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Record Crowds Attend ECHL Games

February 2, 2010

Fans showed up in record numbers over the weekend with Utah seeing the highest attendance in team history and three other teams earning season-high numbers to help the ECHL increase its sellouts to 29 and raise average attendance to 4,321 per game which is up 6.64 percent from last season.

Utah had a record 10,020 fans in attendance on Jan. 29 which ranks as the fifth largest crowd in the league for the season. The two-day total for the Grizzlies was 17,063. It was the first time the E-Center has surpassed 10,000 fans in one game, eclipsing their previous high of 9,304 by 716.

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


Ontario, Kalamazoo and Reading had season-high marks in attendance on Jan. 30. Ontario had 8,298 fans attend their game against Alaska, while Reading welcomed 6,792 fans and Kalamazoo saw 4,950 attend their annual Golden Ice game.

Reading and Ontario each passed the 100,000 fan mark thanks to their record-breaking crowds with the Reign achieving the milestone in only 18 games.

Ontario’s average attendance jumped to 6,027 fans per game, which put them first in the league just ahead of Toledo who has a total attendance of 159,894 in 27 games. The attendance at Citizens Business Bank Arena is up nearly three percent from their inaugural season in 2008-09 when they ranked second with 5,856 per game and had three sellouts and a team-high attendance of 9,659 on March 7, 2009.

Elmira earned their league-leading ninth sellout of the season on Jan. 30 with 4,056 fans. Elmira has raised its average 11.6 percent to 3,719 per game which is 98.3 percent of capacity at First Arena. The Jackals have had 28 sellouts since joining the ECHL including a league-leading 14 in 2007-08 and five a year ago which tied for the league lead.

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 Premier ‘AA’ Hockey League has averaged more than 4,000 fans each of the last five seasons and 17 times in the last 19 years while drawing more than 3 million fans for 16 straight seasons. 


Five returning teams are ahead of their average attendance from 2008-09 led by Cincinnati with 21.3 percent. The Cyclones led minor professional hockey with a 36 percent increase in 2007-08 and ranked second a year ago with a 23 percent increase.

Following Elmira and Ontario, Utah has raised its average attendance by 1.8 percent to 3,722 per game, while Charlotte has raised their average attendance to 5,324.

Stockton is third in the league with 5,859 per game while Bakersfield is fourth with 5,327 per game. The Thunder have led the league in attendance each of their first four seasons and are trying to tie the league record of five seasons set by Florida from 2000-05.

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