Who’s curious to see where the Whale rank in the AHL’s overall attendance standings following a few months of re-branded hockey and the outdoor festival? Probably only me.
When we last checked in with the numbers, the Whale (or Wolfpack) were averaging just under 3,600 fans a game and ranked 22nd in the standings. The team now has an average of 5,600 fans a game and are sitting in 11th position, or an increase of 2,011 fans on average. Unfortunately I didn’t document the total attendance number before, but Connecticut has pulled in 162,391 in total attendance since the start of the season.
The team still trails Charlotte in the ranking by two spots and by about 300 fans a game and 20,400 total. It should be noted that Charlotte’s metro population is bigger than Hartford’s by roughly 600,000. If one compares percent attendance (the rough percentage of each city’s population to walk through the gates) Charlotte is attracting roughly 10.4%, while Hartford pulls in roughly 13.6% of there’s. Neither of these account for season ticket holders, repeat visitors, or those who travel from outside the metropolitan statistical area. In other words, the numbers are probably meaningless and you shouldn’t cite them anywhere.
In the end the re-branding has brought an increased numbers of fans through the gates, but the more important issue is how long Hartford can keep the increased attendance going.