long sellout streak has been in jeopardy, an Islanders-Rangers game didn't sell out for the first time since 1998 and hockey's miniscule TV ratings, on a network that features ``Survivor'' reruns, still lag behind poker.

One month into the NHL's post-lockout comeback, this much seems certain: fans and corporate sponsors have returned, but not enough to justify bold declarations of financial success.

``If you're the NHL, you have to be thrilled to bits that the fans came back with such fervor,'' said David Carter, founder of the Redondo Beach-based Sports Business Group. ``At the same time, based on the TV ratings, they have to hope that not everyone who likes hockey was in an arena.''

That hasn't stopped commissioner Gary Bettman from boasting about the league and pointing out that revenues from this season could exceed expectations while conveniently neglecting to mention that they will still almost certainly fall short of revenues generated during the 2003-04 season.

``People were speculating that the fans wouldn't be there for opening night and that we would have to plow a long road back the way other sports have after their work stoppages,'' Bettman said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press. ``We never believed that, because we believed in the game and our fans and we knew we were fixing our problems. That's why attendance is up. So not only were the predictions that we would be damaged unfounded, we're doing better.''

No so fast, commissioner. But to be fair, here's the good:

--Despite the 10-month layoff, overall attendance has been strong. Eleven of the 30 teams sold out all of their home games in October through Sunday and arenas were filled to 91.3 percent of capacity. League-wide, teams reported that 87.7 percent of season-ticket holders renewed for this season.

Compared to average attendance in Oct. 2003, 24 teams exceeded or matched that average this October, and compared to average attendance for the entire 2003-04 season, 20 teams have matched or exceeded.

Some of the biggest jumps came in small markets such as Atlanta (14,341 average in Oct. 2003 to 16,168 in Oct. 2005), Florida (13,997 to 16,504) and Pittsburgh (12,498 to 15,901).

--New rules designed to limit obstruction have made the game more entertaining. Entering Sunday, each NHL game featured an average of 6.3 goals, compared to 5.1 in 2003-04.

--The lockout had the potential to turn off corporate sponsors, but the league's long-term deals with companies such as Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola and MasterCard remained intact. Also, the league reached a deal with Reebok for new uniforms and on-ice sponsorship of the red and blue lines.

In part because of that, Bettman said revenues could exceed the preseason estimate of $1.8 billion. Players have been losing 12 percent of their salaries to an escrow fund, and if revenues exceed $1.8 billion, players will get at least some of that money back. League revenues were roughly $2.1 billion in 2003-04.

``The fact that we've come out of the gates so strong is obviously a tremendous sign,'' Ted Saskin, executive director of the NHL Players' Association, told The Canadian Press. ``I have always said that I thought the estimates for revenues ... were very, very conservative.''

But to suggest the news is all good would be to ignore some glaring facts:

--National television ratings remain dismal. OLN's initial telecast drew a 0.4 rating, which represented 353,439 viewers and equaled the rating that ESPN averaged for its telecasts in 2003-04. Even worse, ESPN had a 2.0 national rating for its opening-night telecast in 2003.

OLN's next game dropped to a 0.3 rating (278,000 viewers) and the next one dropped to a 0.2 (143,438), although the latter two went against Monday Night Football and a baseball playoff game, respectively.

Then there's OLN itself. After ESPN declined its option to televise the NHL, OLN signed a two-year, $135-million deal with the league, which followed ESPN's five year, $600- million deal. OLN is available in 64 million homes, compared to ESPN's 90 million, and is involved in a spat with one satellite provider.

Fox Sports Net holds local broadcast rights for many teams, but the news isn't much better. Eight teams enjoyed big opening boosts from their 2003 opening-night rating, but attendance growth hasn't translated to ratings growth in places such as Nashville, which has struggled to top a 1.0 rating.

--The attendance news isn't unanimously good either. Smaller-market teams such as the Mighty Ducks, Buffalo, Columbus and Phoenix all have seen dropoffs from their 2003-04 averages. The Mighty Ducks are averaging 13,513 fans in a Pond that seats 17,174.

Even Colorado, which entered the season with 439 consecutive sellouts, had to scramble in the final hours to sell all the tickets to its season opener, according to the Denver Post.

The Kings have dropped slightly, despite having sellouts for five of their first nine home games.

``To have nine home games in October is asking a lot of our fans,'' said Shawn Hunter, the Kings' president of business operations. ``Ideally, it would have been spread out a little more.''

So far, the Kings have been a fair barometer for the entire NHL. Their season-ticket base of roughly 12,000 - a 92 percent renewal rate - puts them in the top half of the NHL in that category and they have filled Staples Center to 95.7 percent of its capacity this season.

Hunter said that in terms of corporate sponsorship, the Kings will have their most successful year in the 10 years of their current ownership, with 10 major sponsors and perhaps a dozen other companies involved.

``We retained 90 percent of our sponsors and added a few,'' Hunter said. ``A lot of these companies have been long-term partners with the Kings and we did our best to keep them engaged during the lockout.''

To create a buzz, the Kings hired a local movie-marketing company to create their ``Kings Rule'' campaign, which has been prominently featured on billboards and in media outlets.

``We wanted to be very loud, very quick and we wanted to be relevant,'' Hunter said. ``When you take a year- and-a-half off, you have some serious work to do.''

And it's still very much a work in progress, Bettman's bold proclamations notwithstanding, but even one of the league's most outspoken players thinks things are going in the right direction.

``It looks good so far,'' Kings center Jeremy Roenick said. ``I don't think you can judge anything by TV ratings. Those have always been minimal or nonexistent, even with ESPN. What's important is seeing the buildings full.

``Until the league wakes up and gets its act together with the broadcasts, the ratings will always be low. Why not do a deal with HBO? They could put cameras and (microphones) right next to the ice and you could hear the game and all the swearing and everything. Wouldn't that be something?''

Rich Hammond, [phone]

rich.hammond(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Kings fans, above getting autographs from Jeremy Roenick, have filled Staples Center to 95.7 percent capacity. But despite proclamations from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, below, that the league is as strong as ever, TV ratings are down and some teams are having attendance problems.

Noah Graham/Getty Images

(3) Most Kings fans have returned to watching their team after the 2004-05 lockout.

Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images