ECHL Sees 51 Sellouts In 2009-10 Season

April 5, 2010 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release





On the final day of the 2009-10 regular season, three ECHL teams welcomed sellout crowds to push the total number of sellouts in the league to 51.

The Johnstown Chiefs and Reading Royals both saw their second sellout of the season on April 3 with 4,017 fans in attendance for the Chiefs' final home game at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena while 7,165 fans attended the Royals' 8-4 win against Trenton. Victoria earned their first sellout of the season when 7,006 fans saw them take on Utah on April 3.

Thirteen teams entertained sellout crowds this season with eight of the teams earning multiple sellouts. The Elmira Jackals and Toledo Walleye tied for a league-leading 12 sellouts a piece followed by the Idaho Steelheads with seven sellouts and the Charlotte Checkers with six capacity crowds.

To purchase tickets for Kelly Cup Playoff games go to ECHL.com/tickets.shtml.

The third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League, the ECHL is the only minor professional hockey league to increase average attendance each of the last two seasons. The Premier 'AA' Hockey League has averaged more than 4,000 fans each of the last five seasons and 17 times in the last 19 years while drawing more than 3 million fans for 17 straight seasons.

Seven returning teams are ahead of their average attendance from 2008-09 led by Cincinnati with 25.2 percent. The Cyclones led minor professional hockey with a 36 percent increase in 2007-08 and ranked second a year ago with a 23 percent increase.

Utah has raised its attendance by 12.7 percent to 4,119 fans per game while Ontario leads the league with an average attendance of 6,451, which is up 10.2 percent from their inaugural season in 2008-09. Elmira has raised its average 9.9 percent to 3,661 per game which is 96.7 percent of capacity at First Arena. The Jackals have had 31 sellouts since joining the ECHL five years ago which tied for the league lead.

Following Elmira is Kalamazoo, which has raised its average attendance by 7.6 percent to 3,433 per game; Charlotte raised their average attendance to 5,518 and is up 3.9 percent. Alaska rounds out the list with an average of 4,697 fans per game, which is just above last year's average of 4,682.

Toledo is second in the league with 6,294 fans per game, while Stockton is third with 6.031. Charlotte is fourth with 5,518 and Florida rounds out the top five with 5,463 per game. Ontario, Toledo and Stockton all surpassed the 200,000-fan mark this season while all but three teams greeted more than 120,000 fans at their games.

Overall, the ECHL saw nearly 3.3 million supporters attend 720 games during the season with an average of 4,485 fans per game, an increase of 10.7 percent from the previous season.

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