Ice hockey: SC league audience numbers on the decline – worrying figures for HIFK and Ilves

Ice hockey The audience averages of the teams playing in the SM league have decreased since last year.

The audience averages for the home games of even nine SM league teams have decreased in the current season compared to the readings in the early autumn of the previous year.

Tampere Tappara (-1,048), Helsinki IFK (-694), Lahti Pelicans (-662), Mikkeli Jukurit (-405) and Tampere Ilves (-321) have experienced the biggest bump in audience averages.

Pori Ässät (-201), Jyväskylä JYP (-104), Hämeenlinna Pallokerho (-76) and Vaasan Sport (-30) have also experienced a small bump in their audience averages.

In parentheses is the change in audience average compared to the beginning of the 2023–2024 season.

The audience average has in turn increased for six teams: Kärpi of Oulu (+542), SaiPa of Lappeenranta (+512), KooKoo of Kouvola (+464), KalPa of Kuopio (+353), Palloseura of Turku (+337) and Luko of Rauma (+265).

Kiekko-Espoo, which joined the SM league as a new team for this season, has kept the audience average of its home matches at around 4,569 spectators.

Readings based on this, the SM-Liiga teams managed to achieve exceptionally high audience averages last season.

This season’s audience numbers show how some of the teams are heading towards the numbers for the 2022–2023 season.

The average audience for the entire league at the beginning of the 2022-2023 season was around 3,895. Last season, the number was as high as 4,266. This season, the number has decreased slightly, it is now 4,218. Without Kiekko-Espoo, the average is 4,195.

The decrease in Ilves’ audience average two years in a row can be considered noteworthy. Part of the reason for this is the new home hall, the Nokia Arena, which gained great popularity in 2021, as well as the team’s tremendous success at the beginning of the 2021–2022 season.

The averages of Tampere teams are lower than usual this season, also due to the fact that the clubs have not yet played a single local competition.

Studies are indicative and tell the audience averages after about ten rounds of matches. It is worth noting in the statistics that some teams could have played three home matches in that period, and some even seven.

For example, Kärpät has only played three home matches this season, compared to five and four in the same period of the previous years.