North Dakota knows how to pack in the fans, while Air Force was the lone college hockey team in the country this season that averaged more fans than its venue could hold. Maine finished well both for the total number of people and the average attendance, filling 79 percent of its seats for the season, according to a study conducted by The Gazette.
The Black Bears averaged 4,437 fans at the Alfond Arena, with a total of 79,866 for the season. That puts it right behind New Hampshire and Massachusetts-Lowell.
Total attendance
1. North Dakota (249,501)
2. Wisconsin (235,458)
3. Minnesota (219,401)
4. Nebraska-Omaha (141,544)
5. Colorado College (135,078)
6. Minnesota-Duluth (126,552)
7. Michigan (125,932)
8. Denver (117,908)
9. St. Cloud State (98,779)
10. Boston College (98,737)
11. Michigan State (96,546)
12. Notre Dame (96,443)
13. Boston University (89,338)
14. Massachusetts-Lowell (88,277)
15. New Hampshire (84,750)
16. Maine (79,866)
17. Massachusetts (73,794)
18. Western Michigan (68,878)
19. Vermont (64,319)
20. Cornell (63,571)
21. Bemidji State (63,384)
22. Miami (60,421)
23. Northern Michigan (59,272)
24. Minnesota State-Mankato (58,110)
25. Ohio State (56,990)
26. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (54,967)
27. Yale (53,875)
28. Alaska-Anchorage (52,583)
29. Alaska (52,322)
30. Northeastern (51,564)
31. Quinnipiac (50,481)
32. Michigan Tech (49,865)
33. Dartmouth (49,786)
34. Clarkson (44,079)
35. Air Force (42,206)
36. Merrimack (41,815)
37. Ferris State (40,894)
38. Lake Superior State (38,780)
39. Bowling Green (37,401)
40. Rochester Institute of Technology (36,028)
41. Providence (35,619)
42. Harvard (33,367)
43. Union (32,137)
44. Army (29,579)
45. St. Lawrence (26,585)
46. Colgate (24,583)
47. Princeton (22,295)
48. Holy Cross (18,519)
49. Niagara (16,579)
50. Brown (16,492)
51. Alabama-Huntsville (15,266)
52. Mercyhurst (15,181)
53. Robert Morris (14,397)
54. Connecticut (13,501)
55. Canisius (10,018)
56. Bentley (9,479)
57. Sacred Heart (5,431)
58. American International (3,196)
Average attendance
1. Wisconsin (11,773)
2. North Dakota (11,341)
3. Minnesota (9,539)
4. Nebraska-Omaha (7,864)
5. Colorado College (6,754)
6. Minnesota-Duluth (6,328)
7. Boston College (6,171)
8. Michigan (5,997)
9. Michigan State (5,364)
10. Denver (5,359)
11. New Hampshire (5,297)
12. Boston University (4,963)
13. St. Cloud State (4,939)
14. Massachusetts-Lowell (4,904)
15. Massachusetts (4,612)
16. Notre Dame (4,593)
17. Maine (4,437)
18. Cornell (4,238)
19. Ohio State (3,799)
20. Vermont (3,573)
21. Bemidji State (3,521)
22. Western Michigan (3,444)
23. Northeastern (3,438)
24. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (3,435)
25. Minnesota State-Mankato (3,228)
26. Yale (3,169)
27. Dartmouth (3,112)
28. Alaska-Anchorage (3,093)
29. Alaska (3,078)
30. Miami (3,021)
31. Northern Michigan (2,964)
32. Michigan Tech (2,933)
33. Quinnipiac (2,524)
34. Air Force (2,483)
35. Merrimack (2,460)
36. Clarkson (2,449)
37. Lake Superior State (2,154)
38. Harvard (2,085)
39. Bowling Green (2,078)
40. Union (2,009)
41. Army (1,972)
42. Rochester Institute of Technology (1,896)
43. Providence (1,875)
44. Ferris State (1,859)
45. Princeton (1,858)
46. Alabama-Huntsville (1,527)
47. St. Lawrence (1,399)
48. Brown (1,374)
49. Colgate (1,294)
50. Holy Cross (1,089)
51. Niagara (975)
52. Mercyhurst (949)
53. Robert Morris (758)
54. Connecticut (750)
55. Canisius (626)
56. Bentley (527)
57. Sacred Heart (388)
58. American International (228)
Percentage of capacity
1. Air Force (101 percent)
T2. Cornell (99 percent)
T2. Merrimack (99 percent)
4. North Dakota (97 percent)
5. Minnesota-Duluth (96 percent)
6. Minnesota (95 percent)
7. Western Michigan (94 percent)
T8. Colorado College (92 percent)
T8. St. Cloud State (92 percent)
10. Yale (91 percent)
T11. Michigan (90 percent)
T11. Rochester Institute of Technology (90 percent)
T11. Union (90 percent)
T14. Dartmouth (89 percent)
T14. Denver (89 percent)
T14. Princeton (89 percent)
T14. Vermont (89 percent)
18. Notre Dame (84 percent)
T19. Miami (83 percent)
T19. Michigan State (83 percent)
21. Clarkson (82 percent)
T22. Bemidji State (81 percent)
T22. New Hampshire (81 percent)
T24. Boston University (79 percent)
T24. Maine (79 percent)
26. Boston College (78 percent)
27. Wisconsin (77 percent)
28. Northern Michigan (76 percent)
T29. Ferris State (75 percent)
T29. Massachusetts-Lowell (75 percent)
T29. Quinnipiac (75 percent)
T32. Army (74 percent)
T32. Northeastern (74 percent)
34. Harvard (73 percent)
35. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (72 percent)
36. Michigan Tech (71 percent)
37. Holy Cross (68 percent)
38. Alaska (67 percent)
39. Minnesota State-Mankato (65 percent)
T40. Mercyhurst (63 percent)
T40. Robert Morris (63 percent)
42. Providence (62 percent)
43. Massachusetts (55 percent)
44. Lake Superior State (54 percent)
45. Colgate (50 percent)
46. Nebraska-Omaha (49 percent)
47. Alaska-Anchorage (48 percent)
48. Niagara (46 percent)
49. Brown (45 percent)
50. St. Lawrence (44 percent)
T51. Bentley (42 percent)
T51. Bowling Green (42 percent)
53. Sacred Heart (39 percent)
54. Connecticut (38 percent)
55. Canisius (35 percent)
56. Alabama-Huntsville (23 percent)
57. Ohio State (22 percent)
58. American International (10 percent)
© 2012 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
Distributed by MCT Information Services
Have you evewr been to North Dakota?
For Umaine hockey.. this is nothing to be proud of.
That’s embarrassing for a Arena that was voted best atmosphere. If I were McHomey I wouldn’t have even brought this to light. Kudos for doing so though….
Mahoney changed his name to Brian Gomez?
who’s the editor?
The average attendance per game is sad…remember during the late 80s and 90s and it was always sold out games!!!! There was a waiting list for season hockey tickets. Now you can buy a ticket to any game you like. But hey I guess UMaine is happy with 79% of the tickets sold and that is after decreasing the amount of seats.
I graduated from UMaine with a Bachelors in Business Admin – Finance & Management and what the professors of the Business School taught me don’t apply to the hockey programs that’s for sure. An economics person would be looking at the 79% figure and comparing it to last years figure. I wonder what last years figure was????
A lot of those schools played in outdoor venues where the capacity was vastly increased. Michigan played one game in front of 100,000+ fans.
Maine is so small population-wise that the list is a bit of a joke in any case. Some high-school football matchups in Texas get 40,000+ people in the seats…and most 5A Texas high school teams have home stadiums that seat 10,000. Kind of puts it in perspective.
http://txprepsfootball.com/archives/state-records
(Shawn Walsh, we still miss you.)
Bart,keep in mind we played in a game that had 42K fans… We have a smaller stadium than the likes of those in the WCHA. What IS embarrassing is that we were out attended by UML. We are barely in the top half of % capacity, which is the real apples/apples comparison. I mean good grief, Vermont had a higher % of capacity, and they were terrible!
The Fenway game had 38K in TICKETS SOLD. There were not 38K fans in the ballpark, maybe 30K at most but during the UM-UNH game there was around 15-20K.
The passion for Maine Hockey is dying. 4400 fans is the norm, even with 300 less seats. Hey, at least football has been averaging about 6K the past two years (and expected to go up). Football is where so much money can be made even though there are 5 home games (more like campus events).
I grew up in Minnesota and traveled all over the upper midwest for hockey as a kid. Hockey is by far the number 1 sport in ND and MN, every high school has a team and an arena, no matter how small. If they are to small you combine with other small schools to have an arena. Maine has a decent high school program but it has a lot of growing to do, which is hard because it is the most expensive high school sport. It would be nice if some of the local smaller towns would have outdoor rinks, it would spark interest.
Watching the HS tournaments is a blast. Schools from Grand Rapids to Edina all on a level playing rink. And the Girls tournament showcases some of the best talent at the HS level I have ever witnessed.
It use to be Sell Outs and Waiting List…no more…and don’t blame it on the Economy either…Die-Hards are still there to some degree,but the Product and the Man Behind the Bench(TW)has been the Fork in the Program and Performance on the Ice….sad when your happy @ 79%…which leads to being JUST Happy to Host a QF and a once in 3-4 years trip to Hockey East in Boston and the always elusive NCAA’s…like BC’s Jerry York harps on this time of year,you play for Trophy’s….but that is just in Maine’s rear view mirror these days.
UM Football attendance is up and expected to rise. See what happens when you exceed expectations?
up? what planet r u from? the attendance last season was horrific
Compared to before 2009, it was well above average.