A chaotic summer for Tina means that the annual attendance article is something of a late submission but aims to be an interesting read nonetheless!
And so it goes with the annual delve into the EIHL attendances of the completed 2025/26 season and, generally speaking, it’s been a positive story. As you can see on the table below, only one team with a minus on their previous season and already that team has seen a change in ownership and in the coaching staff. They say a change is as good as a rest so personally, I’m predicting a recovery this time next year for Dundee Stars, unless they have an absolute howler and I really hope I’m not putting on some kind of kiss of death here!
Both the table and graph immediately below support what the Elite League have already stated, a record attendance for the league as a whole. I’m not saying they were waiting for me to confirm it mind, they’re the ones who hold all of the data that I’ve used to compile all of this but I find that the visuals help in supplying context.
I’m always looking for things to tinker with, I’d be tempted to call them improvements but I’ll let you be the judge of that and this time around I’ve made a subtle addition to one of the charts for each team, a percentage indicator for the capacity achieved by each team for each three game ‘series’ against their opponents. I almost added it as a new chart but decided against it when I realised it would fit in an existing one, this article can get long enough without more graphics to add into it!
Belfast Giants
It’s pretty clear that Belfast fans do not think winning all the time is getting boring. Just the opposite in fact and as the league challenge grew in momentum, so did the people heading in through the door. Despite the curious ‘second year in a row’ dip in November, the recovery into December and beyond was swift and definitely eclipsed the rise from the previous season. Now, one thing I will say is that there is clearly still some reliance on getting the school block bookings in, perhaps not as much as previous seasons but there was still a fair presence of obvious pockets of primary school age children when I was over for the double header against Panthers and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, if this fits with your business model and perhaps you’re getting a few new fans from it when the kids go home and tell the parents how much they enjoyed it then it’s an obvious win. Putting them in close proximity to the away fans to help with drowning them out is another easy benefit, if not particularly popular with said away fans…
From memory, and given that I have a limited attention span for things affecting teams I don’t support, I seem to recall that at least one Belfast home game was affected by travel issues and likely had to be rescheduled to a mid-week from a weekend which usually has a knock-on effect on the attendance but even with that, the Giants are still up on the previous season so thankfully, not too much damage done. The restoration of several double headers which were missing the previous season thanks to the wonders of AI, would also have contributed more favourably in the plus columns.
The Belfast Giants have done fairly well out the fixture schedule this time around, take away the Tuesday fixture, which was a festive one, and every other day is still up on previous season. Sundays have been a traditional issue for the Giants in the past but there isn’t the gulf between them and Saturdays this last season that has existed previously which, as I’ve been doing this a while, is something of a surprise.
One thing you can see from the percentages on the total attendances, given that none of them touch over to the 90%, there’s still some room for expansion, perhaps they’ll see a few of them tick over if they continue to see the success they’ve had in the last few seasons, there’s a lot to be said for momentum.
Cardiff Devils
So, here’s a short story about how the Cardiff Devils need a bigger rink. Don’t be fooled by the 24/25 season charts, I whinged about their capacity crowd wavering by a whole ten people at various points this time last year and I’m not arrogant enough to think they’ve addressed that because of me but they have indeed addressed it!
They clearly have ambitions to continue challenging the arena teams as demonstrated by their justification to hike their ticket prices up in dramatic fashion but that’s only going to take them so far. In my head I likened it to buying a new build house (which let’s face it, most of them have the floor space of a rabbit hutch) because it’s what you needed in that moment but then realising there’s no sensible or cheap way to convert your loft for the kids you didn’t plan for or weren’t sure you were going to have. They think like an arena team and they should be in one, but let’s be realistic, they’re not and it’s going to become more of an issue in the coming years.
Coventry Blaze
The Kevin Moore factor continues to act as a positive force for the Blaze, month-on-month the attendances were up, most of the series attendances against each opposition were also up, games against Sheffield being a notable, and curious exception, and for the second year in a row a comparable average between Saturday and Sunday games.
The Blaze are traditionally a Sunday gameday kind of team and I seem to recall a few years ago they did try a season of Saturdays instead but there must not have been enough in it to justify making it the preferred gameday but for two years in a row now, that weekend average has been on par, in the 24/25 season there were only three Saturday games which is nowhere near a reliable sample but this time around it’s more than half the amount of Sunday games and you have to wonder how much is due to shifting attitudes and how much is related to current team performance.
There’s clearly some work to be done on the attendances for the Scottish teams, Guildford and Manchester as the other four are doing the heavy lifting at the moment. Some of this will be down to away support, the Scottish teams certainly won’t be as keen to travel, particularly if the preferred game day stays as Sunday. As a comparison, I can speak with confidence on how well Panthers fans are travelling in the Danny Stewart era and it reflects well in the ticket sales of one of our close rivals.
Dundee Stars
As alluded to already, Dundee are the only team with a minus to report so it’s no surprise that they have been changes made within the organisation, as much as I’m going to miss the banter from Marc Lefebvre, it was probably the right decision for him to move on but I really hope they’re going to be able to make a better start of their new era than their closest neighbours did last season.
You might be fooled into thinking that the rivalry games are still healthy at first glance, but there was a drop in the attendance for the Clan games and I can understand it, you want to watch a competitive game, not one that feels like a foregone conclusion which, certainly towards the end of the season, Dundee only had pride to play for and it was certainly in the air. One oddity was the games against Sheffield, I have a dim and distant recollection that they didn’t have any Scottish trips in the 24/25 season, if I’m correct, it would appear they wanted to make up for it this time around!
The weekend day attendances are usually comparable for Dundee and have been skewed slightly this year by a healthy Sheffield double header attendance, a festive fixture against Fife and an incredibly well attended final fixture, again, against Fife. These aside, my opinion is that Stars still have some wiggle room on their preferred gameday.
Fife Flyers
Well, I can’t say the Fife Flyers being the most controversial team this last season was on the bingo card but here we are. Over the course of the season, and also in the current off-season, there have been several changes in personnel, several of these as a result of the aforementioned controversy and it’s led to a distinct level of instability but also, curiously, some excitement around the fan base which has translated to something of a recovery on the past couple of seasons attendances. So, I suppose silver linings come in all shapes and sizes.
The overall attendance has been bolstered by a healthy-looking December and January, if we focus on December for just a moment, there was a sudden surge in numbers which directly coincided with the signing of Milan Lucic, so whatever you think about him, he was clearly good for business. January contained a standout game for attendance against Sheffield who were in the midst of a seemingly well attended triple header, coupled with a rivalry game against Dundee which almost broke the 2000 mark. Either side of that was much of a muchness but it gives the new administration something of a baseline.
The Wednesday games can almost be glossed over as one of them was the Hogmanay game, also a rivalry game, against Dundee and it definitely did the heavy lifting at the side of a random Wednesday against Panthers which will not have brought much of an away support. Looking at the weekend fixtures, the Flyers faithful have again exhibited a fairly significant preference for Saturday games, it might not look so significant if you’re just looking at the bars on the chart, but it’s around 150 people per game, which is not nothing. At the time of writing, fixtures are now out so hopefully the Flyers organisation have had this information for themselves and have been able to use it to their advantage.
Despite all of the furore and fuss, this was a season that brought the people in better than its predecessor and even eclipsed the initial Tom Coolen era, but after a couple of torrid seasons, you’d have to hope third time’s the charm and that the Fife Flyers can be a talking point for reasons that don’t have half the fanbase holding their head in their hands.
Glasgow Clan
I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before on previous articles but Clan’s attendance really confuses me, despite making playoffs, by way of not having as disastrous a season as Dundee and Fife, the league season was pretty bang average and while they had a brief flirtation with fourth in the table they spent most of their time in the bottom half. Despite that, after a slow start, their attendance figures had some serious consistency to them and led to an 88% overall capacity, which isn’t terrible for a team who sacked their coach mid-season.
Clan don’t seem to rely on the rivalry games nearly as much as Dundee and Fife, they’re simply in the mix along with most other games, consistency seems to be a theme aside from the games against Manchester and Nottingham, both teams having a mid-week game which was significantly less well attended than their weekend counterparts, but both of them still being at, or above 80% capacity.
There must have been some events on at the shopping centre this last season because there were a lot of Friday games for Clan but it would also appear that Fridays are not quite as popular as weekend games, it’s not a massive drop between them, but it’s potentially the difference between Clan tipping over into the ninety percent club and weekdays, not unlike pretty much every other team in the league, are a definite fly in the ointment. However, Clan are still up on the attendance of previous seasons and they seem to have as bit of a buzz around the fanbase so it’ll be interesting to see if they can continue to beat a path towards tipping over that 90% mark.
Guildford Flames
Honestly, Guildford continue to baffle me, absolutely bang average league performance, nowhere near the Challenge Cup and comfortably into Play Off quarter finals by virtue of not being Dundee or Fife, but attendance is up again. I mean, it’s not a bad thing, perhaps hockey in Guildford is gaining some traction in general but I just can’t relate anything specific to what’s bringing an increased presence to the Spectrum.
There is absolutely no correlation on opposition, perhaps the Cardiff games make some sense in terms of the easy-ish access via the M4 but that theory is kind of blown out of the water by the best attended games being against Manchester. That’s not a short trip.
The Tuesday fixture was a festive one so the spike there can be easily explained but for the Wednesdays it’s not quite as clear cut, of the four fixtures played on a Wednesday, one of them was the Flames’ home opener against Panthers and was the worst attended of the season, the other three were comparable to some of the weekend games so that opening fixture did some noticeable damage. Again though, the Flames are up on the previous seasons attendances and if they continue like this then they’re going to get towards needing to make a serious decision on what to do about the place they currently call home. Can they feasibly continue to operate out of the Spectrum if they continue to grow?
Manchester Storm
If the Manchester Storm weren’t moving to a new home, I’d be on a similar theme with them as above with Guildford, great numbers but are they going to be stunted by their limited capacity?
Purely based on the numbers, I think the move is absolutely justified, full sell outs against the arena teams and 90% plus capacities against everyone except Fife, which probably isn’t much of a surprise. On a personal level, I’m going to be glad to see the back of the ‘big garden shed’ with its terrible sightlines and unfeasibly slow bar! It’s unlikely to see any improvement or investment and the move shows ambition from the Storm organisation.
A quick check back on the specifics of the per-team crowds also shows that in addition to the full sell outs against the arena teams, there was at least one sell out against every other team, again, except Fife. That’s impressive, and although it’ll probably take a few seasons before they’re seeing sellouts at their new home, it’s a solid base from which to begin operating in a bigger capacity venue.
It’s always easy to spot a mid-week festive rivalry game and if we take that one out of the equation you can see the real picture in terms of preferred game days, Friday is skewed slightly by two disappointingly attended Fife games but Friday, Saturday and Sunday all saw sell out games, particularly towards the end of the season where ten of the last eleven games were as such. It would appear that Saturday has emerged as a preference but it’ll be interesting to see what happens now the club are at the behest of an arena that needs to fit in other events instead of a rink which may have been inclined to give them preference.
Exciting times ahead for the Manchester Storm and a good way to sign off from their rink era. Welcome to the club guys!
Nottingham Panthers
One of four teams to break the ninety percent mark overall and also boasting over ninety percent against each opposition. It was a noticeable surge the previous season following Danny Stewart being appointed and it’s been a more than steady increase once again because the coach, and the people surrounding him, continue to make me eat my words, and I couldn’t be happier!
Given how sellouts operate, in that there’s a certain level at which you can call it a sellout without having sold every single seat, I’m still not sure of the actual capacity of the Motorpoint arena without counting every single seat by hand but I’m equally as sure that my best guess is a decent reflection as I am that the actual figure against the Steelers should probably be 100%. It’s always been the traditional fixture where people are getting on the forums, socials and such asking if anyone has tickets to sell because they left it too late, had last minute availability etc, etc.
Perhaps the only curiosities on the per-team attendances are a poorly attended Friday against Belfast which brought the average down somewhat and the rise of what I’m steering away from calling a rivalry against Guildford. Personally, I suspect these are being better attended by Flames fans as they feel like there’s a more likely chance that they’ll leave with the two points these days. I feel like they’ve emerged as Panthers’ bogey team if you will, despite the fact that we ultimately lost our Play Off quarter final to Storm, at the time, I was glad we didn’t get Guildford in the first place as that felt like a bigger hill to climb.
Fridays weren’t terribly favoured this last season in Nottingham, as already mentioned, there was a poorly attended game early on against the Giants which brought the average down and only two other games to rescue it, which may or may not explain Panthers choice to only schedule three Friday games this coming season too. I personally prefer Fridays to Sundays but Panthers continue to be savvy with the family ticket deals and such so I have to begrudgingly accept that it’s not all about me as the gap between the Saturday and Sunday averages remains largely the same.
Given the flying start that Panthers have had with pre-season, it would appear that, assuming the momentum continues with results, the attendances will remain on an upward curve. I mean, as a Panthers fan, I absolutely hope so!
Sheffield Steelers
So last season didn’t see Sheffield being a team that joined the 90% club but it was another small increase which can only be taken as a positive. Although season 23/24 saw a healthy double figure percentage increase, largely due to their league win, since then they’ve been able to continue with small gains and it might be pointing towards a bit of a plateau for the coming years but I suspect that will be dictated by the performance of the team and their ability to continue challenging for trophies. Up until now they’ve been the team with the biggest capacity venue and as such something of a measuring stick as to the saturation point of potential EIHL attendances, not so anymore given that the Storm have taken up residence in a new home, but it’s still going to require a continued effort from the Steelers organisation to keep them marching towards that 90% mark.
In terms of the numbers against each opposition, the games against Panthers and Storm are doing a fair bit of the heavy lifting, there was a fair surge with Blaze games and the Fife/Glasgow numbers have had something of a switcheroo. The remainder are quite comparative to the previous season and perhaps something for the Steelers to consider when they’re thinking about their marketing or ticket deals.
I could probably have identified that the single Tuesday and Friday games were festive rivalry fixtures without checking, but I did, and they are so discounting them, it’s very much an expected story with the days of the week although the Steelers organisation clearly did something right with their Sunday games for the average to actually tip ahead of the Saturdays. Yes, I know there were less of them but selling Sundays as an arena team does seem to be a slog traditionally.
In Summary:
An overall positive story for all concerned for the second year running and I personally think this speaks to the overall popularity of the league and perhaps Ice Hockey in general on our little islands, even the Flyers with their controversy laden season managed to come out of it with a plus figure, perhaps more due to the sensationalism and high-profile signings but regardless, managing to rescue it was some work on their part, hopefully some lessons learned will mean that they can increase their footfall for the right reasons.
I’m anticipating something of a turnaround for Dundee with new ownership, crucially with experience of running a team in the EIHL already, and a new coaching team so hopefully this time next year there will be a full house of increases to talk about.
Obviously, there will be a new baseline to set for the Manchester Storm with them settling in to the AO, the pre-season numbers setting them up nicely but it’ll be interesting to see if they can at least maintain this once the season gets underway. Yes, they were selling out for the last couple of months this last season but it’s a long way from the 2350 of Altrincham ice rink to keeping up with the 11,000-odd they achieved against the Steelers while the buzz was still fresh. Selfishly, the Storm are causing me some spreadsheet related trauma, I’ve got some thinking to do about how I report the potential capacity over this coming season, I seem to recall some conversation around the intention being to only open the lower half of the arena and see how they go but if they continue with the impressive numbers they’ve seen so far then I might have to have a variable capacity for them. Nice problem for them to have though.
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