SC Bern tops the 2012-13 European attendance ranking again

21 Mar 2013 | Petr Polak

SC Bern of the Swiss Nationalliga A set a new European record in attendance with a 16,330 fans average per game.

It is no surprise but a Europe's tradition that SC Bern tops the season's attendance rankings. Since the 2001-02 season there has been no better team in attendance than Bern. This is quite amazing fact itself, but what for more it is wonderful to see the people of Bern still can make the average better because the last season's number breaks the Bern's, the Swiss's and the Europe's all-time record. Let's see what will be the future trend, because the last season's average means 95.32% of the PostFinance Arena's capacity "only", so there is still room for improvement (capacity of the PostFinance Arena is 17,131).

The biggest growth of numbers experienced the Slovak KHL team of Slovan Bratislava. Before the club entered KHL, its last average from the 2011-12 season was 5,907. But in the last season it increased to 9,975, which makes Slovan Europe's 7th team. Bratislava's most famous capital has done a jump over 29 places in the ranking last year.

Another KHL's newcomer, LEV Prague, signed into the rankings with very nice average of 7,161 fans. But more than the actual number it will be interesting to watch how it will change during the next season when no NHL lockout will occur, because their last season's average could not be so high if four of Lev's games were not extraordinarily played in the Europe's second largest hockey rink, the O2 Arena of Prague. In October, Dynamo Moscow and SKA St. Petersburg brought several big NHL-star players to play against Lev and later the Slovan Bratislava brought thousands of their own fans with. In total those four games added 57,532 spectators to Lev's average.

The last of previous year's KHL new teams Donbass Donetsk also made the TOP 100 rankings, but grabbed 98th place only with 3,740 spectators (91.21% of Donetsk arena's capacity).

In overall view, there are three German teams, two Swiss and Russian clubs, and by one of Belarus, Finland and Slovakia in the Europe's TOP 10. From TOP 100 you can find six second-level teams (Djurgården; Malmö; Leksand (all SWE) Angarsk (RUS) Lausanne (SUI)) and also one third-level team - Löwen Frankfurt(GER).

Reflex of the club's ranking can be found also in the leagues' TOP10. The most attended league was the Swiss Nationalliga A with average of 6,620 spectators per game. The second best league was Deutsche Eishockey Liga from Germany and the third place went for Russian based Kontinental Hockey League.

On the other hand it is very sad that Slovakia averagely earned 2,018 spectators per game only so also the Swedish second-level league called Allsvenskan reached better numbers (3,227). This is the worse side of KHL because in quit of Slovan Bratislava the Slovak's top competition has lost one of two its most prestigious clubs and the competition then lost its point.

Attendance figures in European hockey leagues 2012/2013

#	Club	Country	Average	Cap. %
1	SC Bern	SUI	16,330	95.32%
2	Dynamo Minsk	BLR	14,299	94.78%
3	Eisbären Berlin	GER	14,034	98.83%
4	Kölner Haie	GER	12,199	65.94%
5	SKA St. Petersburg	RUS	11,917	95.34%
6	Adler Mannheim	GER	10,796	79.38%
7	Slovan Bratislava	SVK	9,975	99.20%
8	Jokerit Helsinki	FIN	9,828	71.92%
9	ZSC Lions Zurich	SUI	8,745	81.24%
10	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	RUS	8,712	96.31%
11	Frölunda Gothenburg	SWE	8,588	71.31%
12	HC Pardubice	CZE	8,490	83.28%
13	Avangard Omsk	RUS	8,060	78.12%
14	Medvescak Zagreb	CRO	7,944	90.40%
15	Hamburg Freezers	GER	7,690	60.06%
16	HIFK Helsinki	FIN	7,363	90.68%
17	Kometa Brno	CZE	7,196	99.94%
18	Lev Prague	CZE	7,161	50.39%
19	Salavat Yulayev Ufa	RUS	7,160	90.06%
20	Traktor Chelyabinsk	RUS	7,142	95.23%
21	Amur Khabarovsk	RUS	7,100
22	Genève-Servette	SUI	6,967
23	HV71 Jönköping	SWE	6,770
24	Fribourg-Gottéron	SUI	6,537
25	Sparta Prague	CZE	6,445
26	Sibir Novosibirsk	RUS	6,305
27	EV Zug	SUI	6,302
28	Linköpings HC	SWE	6,287
29	Brynäs Gävle	SWE	6,229
30	Dinamo Riga	LAT	6,228
31	Färjestad Karlstad	SWE	6,209
32	Djurgården Stockholm	SWE-2	6,184
33	TPS Turku	FIN	6,103
34	Nuremberg Ice Tigers	GER	6,081
35	Kärpät Oulu	FIN	6,005
36	MODO Örnsköldsvik	SWE	5,884
37	Atlant Mytishi	RUS	5,875
38	Skoda Plzen	CZE	5,838
39	Malmö Redhawks	SWE-2	5,794
40	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	RUS	5,765
41	Yermak Angarsk	RUS-2	5,684
42	Tappara Tampere	FIN	5,648
43	Rytiri Kladno	CZE	5,597
44	Dynamo Moscow	RUS	5,478
45	Kloten Flyers	SUI	5,366
46	SCL Tigers Langnau	SUI	5,355
47	Torpedo N. Novgorod	RUS	5,250
48	Skellefteå AIK	SWE	5,197
49	Luleå HF	SWE	5,184
50	Neftekhimik Nizhn.	RUS	5,138
51	Krefeld Pinguine	GER	5,108
52	Vienna Capitals	AUT	5,079
53	Vitkovice Ostrava	CZE	5,075
54	Nottingham Panthers	GBR	5,057
55	Düsseldorfer EG	GER	5,054
56	Växjö Lakers	SWE	5,042
57	Straubing Tigers	GER	5,005
58	Leksands IF	SWE-2	5,000
59	AIK Stockholm	SWE	4,998
60	EHC Biel	SUI	4,909
61	Ilves Tampere	FIN	4,879
62	HC Ambrì-Piotta	SUI	4,859
63	Ak Bars Kazan	RUS	4,839
64	Yuzhny Ural Orsk	RUS-2	4,803
65	HC Davos	SUI	4,784
66	Slavia Prague	CZE	4,747
67	HC Lugano	SUI	4,725
68	Espoo Blues	FIN	4,685
69	Sary-Arka Karaganda	KAZ	4,588
70	Rapperswil-Jona L.	SUI	4,566
71	Ässät Pori	FIN	4,556
72	Lausanne HC	SUI-2	4,485
73	HC Litvinov	CZE	4,470
74	PSG Zlin	CZE	4,454
75	Severstal Cherepovets	RUS	4,448
76	HC Ceske Budejovice	CZE	4,395
77	Timrå IK	SWE	4,326
78	Bili Tygri Liberec	CZE	4,264
79	Pelicans Lahti	FIN	4,246
80	Metallurg Novokuznetsk	RUS	4,226
81	Pirati Chomutov	CZE	4,178
82	Augsburger Panther	GER	4,152
83	KAC Klagenfurt	AUT	4,030
84	HC Kosice	SVK	4,029
85	KalPa Kuopio	FIN	4,000
86	Lukko Rauma	FIN	3,959
87	Löwen Frankfurt	GER-3	3,948
88	Belfast Giants	GBR	3,932
89	HPK Hämeenlinna	FIN	3,931
90	CSKA Moscow	RUS	3,931
91	JYP Jyväskylä	FIN	3,903
92	Rögle BK	SWE	3,886
93	SaiPa Lappeenranta	FIN	3,873
94	Avt. Yekaterinburg	RUS	3,822
95	VSV Villach	AUT	3,806
96	Ocelari Trinec	CZE	3,784
97	Black Wings Linz	AUT	3,750
98	Donbass Donetsk	UKR	3,740
99	Iserlohn Roosters	GER	3,734
100	Stavanger Oilers	NOR	3,663

Regular-Season average league attendance Europe & Asia 2012/2013

	League	Attendance
1	Switzerland - National League A	6,620
2	Germany - Deutsche Eishockey Liga	6,172
3	Russia - Kontinental Hockey League	6,106
4	Sweden - Elitserien	5,717
5	Finland - SM-liiga	5,213
6	Czech Republic - Extraliga	5,169
7	Austria - EBEL	3,547
8	Slovakia - Extraliga	2,018
9	Great Britain - Elite Ice Hockey League	1,977
10	Norway - Get Ligaen	1,627
11	France - Ligue Magnus	1,516
12	Denmark - AL-Bank Liga	1,501
13	Poland - Polska Liga	1,171
14	Italy - Serie A	1,067
15	Asia League (CHN/KOR/JPN)	977
16	Belarus - Extraliga	897
17	Netherlands - Eredivisie	812
18	MOL Liga	705

Regular-Season average attendance in European 2nd-tier leagues 2012/2013

	League	Attendance
1	Sweden - Allsvenskan	3,227
2	Germany - 2. Bundesliga	2,267
3	Switzerland - National League B	2,016
4	Russia - VHL	1,918
5	Finland - Mestis	1,134
6	Czech Republic - 1. liga	993

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