Pensacola Hockey: Ice Flyers attain record-setting season with home attendance
The Ice Flyers battled the past two weeks to make the playoffs and gain the chance to chase a fifth championship.
But this season had already become a best-ever, banner year at the box office.
In their 28 home games, the Ice Flyers attracted a record 130,024 fans at the Pensacola Bay Center. It is the second-highest in the Southern Professional Hockey League this season behind the Huntsville Havoc.
What’s more, the Ice Flyers averaged 4,644 per-game, also the second-most in the league and did this despite playing just three home games in February, four in March – two months traditionally the strongest for attendance.
“This has been a very special season and one that we are going to remember for a long time,” said Ice Flyers owner Greg Harris. “Because we feel like we can still do more. That has been my big message to my staff is that we never want to be satisfied.
“We have some amazing staff members who have really taken things to the next level in putting on special theme nights and promotions that have boosted our numbers significantly.”
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The Ice Flyers clinched a playoff spot with a 5-4 victory Saturday at Huntsville. They earned three of a possible four points in the back-to-back road games in Huntsville, following Friday’s overtime loss.
The Ice Flyers end the regular season this weekend with their longest road trip, going 900 miles to face the first-place Peoria Rivermen in a pair of games Friday and Saturday in Peoria, Illinois. The Rivermen and Birmingham Bulls are tied atop the SPHL standings. The Ice Flyers (58 points) and Fayetteville (56 points) are vying for seventh and eighth in the final two playoff positions.
The SPHL playoffs will begin the week of April 10-16 with best-of-three series in the quarterfinal round.
“There are still things that can happen,” said Ice Flyers coach Rod Aldoff. “We have a good group of guys who are committed and that’s number one. You have to have a great dressing room.
“We’ll get to where we get to with our roster and put the best team on the ice. Doesn’t matter (on playoff opponent) because things change so much in this league and in minor leagues. We could have some different players coming in between now and (end of season).”
Prior to this season, the Ice Flyers previous attendance high was 114,537, set during the 2013-14 season.
Among the standout elements this season, the Ice Flyers have attracted 10 home game crowds of 5,000 or more and 16 games where they had 4,000-plus in the arena.
“We have also learned a lot,” Harris said. “We have added new theme nights and we did some things differently that have paid off tremendously. And our fans have truly backed us and truly loved what we are doing and it’s really showing in our attendance numbers.”
The team’s annual $5 ticket weekend on Feb. 10-11 attracted sellout, capacity crowds of 8,049 – the first time the Ice Flyers drew those kind of numbers in back-to-back nights. Their two Saturday night games in March both drew 5,400-plus fans.
“We’ve always had great fan support here,” Aldoff said. “Going all the way back when I came in here (as opposing player) when it was the Ice Pilots in the ECHL it was great fan support. The fans in Pensacola have always supported the team.
“Fans are the backbone of the team in the minor leagues. So their commitment to us is tremendous and we appreciate it. And it’s a great atmosphere. It’s fun. They are loud and you can hear them. Their faces are on those championship banners too, because they’ve been part of it.”
Enhancements in the Bay Center with the high-definition video boards, which were purchased by Escambia County in 2020 prior to the Sun Belt Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournament arrival, have enabled the Ice Flyers to show a variety of crowd-pleasing entertainment, sponsor commercials, goal replays and game highlights that were never possible years before with the antiquated scoreboards.
That element has combined with the Ice Flyers marketing staff coming up with in-game contests and intermission events that have further the fan experience. The staff have attracted group sales from as far as Panama City in one direction and the Mobile area in the other direction.
All of this has led to great contributions and involvement in local charities. Before the team’s final Saturday home game on March 25, Harris hosted five young boys battling cancer for a day with the Rally Foundation-Gulf Coast where youths met Ice Flyers players in the locker room, toured the arena, skated on the ice and had lunch.
“It is a full circle moment when you can have the crowds like we’ve had and impacted the community and helping people less fortunate through our non-profits (charities),” Harris said. “It is something we are really proud of and taking the strides forward.
“I do reflect back on where we were a few years ago (without the videoboards). It is having the equipment, but it is also having the right people. You can have all the right upgrades and fancy equiplment, but if you don’t have the right people to utilize them properly, it doesn’t mean anything.”
This season, it has made a difference in a record-setting way.
Bill Vilona is a retired Pensacola News Journal sports columnist and now senior writer for Pensacola Blue Wahoos. He can be reached at bvilona@bluewahoos.com.
WHAT’S NEXT
Who: Ice Flyers vs. Peoria Rivermen
Where: Peoria Civic Center, Peoria, Illinois.
When: Friday-Saturday, both games at 7:15 p.m.
Audio steaming: www.thesphl.com.
First-round playoff pairings: To be announced April 9.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Fans support Ice Flyers in droves, help franchise set attendance record
