The conclusion of another EIHL season brings Tina to her annual analysis of the each team’s attendances.
It’s summer again, at the time of writing there is actually some sunshine, with the vague warning of thunderstorms (but when have the Met Office ever been able to predict the weather eh?), and once again I have compiled some numbers to step on the toes of our usual blog contributors for my annual foray into the EIHL attendances.
I’m still of the opinion that the pre-Covid figures have some relevance, and five years seems like a nice round number to me, and possibly anyone else who grew up in a generation that had a go on a tombola winning on numbers that ended in a five or a zero.
My mild OCD aside, the previous two seasons to the one that’s just passed were great for the league overall having only one team each that saw a drop in attendance on its predecessor, and one of those being so minute it was hardly worth mentioning. This last season, things are a little less straightforward, as the table below shows, there are a few more minus figures, some more worrying than others but one you’d like to think will see a quick turnaround following some fairly recently announced organisational changes.
Belfast Giants
I really wasn’t expecting a drop from figures in Belfast, as a percentage it seems small but it equates to over 250 people per game, on average. Although they didn’t achieve total domination this season (sorry, not sorry!), it was still a good run but perhaps Cardiff’s strong start was enough to put a few fans off who sit on the fringes. The Devils sat atop the Elite League until the Giants deposed them and I’m not saying that this is absolute proof but it does curiously coincide with a surge of attendance at the SSE in January. However, as you can see above, there was an uptake in January of the previous two seasons so it may just be a trend for that particular month.
I’m going to go out on a bit of a limb here and say that the AI fixture scheduling has also had an effect, with only Panthers and Devils having double headers, it perhaps made the Belfast trips less attractive for the rest of the fanbases, this, I think shows almost conclusively in the above chart for figures per opposition, the only curiosity that I can see is the figures when the Flyers came to visit. I’m wondering if there were any ticket deals for those as it was reasonable to think that there wouldn’t be a large travelling contingent due to the feeling amongst the fanbase last season.
Saturday sticks out like a sore thumb for Giants as the hockey night of choice, but it’s much more of a standout this last season than its predecessor, and Sunday, well it’s always been unpopular but last season, it was downright awful in comparison to the rest of the game days. Really hope there’s a command in the algorithm for that next season.
Cardiff Devils
So last year it didn’t matter how I presented the numbers, it was the unicorn of attendances, full house every night so bars on the charts at the top of where they needed to be. This time around I’ve had to change the baseline of the charts but for the most ridiculous of reasons, apparently the Devils can’t decide what their capacity crowd is! It’s only off by 10 people but still, come on guys, make it make sense please!
I think capacity issue aside, it’s fair to say Cardiff have hit the jackpot for the second season running so as I said last year; move along, nothing further to see here.
Coventry Blaze
The Blaze have finally had an upsurge! I’ve been musing for years on how their attendances have been of concern but finally, there’s something to be optimistic about, a change is as good as a rest and the change in coach seems to have done the trick. It was something of a gamble putting in a rookie head coach when your organisation loses the stability of an experienced coach who steered the ship admirably for several years. I seem to recall having similar thoughts not so may seasons ago about the Storm when their attendances were stagnating but they also seemed to find a way out of it.
The challenge now for Kevin Moore, and the rest of the Blaze organisation, is to build on what they’ve started. They showed last year they can be a surprise package so have shown the fanbase that they have something to be hopeful about but now they have to keep the fans interested and actually challenge. As we’ve seen in previous years, and as I’ve written about previously, the lack of any tangible success will likely result in a steady decline in attendances.
Despite the differing baselines in the opposition charts from last season to the previous, it’s pretty clear that there are some spikes whereas the previous season was a shade more balanced. Another way to look at it is that the attendance against the Storm is pretty much the same so it’s clear that major contributors to Coventry’s upsurge are not particularly surprising. As previously referenced, Cardiff sat atop the league for a large part of the season, Panthers and Steelers were riding the wave of their respective team’s performances so all of these fanbases had a reason to travel in numbers.
Sunday remains the gameday of choice in the Skydome, I still have no idea if this is the Blaze organisation continuing with a tried and tested formula or if this is a case of them getting what they’re given but there was a little bit of parity with Saturdays, albeit not an even comparison as there were only three Saturday games, but I’m sure this isn’t the first time and I still have to wonder if this warrants further investigation but if the numbers continue to go up then I’d say don’t fix what isn’t broken.
Dundee Stars
This time last year we were looking at the massive strides Stars had made, this time around, it’s still good news but it’s more like baby steps than strides, I just hope it’s not the start of a plateau as I’m convinced there’s still room for improvement. Both the last two seasons have started slow and built up from there with a little bit of a drop off towards the end of the season, so perhaps that start of the season lull is the next thing Stars could focus their efforts on to keep the trend going in the right direction.
I’d speculate that the downward trend in the latter months of the season is probably a result of… well, results. I reckon Stars will be acutely aware of that already.
There’s been a drop in the numbers for the rivalry games from last season, they are still a stand out but both saw slightly less in attendance, however, most attendances against other opposition seem to have picked up the slack which is what seems to have continued their upward curve, but again, it’s only a slight upward curve.
Aside from a Tuesday festive fixture against Belfast and a random Wednesday against Cardiff, every game was a weekend and it seems to have gone down fairly well with the fanbase as they were pretty happy to attend Saturday or Sunday equally.
Fife Flyers
I doubt the figures from this past season are going to come as any surprise, they certainly weren’t to me. Sadly, despite the affection he garnered the previous season and the obvious media appeal, Tom Coolen’s gamble to not play any Brits in the Flyers roster, did not pay off and it cost him his job, and by all accounts, almost cost the Flyers their very existence.
Pretty much all figures are down except, curiously, games against Manchester which overtook the rivalry games against Dundee and particularly for the Scottish teams, when the rivalry games are down, that means trouble. After all the progress of its predecessor, last season was pretty much a step right back to the 22/23 season which, in my article from that year, I actually talked about how there’d been an improvement but it was still probably unsustainable so it was going to take some serious effort from Fife to pull of another u-turn.
Thankfully, there has been real change in Kirkcaldy and the new Flyers organisation appear to be making something of a statement with solid signings, something of a rebrand and making a real effort to reconnect with the fanbase, it remains to be seen as to whether or not they can win back the fans they’ve lost along the way. I’m not sure if there will either be a period of watching and waiting for some fans which will result in a slow uptake or if there will be genuine excitement, the Flyers fans have been here before, they could take some convincing.
Glasgow Clan
The only consistent thing about the Clan’s attendance figures, is that they’re inconsistent. The figures for games against Belfast, Cardiff and Sheffield are similar to the season before, but all the rest are in an absolute state. Immediately obvious, and perhaps of concern, are the drops in attendance for the rivalry games, a steep drop specifically for the games against the Flyers. It was either a distinct drop in away support or the Clan fans just didn’t have any interest in watching a game that felt like it was a foregone conclusion. It’s reasonable to conclude that the lack of numbers in the rivalry games have contributed to the overall average dropping last season because where some games have dropped off, others have increased to kind of balance it out.
The game days are consistent in the expected way, all around the low three thousand mark with the weekdays coming in a little shy, the Tuesday and Thursday can be attributed to festive fixtures so are also within the expected ball park.
It feels like it’s been a while, but the Clan appear to have some consistency, having left the controversy and mid-season coaching changes behind, they are entering a second season with Corey Neilson at the helm who will be able to build on last season, and from a Panthers fan, we know what he’s capable of when he’s given the time and resources to do it.
Guildford Flames
Aside from the season that Guildford were a hair’s breadth from winning the league, they haven’t really made sense to me in terms of their attendance. The good news is that they’re significantly up in general, but I don’t know why. They had a decent season but I’m not sure it warranted that kind of upsurge, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this is a bad thing, I’m just struggling to rationalise how it happened, whatever it was, it’s a good thing for the Flames and a good thing for the league so well played folks.
Similarly to Clan’s game days, it’s expected, I’m not sure any fanbase is particularly enamoured with mid-week game days but the Wednesdays are within reasonable distance of the weekend games, and while I’m looking at the weekend games, just look at that consistency over the two days
The only bad news is that they still have to play out of the Spectrum so there’s a very distinct ceiling here and sadly, while it can continue to get better, they’ll soon hit the limit.
Manchester Storm
The Manchester Storm organisation have done really well this past season. The season performance doesn’t warrant the attendances they got at all but here we are with an increase on the season before where they did have a decent performance so far play here, they’ve found a way to build on that despite the results not being comparable.
A couple of the opponent totals are worth discussing, for comparison the Dundee and Nottingham attendances are kind of comparable over the last two seasons, it’s the Clan and Flames ones that stick out to me. Two of the games against Flames were a result of placement, one was the last game of the season and one was a festive fixture which has made a definite difference, the Clan games in isolation aren’t much to shout about but it’s an unexpected increase overall, although curiously, two of the games against Clan were on a Friday, which as I’ll shortly move on to, isn’t a great game day for Storm.
So apparently Friday is a gameday on par with a weekday for the Storm crowd, Sundays are more popular and so the organisation would do well to keep an eye on that as both of the last two seasons have been a significant difference between Friday and Saturday. Panthers tried Fridays as an alternative to Sundays a few seasons ago after what, at the time, seemed to be significant noise opposing Sundays but that didn’t work either and Panthers have since made a move away from Fridays, Storm might be well advised to do the same..
Nottingham Panthers
This season in Nottingham there was a buzz with the appointment of Danny Stewart, the return of Sam Herr didn’t hurt either, and yes while I was initially sceptical, I was left eating my words as the season went on and the results of the hard work by the organisation and coaching staff, coupled with the results on the ice, have translated to results in attendance. It’s a steep jump after a few seasons of slight improvements or stagnation and has now raised the bar back towards pre-covid levels.
The opposition charts don’t provide many surprises, everything is up on last year but there is a distinct increase with the Blaze games, only a smidgin behind the ‘ultimate rivalry’ with Steelers, but there was a buzz all of its own in Coventry and there was a noticeable increase in their away support at the NIC, not enough to close that gap so there’s still an impressive showing from Panthers fans and perhaps confirmation that this is now a rivalry all of its own. Games against Cardiff are a curious one though, still up from the previous season but I didn’t see this being the opposition that drew the smallest crowd.
Saturday is still the preferred game day, you can look back on my articles year after year and I’ve probably said the same thing but Sundays have made more of a comeback but I’d say this is largely due to the organisation being savvy with their ticket deals, specifically marketing them towards families, 4pm is a face off time that still allows parents to have the kids in bed at a reasonable time for school, it’ll be interesting to see if the 5pm face offs have any effect on this.
Sheffield Steelers
So, Sheffield are on the up again, it’s more slight than the previous season but then, there wasn’t quite the domination that they were privy to in the season just gone, they even had a blemish on their record against Panthers, which, if I were going to be balanced and unbiased about, I wouldn’t have even mentioned it 😁.
But, back to the numbers, the Steelers were so consistent that it’s difficult to see their progress under the trend line, it is there, I promise, that I am not being biased about. And again, the good news is that this is another team with a plus in the overall attendance figure.
For the opposition figures, the Belfast and Cardiff figures are comparable from the previous season and although there was a reduction in the Clan and Flames figures, curiously, games against Dundee and Fife appear to have picked up the slack.
A further curiosity with the game days is that Sundays had the slightest of slight edges over Saturday. Not having paid as much attention to the ticketing strategy of the Steelers organisation, I can’t say if there were any similar ticket deals to what Panthers offered on Sundays but I’m definitely leaning towards that thought process, but, if you look at the previous season, it’s not that unexpected, the weekend days were almost on par.
It will probably come as no surprise that the Monday and Thursday games were festive fixtures against the Steelers rivals, those are still marquee games in the fixture list and I wouldn’t expect to see them going anywhere for the foreseeable future and that’s good news for the Steelers.
In Summary:
The overall story of the Elite League is still a positive one, of the four teams who had reductions, there are fair explanations for most of them. Fife are about to enter a whole new phase of their existence, Cardiff can easily fix their miniscule dip by deciding what their capacity attendance actually is and if the Clan fans can demonstrate some patience and give Corey Neilson the time he needs to build a team that will actually challenge, and trust me Clan fans we know it can happen, then they might see something of a turnaround too. Belfast may see an improvement now the AI algorithm has been fixed and a few more teams have double headers this coming season, I personally can’t stand home doubles but I suppose they’ve had to get used to it due to the nature of other team’s travelling arrangements, the double headers certainly make a difference to the away support and their willingness to travel.
So, 2025/26 season, let’s see what you’ve got. There are definitely some changes I’m looking forward to seeing unfold.
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