A new attendance report shows that the QMJHL is having an exceptional season
LONGUEUIL, Thursday January 6th 2005 (QMJHL) According to the new attendance report issued today by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the League is having an exceptional season, recording a 7.5% rise in attendance figures compared to the same period of time last year.
As of January 1st 2005, the League’s 16 teams had attracted 988,440 fans in 314 games, for an average of 3,148 fans per contest. This average had never been maintained before in the history of the QMJHL. Last year, 919,286 spectators had witnessed the first 314 meetings of the season, for an average of 2,928 fans per game.
At the same pace, the QMJHL will have greeted a total of 1,772,895 fans at the end of the 560 game regular season schedule. Considering this growth, the QMJHL is well on its way to erase its all-time record, established in 1999-2000, of 1,759,340 fans.
This year, no less than six teams from the QMJHL have the potential to beat their own assistance record for one season, based on their current average of fans per game: the Lewiston MAINEiacs (86,555 fans vs. 73,584 in 2003-04), the Québec Remparts (218,236 vs. 207,661 in 2003-04), the P.E.I. Rocket (115,969 vs. 111,916 in 2003-04) and the Victoriaville Tigres (67,597 vs. 67,321 in 1999-00).
Also, the Drummondville Voltigeurs (66,247 vs. 66,571 in 1983-84) and the Rimouski Océanic (163,867 vs. 170,162 in 1996-97) are a few fans close to beating their own assistance record for one season.
So far this season, no less than 10 teams have posted up higher averages of fans per game compared to last year.
Among them, the Chicoutimi Saguenéens, who are currently in second position in the overall standings of the QMJHL, lead the way with an increase of 1,245 fans per game, compared to the same number of games last year. At Centre Georges-Vézina, the Saguenéens had drawn 59,263 spectators through January 1st 2005, compared to 35,608 last year, for a rise of 66.4%.
The Lewiston MAINEiacs (+594), the Halifax Mooseheads (+563), the Québec Remparts (+515), the Drummondville Voltigeurs (+474), the Victoriaville Tigres (+423), the P.E.I. Rocket (+310), the Moncton Wildcats (+308), the Rimouski Océanic (+302) and the Shawinigan Cataractes (+203) also boast higher averages of fans per game than last year.
Also, the Remparts lead the way in the cumulative standings with 124,706 fans through their first 20 home games, including the 10,925 spectators who came to the Colisée Pepsi on December 1st 2004 to see the Remparts play against the Rimouski Océanic. That was actually the biggest crowd of the season in the QMJHL.
As for the Baie-Comeau Drakkar (-62), the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (-65), the Val d’Or Foreurs (-81), the Gatineau Olympiques (-86), the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (-420) and the Acadie-Bathurst Titan (-712), they have suffered reductions of their attendance figures.
Finally, the Halifax Mooseheads still boast the highest number of fans per home game, with an average of 7,493 per contest. Québec (6,235), Rimouski (4,682) and Moncton (4,152) have also attracted more than 4,000 fans per game.
Furthermore, the Rimouski Océanic was the team who attracted the most fans (87,841) when they played on the road. In the arenas that the Océanic visited in 2004-05, the local team had an average of 4,392 fans per game.
<B><a href="../../old_lhjmq/assistances/saison20042005/LHJMQ_ASSIST_200405_pourCommunique_20050101.html " class="lnkBase10px">ATTENDANCE REPORT<BR> Complete charts, dated of January 1st ( CLICK HERE ! ) </a> </B>
