Turnstile Tracker: Minor League Hockey Attendance Update

The AHL, which is considered the Triple-A level, is seeing a 4.1% decline in average attendance through January 16 when compared to the same period last season. The AHL Hershey Bears are leading all of minor league hockey in average attendance with 8,177 fans per game, down 3.1% from their attendance through the same point in '06-07. Meanwhile, the AHL Rochester Americans last Sunday had their first sub-4,000 crowd since the '96-97 season. In the IHL, the Flint Generals are the only team seeing an increase in average attendance this season, a year after the league shed four teams and rebranded. The Generals had their first home sellout in three seasons when former NHLer Darren McCarty began his comeback attempt last Friday, giving the franchise 2,000 more fans than their home average to date. The following presents attendance figures for “AAA” and “AA” minor league hockey through January 16, with comparisons to the same period last season. Also view each league for team-by-team attendance figures Visit SportsBusinessDaily.com for team-by-team attendance figures ( THE DAILY ). NOTE : * = formerly the UHL.