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Stingrays Attendance Increases as ECHL Celebrates Three-Million Fans for 21st Consecutive Season

April 21, 2014 - ECHL (ECHL) - South Carolina Stingrays News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. - For the 21st consecutive season, over three-million fans attended ECHL games during the 2013-14 season. ECHL teams welcomed 3,642,779 fans this season, for an average of 4,706 per game, marking the 10th straight season and the 22nd time in the last 24 seasons that the per-game average has exceeded 4,000 fans. It is an increase over the 4,695 fans per game from 2012-13 and marks the highest per-game average in 14 years since 4,774 fans attended games during the 1999-2000 season.

The Ontario Reign led the ECHL with an impressive average of 8,158 fans per game, an increase of 7.7 percent over last season and becoming the first team since Greenville in 1999-2000 to average at least 8,000 per game. Ontario had seven sell-out crowds this season and 10 crowds in excess of 8,900. The Reign have led the league in attendance in three of the last four seasons, and have finished either first or second in the final attendance rankings in each of their six ECHL seasons.

Fort Wayne, which led the league in attendance last season, finished second in 2013-14 with an average of 7,211 per game. The Komets welcomed nine crowds of over 8,000 fans to Memorial Coliseum this season.

For the second straight season, the Orlando Solar Bears were third in the ECHL with 6,355 fans per game at Amway Center. Orlando had seven crowds of over 7,000 fans this season. The Solar Bears and the Amway Center will host the 2015 ECHL All-Star Game on Jan. 21, 2015.

Toledo surpassed the 6,000 fans per game mark for the fourth time in five seasons and finished fourth in the league with 6,022 per game. The Walleye tied their all-time club record of 8,250 fans on Feb. 22 against Orlando.

Evansville rounded out the top five with an average of 5,369. The IceMen had a team record crowd of 9,458 on Jan. 18 against South Carolina and had nine other crowds that exceeded 6,300 fans.

The Colorado Eagles sold out all 36 games at the 5,289-seat Budweiser Events Center, extending the team's incredible minor-league hockey record to over 410 consecutive sellouts.

Utah had an ECHL-best 8.2 percent increase over last season with a club-record 5,003 fans per game. The Grizzlies welcomed 9,862 fans on Feb. 17 and had 9,127 on March 22, while also having a crowd of 8,961 on Jan. 20.

South Carolina averaged 3,812 per game, an increase of 8.1 percent over last season. The Stingrays set a team record with 10,617 fans on Jan. 25.

The Elmira Jackals saw a 6.7 percent increase over the 2012-13 season with an average of 2,629 fans per game at First Arena while Bakersfield had an average of 4,859 fans this season for an increase of 5.2 percent over last season.

Two other teams saw slight increases over last season with Las Vegas welcoming 4,581 fans, including a team record 7,786 on Jan. 31 against Ontario, and Idaho which finished with an average of 3,997 per game.

Cincinnati had the largest ECHL crowd of the season, setting a team regular-season record with 13,237 fans on Jan. 4 against Reading.

The Kalamazoo Wings also set a new team record this year as 5,576 fans were in attendance at Wings Stadium for their home opener on Oct. 26.


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