Hockey season is back in full swing, meaning regular trips to the rinks for many Maritimers.
Only some arenas aren’t getting as much foot traffic as they would early in the season.
A number of clubs have seen lower-than-expected attendance numbers since the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League started playing regular season games as part of the 2023-24 campaign in late September.
"Our attendance numbers are not where we want them to be or need them to be," says Saint John Sea Dogs president Trevor Georgie.
According to website hockeydb.com, the Sea Dogs aren’t the only franchise seeing fewer fans in the stands this season than in years past.
An attendance graph from the 2023-24 season shows the reigning Memorial Cup Champion Quebec Remparts draw the largest crowd on average with 7,895 fans a night. The Halifax Mooseheads fall just behind Quebec with an average of 7,650 spectators.
The Moncton Wildcats, Gatineau Olympiques, and Sea Dogs round out the top five in average attendance among teams in the ‘Q’.
The Charlottetown Islanders land in ninth place with an average of 2,523 per game.
The Cape Breton Eagles and Acadie-Bathurst Titan find themselves in the bottom five in attendance numbers. The Eagles are drawing just under 2,000 fans per night and the Titan are below 1,500.
"OUR GOAL IS TO GET BACK TO OUR PRE-PANDEMIC NUMBERS"
A few less fans in the stands is nothing new for Maritime teams during the first month of the season.
"Historically the front half of that schedule ends up being where the least attended games are because everyone has the cultural routines that are driven by the season,” says former Cape Breton Eagles player Joey Haddad, who now serves as a team ambassador and assistant manager of business operations.
He points to a warm October for why many teams in the region don’t see fans early on, as residents aim to soak up every last bit of good weather before the winter months.
That challenge has been magnified for Cape Breton due to a front-loaded home schedule with the 2024 World Women’s Curling Championships taking over Centre 200 for a few weeks in March.
“Having three games in three nights or three games in four nights all at home, it’s quite the ask to get all of our fans out three consecutive nights,” Haddad admits. “Whether that’s alone or with a family of four, three, two, or one. Especially with the cost of living and the economy on the rise, everyone is feeling the pinch a bit.”
But the attendance trends in the QMJHL are more than just an early season blip.
For many teams, including the Eagles, attendance numbers have yet to bounce back to their pre-pandemic levels.
According to hockeydb.com team attendance records, the Eagles were drawing almost 900 more fans into the nest in the 2019-20 season compared to this year.
The Sea Dogs find themselves in a similar boat. Even despite being one year removed from a Memorial Cup victory on home ice, the Port City team hasn’t averaged more than 3,000 fans a game since before COVID-19.
“When we look at some of the options that become more pronounced during the pandemic, there is lots of folks who still really enjoy staying at home,” says Georgie. “Playing video games, spending time on their phone or mobile options, streaming platforms, so consumers have lots of choice. We need to continue to get creative to give people reason to come out and select us to spend their time.”
“In the grand scheme of things, our goal is to get back to our pre-pandemic numbers,” Haddad says. “Not only to create better business but a better atmosphere for our fans. Ultimately the energy we create as a seventh man on the ice, they give our team the energy and support to be successful. The biggest thing we can’t replace are fans.”
The Eagles have approximately 1,100 season ticket holders, while the Sea Dogs have around 1,500.
"ENTERTAINMENT, MUSIC AND OTHER COMPLIMENTS TO THE GAME"
In order to get fans back in the stands, teams are getting creative to make coming to the rink more of an experience then just seeing a hockey game.
“This year we spent the summer working on different entertainment options,” Georgie says. “We kicked it off with Canadian hip hop legend and judge and Canada’s Got Talent judge Kardinal Offishall who was here a few weeks ago. We wanted to give fans an opportunity to see him as he has not been here for a very long time. I think entertainment and music and other compliments to the game is the path.”
Georgie recalls a game last year on New Years Eve where a Spice Girls tribute act led to a near sellout. The team is trying to replicate that this year with multiple live acts during games, including the Ironically Hip playing at intermissions this Friday for the clubs Hockey Fights Cancer night.
On Nov. 13 the team will play a matinee game with a Taylor Swift tribute artist flying in from Las Vegas.
“To be able to see Taylor Swift live at one of her Canadian dates is near impossible to most people due to financial restraints and availability,” says Georgie. “You see the success of her movie in theatres and how that’s going, so this will give everyone a chance to come sing, dance, hear her music and see the performance at both intermissions.”
The Eagles also have many theme nights on the horizon in an effort to fill the stands. ‘CBU Night at the Nest’ is a theme night dedicated to the university and Haddad hopes that night will serve as a chance to introduce the game of hockey to international students and grow the fan base.
“We are showing them everything else we have to offer as far as our beautiful scenery and our great schools and hospitality, and part of that I would like to introduce them to major junior hockey and the excitement around it,” Haddad says. “Our main focus again is to kind of reteach the fan base and the community and make them aware that we are a great opportunity to get out and have a great night.
“We are located in Sydney but we are Cape Breton Island’s team. We have fans and we have support from all over the island. We are working on a couple things throughout the year to send a bus to rural parts of the island to help get them to games.”
The QMJHL regular season wraps up on March 23, 2024.
