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AHL Attendance Up Nearly 5%; Hershey Tops League Gate For Sixth Straight Season
The AHL, considered the triple-A level of North American hockey, saw its teams average 5,638 fans per game during the '11-12 regular season, up nearly 5% from last season. The Hershey Bears led all teams at the gate for the sixth straight season. The club saw attendance rise slightly this season, marking the seventh straight season of gains at Giant Center. Eleven clubs saw double-digit percentage gains at the gate, led by the Rochester Americans, who saw a 44.5% jump. The Milwaukee Admirals saw attendance rise 7.4% at Bradley Center for their best average since the '01-02 season. The Bridgeport Sound Tigers had the club's second-best attendance mark since it was founded in '01, with average gate up 17.7%. Only seven of the 30 clubs saw attendance decline this season. The Connecticut Whale saw the sharpest drop, down 19.7% at XL Center in Hartford. After moving from Winnipeg following last season, the St. John's IceCaps ranked ninth in league attendance during the team's first season in Newfoundland. Listed below is team-by-team attendance for the '11-12 AHL regular season, with comparisons to last year (THE DAILY).
'11-12 AHL REGULAR-SEASON ATTENDANCETEAM GMSTOTALAVG.PREV.% +/-GMS ('10-11)Hershey Bears 38375,1469,8729,8000.7%40Chicago Wolves 38300,5507,9097,4536.1%40Lake Erie Monsters 38298,0967,8456,56819.4%40Providence Bruins 38297,0377,8177,3246.7%40Houston Aeros 38278,2997,3246,32615.8%40Grand Rapids Griffins 38275,6327,2537,2410.2%40San Antonio Rampage 38271,0837,1346,41111.3%40Charlotte Checkers 38257,1896,7686,3127.2%40St. John's IceCaps* 38239,2996,297n/an/an/aMilwaukee Admirals 38236,5796,2265,7967.4%40W-B/Scranton Penguins 38229,0536,0286,360-5.2%40Manchester Monarchs 38216,6225,7015,4614.4%40Rochester Americans 38212,6055,5953,87244.5%40Toronto Marlies 38208,2235,4804,69416.7%40Texas Stars 38207,8555,4705,3402.4%40Peoria Rivermen 38205,7265,4145,1964.2%40Syracuse Crunch 38199,3545,2465,1541.8%40Portland Pirates 38195,9975,1584,65510.8%40Norfolk Admirals 38194,5215,1194,49014.0%40Bridgeport Sound Tigers 38185,2364,8754,14017.7%40Hamilton Bulldogs 38184,2324,8484,25713.9%40Adirondack Phantoms 38175,9824,6313,57529.5%40Connecticut Whale 38173,7884,5735,695-19.7%40Worcester Sharks 38167,2924,4024,0688.2%40Rockford IceHogs 38161,2864,2444,360-2.7%40Oklahoma City Barons 38140,0083,6844,155-11.3%40Springfield Falcons 38139,0503,6593,717-1.6%40Binghamton Senators 38135,9503,5783,652-2.0%40Abbotsford Heat 38134,7153,5453,807-6.9%40Albany Devils 38130,5293,4353,11410.3%40AHL TOTALS 1,1406,426,9345,6385,3804.8%1,200NOTES: * = Franchise relocated to St. John's, Newfoundland, following last season after the move of the Thrashers to Winnipeg. The Manitoba Moose last season averaged 8,404 fans per game, which is factored into the league's '10-11 average.
