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Strong Opening Weekend For ECHL

October 19, 2009

The ECHL had a triumphant return to Toledo as more than 20,000 fans turned out to watch the Walleye in their first three games.

The Walleye had back-to-back sellouts at the new 7,431-seat Lucas County Arena with 8,000 on Friday and 7,467 on Saturday before wrapping up the weekend with 5,197 on Sunday. The 6,888 per game average is up more than 75 percent from 2006-07 when the team played its last season in the Toledo Sports Arena.

The ECHL drew almost 100,000 and averaged 4,742 per game for its opening weekend.

To purchase tickets for any ECHL game go to ECHL.com/Tickets.shtml.

Elmira had a standing-room-only crowd of 4,128 for its opener on Friday while South Carolina had a sellout crowd of 6,812 to watch the Stingrays raise their record third Kelly Cup championship banner on Friday.

Las Vegas had 6,383 for its season opener on Friday while Bakersfield and Alaska are both averaging over 5,000 after their first two home games on Friday and Saturday. Gwinnett had 6,551 for its home opener while Reading is averaging 4,626 per game after two contests.

Looking to increase its attendance for the fifth year in a row, Victoria will host Bakersfield for its home opener on Wednesday.

Four more teams play their home openers on Friday including Stockton hosting Ontario in a rematch of the Pacific Division Semifinals and Florida hosting Charlotte. Stockton has led the league in attendance its first four seasons, including 6,218 per game in 2008-09, becoming the first team to lead in attendance four years in a row since Florida set the league record with five straight years from 2000-05. The Everblades have finished in the top three in attendance the last 10 years after finishing fourth in their first year.

Wheeling, which raised its attendance over three percent in 2008-09, will host Cincinnati on Friday while Utah will host Idaho.

The newest member of the ECHL, the Kalamazoo Wings, will host Reading in their home opener on Saturday while Cincinnati, which has raised its attendance by 68 percent from 2006-07, will host Wheeling.

The third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League, the ECHL is the only minor professional hockey league to increase average attendance each of the last two seasons. The ECHL averaged 4,258 per game in 2008-09 which is the highest average since 2005-06 and the second-highest average in the last eight years. It is the fifth consecutive season and the 17th time in the last 19 years that the ECHL has averaged over 4,000 fans and the league drew over 3 million fans for the 16th year in a row and reached the 3 million mark in the fewest number of games since 2005-06.

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