If the NHL had more seating (each stadium held more than 30,000 fans), then the average attendance my go up to 20,000 as there will be more games that are over the 20k mark that would normally be capped at 20k.
That makes no sense. They can't average 19,000 when the average stadium holds about 20-21 thousand....and if the stadium had more capacity, they would average MORE? They would STILL average approx. the 17,000 they average NOW.
The stadiums are preventing them from averaging more....they may try to look at the product that is preventing them from averaging more.
As opposed to the MLS, they are averaging more per year as the marketing of the product and the improvement of the talent gets better.