At the half-way point of the Abbotsford Canucks 2023-24 home schedule, the team is averaging 4,628 fans per game.
The club’s game against the Ontario Reign on Jan. 17 was the 18th out of 36 inside the Abbotsford Centre scheduled for this season.
The Canucks sit in 22nd place in the 32-team American Hockey League for attendance and are third out of the six Canadian teams. They are also sixth out of the 10 teams in the AHL’s Pacific Division.
The 4,628 is a seven per cent drop from the same time last season, when the club was averaging 4,983 per game after 18 games in 2022-23.
The Canucks remain well above the average numbers from the AC’s previous AHL tenant - the Abbotsford Heat. The Heat had years of years of 3,897, 3,807, 3,545, 3,778 and 3,007 during its time (2009 to 2014) at the AC.
RELATED: Abbotsford Canucks average attendance up 16 per cent so far this season
The high point of the first 18 games was a visit by the Laval Rocket, which was also Teddy Bear Toss Night, on Dec. 2 that saw 6,219 fans. The Rocket have traditionally been a strong draw in Abbotsford, with a strong contingent of Montreal Canadiens followers in the Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland.
The home opener on Oct. 20 also drew a big crowd with 5,962 taking in the Calgary Wranglers. The team also cracked the 5,000-threshold on Jan. 13 (5,583 – vs. Tucson Roadrunners) and Nov. 4 (5,097 – vs. Henderson Silver Knights).
Unsurprisingly, weekday games (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) tend to draw lower crowds and the Canucks had seven of those scheduled in the first half. There are six more in the remaining schedule.
This Saturday (Jan. 20) saw the team draw its largest crowd of the season (6,758) for Country Night vs. the San Diego Gulls. They also reported an attendance of 5,009 for Sunday’s (Jan. 21) game vs. the Gulls.
RELATED: Abbotsford Canucks average 4,898 per game for 2022-23 regular season
The second half of the schedule will see promotional games such as Vancouver Canucks Night (Feb. 3), Flaunt Your Flannel (Feb. 17), Family Day (Feb. 19), Top Dogs (March 16), Community Heroes Night (April 6) and Fan Appreciation Weekend (April 19 and 20).
As a reminder, the City of Abbotsford does receive revenue sharing with the team if the Canucks average 5,000 fans or greater per game.
In other news, Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini was asked about the decision to move his AHL affiliate to Abbotsford and said he is pleased with how everything has worked out so far. Aquilini rarely does media and has not spoken much about the Abbotsford Canucks publicly since the team’s arrival in 2021.
.@Canucks owner @fr_aquilini speaks on the @abbycanucks during today's press conference announcing the Jim Rutherford extension.
— Ben Lypka (@BenLypka) January 19, 2024
Shout out to @ChrisFaber39 for asking the important questions 😃 #Canucks pic.twitter.com/dgplFwtKJ5
“Having them only an hour away helps in multiple fronts,” he said. “Overall we’re very happy and we have a good long-term lease with Abbotsford so we’re going to be there for a while. It’s great to see the future stars; it’s only an hour away. We’re pretty happy about it.”
The Abbotsford Canucks next home game is set for Feb. 2 when the San Jose Barracuda visit the AC.