Where have all the people gone?

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How many attended game six in Kelowna, the Rockets’ third home date of an opening-round playoff against Wenatchee?

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Just 3,501 showed up on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

“I was very disappointed”, General Manager Bruce Hamilton told RocketFAN, with the attendance that matches similar numbers a season ago when 3,504 attended game three of an opening-round series against Seattle and then plummeted to 3,408 for game four a night later. “This community supported this team well over the years, and maybe it is on us that we didn’t get the word out.”

Making matters worse is having playoff dates when you are the lower seed. The top seed, in this case with Wenatchee in round one and Prince George in round two are afforded the luxury of having home dates on Friday and Saturday night, which are ideal in the sports entertainment industry.

“Things have changed so much in the way you advertise games,” Hamilton added. “The newspapers aren’t a big thing anymore, and even radio can be a challenge. A lot of it [advertising] is social media and we probably have to get to work on that part of it this summer on getting the word out on when we are playing games.”

Smaller crowds are often the result of teams struggling over several years. In the Rockets case, they haven’t won a WHL title since 2015, which in these parts is a long wait.

“We’ve had some lean years here skill and talent-wise,” Hamilton admitted. “I think now people are going to get a chance to see, in [Tij] Iginla’s case for sure and [Andrew] Cristall, these guys are going to play [in the NHL] and in Iginla’s case maybe one more year here and then he is going to be on TV.”

Times are indeed changing. The Kelowna Rockets had home ice crowds of over 6,000 the last time the Cougars provided the opposition in a playoff series in 2011. Will those type of numbers ever be achieved again or has the junior hockey landscape changed so much post-COVID, that ship will never return to port?

“I think it will come back,” Hamilton said optimistically. “We need to understand that there is a new generation of fans that we are now chasing, and that is going to take time. Once you see some upgrades occur in the building [Prospera Place] over the next couple of years, that is going to be more exciting to be here too.”

Sports teams across the board have been busy behind closed doors trying to attract the casual fan. More work is being put into the in-game experience to make it a family friendly event.

“We started bringing in live bands to try to create something, but at the end of the day it is what goes on the ice, and we are coming through some tough times and now we have some tremendous talent on the ice, so people are going to get back to us winning, which this city is used to us doing.”

While Canadians are cutting back on non-essential spending such as entertainment, Hamilton isn’t using tough economic times as an excuse for the low numbers at home games.

“When you look across our league, Medicine Hat was almost sold out,” he added. “Red Deer was almost sold out and Saskatoon was drawing close to 9,000 [fans], so the Canadian teams by and large did well through the first round of the playoffs.

“We have a business to run. So as long as you are still playing, it costs money to stay in business, and in our business, rear ends in the seats help pay the bills.”