kjar78 t1_j6fsnt7 wrote on January 30, 2023 at 12:49 AM

Reply to comment by sporky211 in Bring back the whalers!!! by iwanttobehappy2022

The curtains are deceiving though. The XL Center is a massive arena by minor league standards; it’s the sixth-largest arena by capacity in the AHL, and two of the top five are NHL arenas that AHL teams share. Even with the curtains down, attendance can be in the 6,000-7,000 range, which is great for a minor league team.

Plus, UConn recently opened their new hockey arena in Storrs, which has led to an increase in attendance for Wolf Pack games. Just last night attendance was over 6,700.

hasek3139 t1_j6gstg3 wrote on January 30, 2023 at 5:19 AM

Looks like the average is around 4K a game

And 2800 for Bridgeport

https://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph_season.php?lid=AHL1941&sid=2023

kjar78 t1_j6gv1wd wrote on January 30, 2023 at 5:42 AM

Early in the season the Wolf Pack were more in the 2,500-5,000 range. Since UConn left for Storrs, the bump in attendance has been quite noticeable.

Sat January 14: 6,189

Fri Jan 20: 7,032

Sat Jan 21: 4,960

Wed Jan 25: 1,947 (outlier, Wednesday games don’t draw as well as weekends and it was snowing that day)

Sat Jan 28: 6,780

Would love to see the figures for pre- and post-UConn move once the season is over.

hasek3139 t1_j6hlb1r wrote on January 30, 2023 at 11:28 AM

Well I’m glad they can draw in more, but Instill wish CT people would like hockey as much as they like uconn basketball, which seems to average 10k a game.

Big thing is hockey is not affordable, so a basketball has more of a reach.

I’d be interested to know how the whalers attendance would be if it were in maybe Stamford instead of Hartford

Looking at the 1990s, whalers attendance was abysmal…