ATLANTA --The Atlanta Hawks rode the momentum of a record-setting December into a historically successful January, recording the first 17-0 month in NBA history while watching attendance, viewership, retail sales and digital popularity figures soar.
Through 26 home games, the Hawks are among the league’s leaders in percentage attendance increase, with a 15% upswing equaling over 2,500 more fans filing into Philips Arena than the club drew through the same number of contests during the 2013-14 season. Atlanta has sold out 10-of-the-last-12 contests, including seven sellouts in January alone, surpassing last season’s total of four capacity crowds. Additionally, ridership to Hawks games on MARTA is up by over 185%, as over 2,000 fans arrive at Philips Arena via MARTA rail transportation.
Viewership on SportSouth, the regional television home of the Hawks, continues to climb to new heights, as ratings through 44 contests are up 63% over last season’s 44-game average. The Hawks’ Jan. 23 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder generated a 4.5 HH rating in the Atlanta DMA, tying the highest-rated Hawks regular season broadcast ever on the network. Atlanta’s Jan. 30 defeat of the Portland Trail Blazers delivered a 4.1 HH rating, the second-largest audience of the season on SportSouth. (Source: Nielsen NSI. Atlanta DMA Live + SD TV HH RATINGS)
January retail sales of merchandise at Philips Arena’s Hawks Shop and its website HawksShop.com were among the greatest in team history. Gross sales of items sold in-arena during three select games last month ranked in the top four sales nights in team history and seven of the nine January home games rank in the top 10 gameday sales totals ever. Monthly sales on HawksShop.com increased by 461% over January 2014, resulting in the highest grossing month in franchise history for the website.
As compared to January 2014, team website Hawks.com experienced the following increases in January 2015: a 155% rise in page views; a 145% surge in monthly unique visitors; and a 215% leap in mobile page views, the last figure resulting in the fastest growing mobile traffic rate of any team’s website in the NBA.
Fan engagement on social media in January 2015 was markedly higher than in January 2014:
- Facebook – Increase of over 200,000 more fans reached daily; more than 20,000 additional engaged daily users
- Twitter – Over 14,000 new monthly followers; 450,000 more daily impressions
- Instagram – More than 20,000 new monthly followers; over 2,000 more likes on posts