Not much change in Sea Dogs attendance

Officially, the numbers are down. Unofficially, the numbers are up. No matter which way you look at it, the numbers are pretty much unchanged from this time a year ago.

With RDS noting today that the London Knights overtook the Quebec Remparts as the Canadian Hockey League's most attended team in 2019-20, it feels like a good time to take a look at the Saint John Sea Dogs' attendance figures from this past season.

Like most 2019-20 stats, there will be an asterisk attached since the regular season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Sea Dogs had two home games remaining - two home games that typically feature the largest crowds of the season.

The Sea Dogs' attendance was officially down almost 100 fans per game compared to the 2018-19 season. Unofficially, if we assume Saint John's final two games would have attracted 5,000 fans per game on average, that would give the Dogs a season average of 3,442, which is up slightly from last season's mark of 3,427. Either way, Saint John's attendance figures saw little change over the past couple seasons.

Here's a breakdown of Saint John's attendance numbers through the years.

Season	Total	Average
2005-06	156,694	4,477 (4th)
2006-07	134,354	3,839 (6th)
2007-08	139,214	3,978 (5th)
2008-09	133,613	3,930 (5th)
2009-10	140,779	4,141 (4th)
2010-11	152,237	4,478 (4th)
2011-12	155,060	4,561 (3rd)
2012-13	135,732	3,992 (4th)
2013-14	116,380	3,423 (5th)
2014-15	121,782	3,582 (5th)
2015-16	123,399	3,629 (4th)
2016-17	142,829	4,201 (3rd)
2017-18	144,723	4,257 (4th)
2018-19	116,511	3,427 (5th)
2019-20	107,042	3,345 (6th)

Due to the cancelled pair of games, this season's average of 3,345 will officially be the lowest in team history. The good news is that the Sea Dogs should start to see an upward trend - hopefully a fairly large one - in attendance given the projection for the on-ice product. But like basically everything else in life, COVID-19 will create some uncertainty around junior hockey attendance.

This past season was also just the second time in team history that the Sea Dogs finished sixth in league average attendance, falling behind Quebec (8,477), Halifax (7,168), Moncton (5,201), Rimouski (3,498) and Chicoutimi (3,363).

The Baie-Comeau Drakkar had the worst average in the QMJHL this season (1,582). Only the WHL's Winnipeg Ice, who are playing at the University of Manitoba's tiny arena until a new facility is built, had a lower average in the CHL (1,503).