Ultimate Standings 2009: No. 74
Colorado Avalanche
Last Year's Rank: 32
Title Track: 17
Ownership: 63
Coaching: 117
Players: 79
Fan Relations: 46
Affordability: 114
Stadium Experience: 68
Bang for the Buck: 55
A good first impression can last a long time, which must be why Avalanche fans still give their club Rocky Mountain-high marks for expectations of another Grail. The team won eight straight division titles (and two Stanley Cups) immediately after moving to Denver in 1995 but has done little since. Just-fired coach Tony Granato received bottom-scraping marks for "leading" the cellar-dwelling Avs to their first sub-90-point season (a Western Conference-worst 69 points). The long absence of brittle stars young (Paul Stastny, 23, 45 games played) and old (Joe Sakic, 40, 15) didn't help customers feel good about the product, either. And although tickets for one of the Pepsi Center's 18,007 seats seem cheap ($40.62 per, on average), those prices don't include premium seating, and the club considers its entire lower bowl -- that's half the arena -- to be premium. That's a lot to pay for the altitude sickness sections and more than enough to leave a lasting impression. Of getting taken.
