The Edmonton Oilers and all but a few teams have now reached/surpassed the halfway point of their respective schedules for the 2024-25 NHL regular season. As such The Athletic (subscription required) decided to produce an NHL midseason attendance analysis.
Before reviewing the results by James Mirtle and Hailey Salvian, for some context consider what we wrote last Sunday, about the 2023-24 total attendance being the highest ever in league history. At nearly 22.9 million fans, this represented a 1.9 percent increase from the previous season.
With this in mind, the Winnipeg Jets have seen the biggest increase in year-over-year average attendance at 11.7 percent, and it's not even close. (The Detroit Red Wings are second, with a 3.0 percent increase.) However, as great as this is and reflective of the Jets' success on the ice, it does come with the caveat that they only averaged 12,566 fans last season, so any time of decent improvement -- in this case to 14,041 -- was always going to reflect favourably in the percentage increase.
What about those Oilers?
Of course most readers of this site, will be more interested in the Oilers angle, and fans will be happy to know their team is viewed positively. Up to this point of the season they are ranked seventh-best in the NHL, with a year-over-year average attendance increase of 1.2 percent, from 18,134 to 18,347.
Of course it's tough to see much of an increase generally speaking, when you're already regularly playing before capacity crowds. In this respect, The Athletic also place the Oilers in Tier 1 as a guaranteed sellout, which the people of Edmonton should be extremely proud of.
There are 16 NHL teams included in Tier 1 altogether, with an interesting contrast of including five of the Original Six franchises -- the Chicago Blackhawks are the odd team out -- as well as both of the newest ones in Vegas and Seattle. From a Canadian perspective, Edmonton is joined by Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
The Athletic's Tier 2 includes seven teams with a 92 percent or higher capacity, including the aforementioned Jets and Blackhawks. Tier 3 has nine teams, including the other two Canadian teams in Ottawa and Calgary. (The odd team out is Utah, who of course only began playing this season after moving from Arizona.)
NHL well-placed as a whole
For the NHL as a whole things are looking up, with Mirtle and Salvian noting that overall attendance is almost level compared to last season, with a drop of just 30 fans per game. Further, the average team is playing to 96 percent capacity, which is one of the higher marks in NHL history.
Going back to the Oilers specifically, it is no surprise to see them team among the leaders in attendance, with them historically being extremely well supported. Although we realise there will be critics out there who contend it's easy to draw in the fans, when you have had the benefit of Wayne Gretzky previously, and now Connor McDavid playing in Edmonton.
The fans are always there for their team
However, we would counter by referring to the decade of despair between 2006-07 and 2015-16, with a rookie McDavid only playing in the final season of this stretch. The Oilers sold out all 10 seasons despite no playoff appearances during this period, providing the ideal response to anyone even attempting to accuse the fans of being band-wagon jumpers.
Overall, times have been, are, and should continue to be good in Edmonton, with a talented team on the ice supported by one of the most loyal and passionate fan bases in all of North American professional sports, never mind just the NHL. Now, let's see if the Oilers can reward their supporters with a first Stanley Cup since 1990.