Steinbach Pistons back on top of MJHL’s attendance race
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There was little doubt the Steinbach Pistons would be back on top of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s attendance chart during their first full season inside the Southeast Event Centre, but the team basically lapped the field this season.
With a reported average above 1,800 for the regular season, they were more than 1,000 fans per game ahead of their closest competition, Virden. The Oil Capitals averaged 745 per game. Virden drew the most fans in the league in the past two seasons, as Steinbach played home games out of the roughly 500-seat HyLife Centre in La Broquerie while the SEC was under construction.
Every home game this season the Pistons welcomed more than 1,000 fans into the building, with an additional re-scheduled “away” game against the Blues on a Monday afternoon packed with 2,000 students.
The team reported a total of more than 68,000 fans walked through the door across the entire season, a new all-time high for the franchise.
With 30 games above 1,000, Steinbach nearly tripled the rest of the league’s combined total attendance over 1,000 for individual games.
Only Virden could manage to draw more than 500 fans to each one of their home games this season, Dauphin and Portage had just a single game under 500, with Niverville also consistently above the 500 mark.
The league’s two Winnipeg franchises couldn’t draw more than 500 for a single game the year, with the Winnipeg Blues season-high of 387 coming during a late-season contest hosted in Stonewall.
Winkler, which was dealing with arena renovations of their own this season, drew more than 1,000 fans for both of their home games at their newly renovated Centennial Arena to end the season.
Steinbach are near the top of all junior A hockey across Canada, with their per game attendance even more than than two Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League teams.
NOTES
-As reported in game recaps on the MJHL’s website
-Re-scheduled Winnipeg Blues game hosted in Steinbach excluded from data
-Nine games across the season did not have reported attendance
