SPRINGFIELD - So far, fans' excitement over the Springfield Thunderbirds' arrival in town has been clear, if not easily quantifiable.

With the season fast approaching, the team will soon get its first look at what it hopes will be a crowded MassMutual Center on Oct. 22 for the home opener. Without discussing specific figures, Thunderbirds executive vice president Nathan Costa said the team has met its ticket sales benchmarks so far.

"We set our goals pretty lofty, but we are on track," Costa said on Oct. 6. "We're at 85 percent of our packages right now in terms of where we're at, getting to our internal goals. I don't want to talk about specific numbers, but the season ticket sales have been very, very strong from both the individual consumer and the corporate support in the marketplace."

The Thunderbirds are offering multiple season ticket packages, including a full-season membership for all 38 home games, a 22-game plan and a 10-game plan, among others.

Single-game tickets can be had for as little as $10 (in the "power play" zone at the top of the section where the Thunderbirds shoot once), ranging up to $30 on the glass. However, single-game tickets ordered through the team website carry a $4 order charge, as well as a convenience fee of $3 or $4, depending on the location of the seats.

"We fully understand and are challenged with (MassMutual Center) ticketing fees on an individual-game basis, so that's why we've tried to create some packages that are very enticing, and they're going to evolve," Costa said. "...What we're doing for Opening Night is, we have a smaller pack, so it's an Opening Night pack. Two tickets to Opening Night, four vouchers you can use any game, a puck and a $5 gift card to Dunkin Donuts, for $75 and $90 (in the defensive and attacking zone, respectively).

"We're trying to have entry points for people that may want to come to one game, so that we have alternatives to just buying single-game tickets."

It will be a while before anyone can draw significant conclusions based on the team's ticket sales. However, attendance had been a problem for the Springfield Falcons for years before the team was sold and moved to Tucson, Ariz. this spring, ensuring that it will be front of mind for the Thunderbirds as well.

There is precedent for a team arriving in Springfield when fans had thought professional hockey in the area might be gone, with some hints to how fans' relief might have translated into ticket sales. In 1994, when the Springfield Indians moved to Worcester, then-Indians general manager Bruce Landon helped to secure a franchise that became the Falcons, keeping an AHL team in Springfield.

In the two years before the Indians were sold, they averaged 3,337 and 3,189 fans per game, respectively. In the first year the Falcons were in town (1994-95), they drew 3,976 per game, with that number jumping to 4,105 and then 4,883 in the following years, according to hockeydb.com.

The Falcons' attendance peaked in their fourth year, 1997-98, at 5,206 per game. Though the average remained above 5,000 in the next two years, it began to decline after that. From 2003-04 through 2015-16, the Falcons never cracked 4,000 again. Last year's figure was 3,108, the lowest in team history and lowest in the league.

Raw attendance numbers require some context, and if the Thunderbirds only improve modestly on that figure this year, it may not be cause for panic, depending on a number of other factors. The first year is, of course, just the start of what the team hopes will be a decades-long run.

Costa said he'd love to see the Thunderbirds average 4,000 per game in the first season. However, the focus is less on that number and more on ensuring the team fills the building for big games - like meetings with the Providence Bruins - and continue to draw fans in with worthwhile, enjoyable promotions throughout the year.

While early attendance figures will hold some value, Costa and his staff have the long term in mind as they market the new team.

"It's going to be a process. We have to show that we mean what we say when we say it," Costa said. "We're going to have to earn the fans' trust and we're going to have to earn the fans' support. That's going to take a tad bit of time. I think, hopefully, people in the marketplace have seen what we're doing and can see that we're trying to do things differently and that we mean it, and that it's not all of a sudden that we're going to flip on the lights and we're selling out 38 games a year.

"I'd love for that to happen. But we have to lay the groundwork. Our group sales guys have to get out and develop relationships with local groups and show value, and show that when you come out to a game, there's nothing else like that in Western Massachusetts."