In many of the country’s hockey arenas, as expected, there were large numbers of spectators in the clubs’ first home matches since the restrictions were lifted on 29 September.
In Malmö, there was a patch on the door with as many as 12,600 visitors against Växjö, Djurgården was only a couple of hundred empty seats from full against Leksand at Hovet, just like Färjestad against the same team in Löfbergs arena a couple of days later.
But then the numbers have dropped. There are exceptions in Luleå and Rögle, for example, which have continued to sell out more or less – but after eight rounds without an audience limit, eight out of twelve clubs in the country’s highest hockey league have a lower audience average than they had the season before the pandemic struck.
– After the first match, it has been a bit challenging, admits KG Stoppel who is responsible for marketing and growth in Djurgården.
October is usually historic be a weak audience month when the football season is at the same time in a final stage and competes with local teams’ hockey activities. Djurgården is no exception – but even with that aspect in mind, Stoppel had hoped for a higher average than 5,383 visitors in the last five matches at Hovet, which has a capacity of 8,094.
– It is difficult to see in such a short time what it is due to, but we can state that there is a smaller audience than usual, he says.
The fact that Djurgården started the SHL as a bottom team and lined up losses at home obviously plays a role, but Stoppel believes there are more explanations.
– We probably knew that there could be a pent-up need but also a caution. It probably remains in people’s behaviors. Despite the fact that the restrictions have been released, it can be stated that the rest of the world has not bounced back to normal. I think people in general are a bit cautious.
KG Stoppel says that it is important to be patient, but also believes that it is necessary with a game-wise boost for the audience to find their way back to the Court.
– We want people. The more, the greater the entertainment, the audience is part of the entertainment. The best recipe for us is to start winning hockey matches. Then we will gradually add to the barn as well, he says.
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– image 1 of 2 Photo: Daniel Eriksson / Bildbyrån
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– image 2 of 2 Photo: Andreas Hillergren/TT
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Another team that received see its number of visitors drop dramatically is Malmö Redhawks. The meeting with Växjö became an audience party, but since then the arena has not even been half filled with 5,008 spectators against Luleå and 5,448 against Skellefteå.
Viktor Ekström has the role of team leader private market in the club, but despite the dip is not as dissatisfied as his colleague in Djurgården.
– Purely historically, we have a little harder to attract audiences at the beginning of a season. For that reason, we have no red numbers in the matches so far. We feel satisfied, he says and continues:
– We are very pleased that we got a full house against Växjö. Had I dared to take a chance, I would have hoped for 9,000, maybe.
In Malmö’s case, it is above all the absence of the older audience which has been noticeable, according to Ekström.
– We have lost some season tickets, we already did that before last year. We have an older clientele among those who have chosen to wait a bit to see how everything develops. It did not come as a major shock.
The Redhawks expect the trend to reverse when the city’s football team Malmö FF ends the season.
– We usually have a lot of people at the premiere, maybe match two, but then we go down in a little dip. Then we usually see a clearly increasing trend from November onwards, says Viktor Ekström.