QMJHL increases its audience by 7.7%
Published on February 3, 2005 under Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) News Release
Longueuil, Thursday, February 3, 2005 (QMJHL) â After a four-month period of games, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League can announce, once again, that its audience increased by 7.7%, which represents a 0.2% raise compared with the report filed at the beginning of January.
Indeed, the new report presented yesterday mentions that as of February 1st 2005, the 16 teams of the Courteau circuit have welcomed 1,305,440 spectators in 406 games. With 154 games to play, should the pace be kept, the QMJHL could surpass the record reached during the 1999-2000 season with an audience of 1,759,340, and it could welcome 1,790,367 hockey fans. Last year, 93,230 spectators came to the 406 first games of the season.
For the month of January 2005, some 317,000 spectators came to encourage one of the League teams, representing an average of 3,446 fans per game. The average for the present season equals to 3,215 after 406 games played. Last season, the average was 2,986.
The Halifax Moosehead rank first with their per-game average audience of 7,567 while the Saguenéens de Chicoutimi have the most important audience increase (63%) compared to their performance of last year.
The biggest crowd of the year, 10,595 spectators, was registered in Halifax by the Mooseheads as they were playing against Sidney Crosby and the Océanic de Rimouski. With reference to the latter, at the time of their 23rd home game, on January 7, against the Drakkar de Baie-Comeau, they played in their 5th full house, with 5,062 hockey fans.
Compared to the 2003-2004 season, 5 teams have increased their audience over 10%, namely Chicoutimi (+ 63 %), Drummondville (+ 36 %), Lewiston (+ 32 %), Victoriaville (+ 28.2 %) and Québec (+ 17 %). Moreover, Halifax (+ 4.5 %), Moncton (+ 6 %), PEI (+ 6.7 %), Rimouski (+ 7.3 %) and Shawinigan (+ 9.5 %) also increased their respective audience.
As far as drops are concerned, apart from Acadie-Bathurst, with a decrease of 30.1%, the audience has slightly fallen in Cape Breton (- 10.7 %), Baie-Comeau (- 4 %), Val d'Or (- 3,6 %), Rouyn-Noranda (- 3 %) and Gatineau (- 0,8 %), compared with last year, on the same date.
Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League Stories from February 3, 2005
- Rioux joins coaching staff - Moncton Wildcats
- McDonald's Name-the-Team Contest Exceeds 3,000 Entries - Saint John Sea Dogs
- Sidney Crosbyl named Canadian Hockey League Player of the Week - QMJHL
- QMJHL increases its audience by 7.7% - QMJHL
- Suspension imposed to Alex Bourret of the Lewiston MAINEiacs - Lewiston MAINEiacs
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