Attendance in the Western Hockey League increased during the 2024-25 season and the Prince George caught the wave of that upward trend.
The 22-team league announced Friday that 3,122,466 fans have attended games this season, the highest total in the past five years. That’s up 1.5 per cent from 2023-24 when the league drew 3,076,922. WHL crowd counts averaged 4,175 in 2024-25, up from 4,114 in 2023-24.
At CN Centre, the Cougars drew an average of 4,178 (eighth-best in WHL) in a building that holds slightly more than 6,000. That’s up 16.7 per cent over last season’s 3,519 average (16th in WHL).
The only WHL team with a greater one-year percentage increase in crowd counts this season is the Medicine Hat Tigers, who jumped to 3,865 from 3,195, a 17.4 per cent boost.
The Cougars have steadily gained in popularity. In 2022-23 they averaged 2,755 (18th) and in 2021-22 the average was 1,915 (20th).
Near-capacity crowds are expected this weekend at CN Centre as the Cougars host the Portland Winterhawks in the first two games of the Western Conference quarterfinal series Friday (7 p.m.) and Saturday (6 p.m.).
Cougars president John Pateman said the Cougars will turn a small profit this year, as they did last year following a playoff run that went three rounds deep.
“Obviously, the playoffs are huge, our season’s tickets were up (around 2,000), attendance was up, and very much the nature of a hockey team is your expenses are pretty much fixed,” said Pateman. “You have to bring in a bunch of revenue to pay the bills and then once you get there, and we haven’t got there (taking account years of the team losing money), a lot of what you make after that falls to the bottom line.
“We did make a bit last year and we hope, with the increased attendance this year, we should be in the black again next year. For attendance now, we probably have to be at 3,500-plus to pay the bills.”
Pateman said the success of the Cougars on the ice and through the turnstiles over the past three seasons has changed how the rest of the league views the Prince George franchise. While teams still grumble about having to travel so far to play the most remote team in the league, the Cats are no longer looked upon as one of the weak links in the chain.
For two straight years now they’ve have been considered legitimate contenders for the WHL crown and the Cougars are reasonably sure with their current stockpile of prospects and draft picks there are enough building blocks in place to prevent a precipitous drop in the coming seasons.
“I certainly think when the league has expressed concerns about the Prince George market we have sort of said the Prince George fan hasn’t had the opportunity to support a team that’s relatively good most of the time,” Pateman said.
“Attendance has been better three or four seasons in a row and obviously on-ice performance is a big a part of that. But I think also the fan experience we do with other things, the community involvement we do with Spirit of the North (Healthcare Foundation) PG Community Foundation and all those special nights also help.
“We are 500-plus kilometres away from our nearest opponent and teams have to travel up to Prince George, but I think they’re supportive of our ownership group and Prince George at this point.”
There’s been a change at the top of the Cougars organization and Eric Brewer is the new governor of the team now that he and the other owners have purchased the one-third share of the team formerly held by Greg Pocock.
“The rest of the group has bought out Greg and that actually happened in the last week,” said Pateman. “Obviously from everybody’s perspective, Greg’s and ours, we wanted to get that dealt with to make sure the team stays where it is. To put that all behind us, we can focus on just trying to be as good as we can be”
Pocock was one of the five owners in the EDGEPRo Sports & Entertainment group that bought the Cougars franchise from Rick Brodsky in April 2014 and for three years he took a hands-on approach as an owner.
Pocock served as president/governor of the Cougars until November 2017, when the other owners — Raymond Fortier, Ernest Ouellet, Dan Hamhuis and Eric Brewer — voted him out as president and replaced him with Pateman. Pocock remained as the face of the franchise at league meetings until Brewer replaced him as governor.
The rift between Pocock and the other owners led to court proceedings that were ongoing for several years.
“Did we have a different vision of how to operate the team, for sure, and that was basically it,” said Pateman. “We want to focus on moving forward. Like in any organization you’ll have differences in how you think things should be dealt with and sometimes that’s just the way it is.”
WHL regular season total attendance
2024-25: 3,122,466
2023-24: 3,076,922
2022-23: 2,913,512
2021-22: 2,397,588
2020-21: N/A
2019-20*: 2,882,799
WHL regular season per game attendance
2024-25: 4,175
2023-24: 4,114
2022-23: 3,895
2021-22: 3,205
2020-21: N/A
2019-20*: 4,154
* - COVID-19 shortened regular season (694 games played)
