This started out as a post to the SPHL Group on myspace.com regarding attendance for that league. Most of the teams don't bother me, but the Cyclones left Florence for the Winston-Salem and W-S has seen three other teams play there over the last five years, all of which failed due to lack of attendance.

The Cyclones felt they had a better chance then their predecessors because they started selling tickets earlier, but to date that has not been the case.

SPHL game attendance for this weekend:

Saturday
Huntsville 4,074
Richmond 4,308

Friday
Huntsville 3,477
Richmond 3,794
Jacksonville 814

Thursday
Jacksonville 720

The league average so far this year is 3,235. Columbus leads with 4,366 per game (2 openings) followed by Huntsville, 4,337 (3 games); Fayetteville 4,196 (3 games); Richmond 3,803 (4 games); Knoxville 3,385 (2 games); Twin City 1,262 (2 games); and Jacksonville 875 (3 games).

The league finished last year with an average of 2,985 per game. The Florida Seals folded after 17 home games at the Silver Spurs Arena after failing to pay rent. Jacksonville left the Jacksonville Memorial Arena and is now playing in Jacksonville Ice, a recreational facility, so their attendance will be notable lower as I don't think you can fit 2,700 + people into the place.

Last season's SPHL totals:

TEAM	TOTAL	GAMES	AVERAGE
Huntsville	109,615	28	3,914
Richmond	95,756	28	3,419
Fayetteville	93,301	28	3,332
Columbus	92,534	28	3,304
Knoxville	90,640	28	3,237
Jacksonville	70,773	26	2,722
Florida	34,470	17	2,027
Pee Dee	36,928	26	1,420
TOTALS:	624,017	209	2,985

It's really too early to determine if the move from Florence to Winston-Salem was worth wild or not. It will take at least half of the season for the attendance levels to average out.

The Polar Twins, the last team to play in W-S which was in 2004-05 averaged 1,493 over 28 games. That was also a SPHL team, owned in part by Dave Waronker, who spelled death for a number of teams throughout the SPHL, WHA2, and ACHL.

The average for a CHL game is about 3,850. An Amarillo fan on the aforementioned SPHL board wrote "Ya know your attendance records aren't that bad. Thats about average here in Amarillo for our CHL games." Amarillo falls below the CHL average at 2,882, which is slightly down from what they pulled in the 2006-07 season. The low is Texas (Formerly Fort Worth) with 1.589, the high is Oklahoma City with 7,330

The New IHL (formerly the UHL) is averaging 3,357. The high is Fort Wayne, with 8,369, the low is Port Huron with 1,340. It continues to amaze me the that Port Huron hangs on year-after-year-after-year. They have changed their knick name this year to "Icehawks" following a tradition of now-defunct teams to have used that name.

The ECHL is averaging 4.077 per game. On the high end, you have Stockton (8,817), Florida (6,890) and Gwinnett (6,018). On the low end there is Cinci (2,414), Johnston (2,151) and Texas (1,727). Elmira, NY, the transplant team from the UHL is pulling 3.588 per game through 7 dates.

The Mid-Atlantic Hockey League are the new kids on the pro-block with 5 teams located in Indiana, Mon Valley, Wooster, valley Forge, and Jamestown. All of the teams appear to playing in Rec-rink facilities (although they call them Arenas) with General Admission seating running $12.00 and Club seating (usually the bar area) running $25 per game. Jamestown is the exception, with 5 different price levels, ranging from $25.00 club seating to $6.00 Upper End Zone Seating. However, JSBIA is still nothing more than a glorified rec rink.

The league is using Pointstreak, but with most of the teams having played 2 home games thus far, there is no attendance listed so they are probably not keeping track.

Ryan VanBuskirk

The Florida Everblades skated past the CHL Mississippi Riverkings Friday in a preseason game at Germain Arena. Justin Peters turned back 27 shots, while the Blades buried 4 of their 32 chances to pick up the win.

Matt Melanson opened the scoring for the Blades on the power play. Melanson picked up a rebound of a Frank MacDonald shot and put it past Mississippi goaltender Larry Stirling for the early lead. Big Ernie Hartlieb added some insurance when he discovered a loose puck by the side of the net and banged it home. Newcomers Kyle McAllister and J. F. Bittner picked up the assists on that tally. They also added helpers on Jarrett Lukin's even strength goal just 1:23 seconds later. Lukin took a centering feed from Bittner and slipped it into the net for what would prove to be the game winning goal.

The Riverkings spent 12 minutes in the penalty box in the first period which worked in the Everblades favor as they put 22 shots on Sterling while the RiverKings could only muster 4.

Mississippi would put one on the board through late in the first when Ryan Campbell picked up a Dan Riedel pass from behind the net and muscled it by Peters with just over 2 minutes remaining in the perid.

The shot advantage would go to the Riverkings in the second period though 13-4, but Peters was up to the challenge. While there was no scoring in the second, Frank MacDonald squared off with Steve Makway to give the hometown crowd of 4,300+ a rush. The CHL crew spent an additional 8 minutes in the box prior the 2nd period fireworks, but the Blades could not get the power play working for them in the middle stanza.

Adam Taylor changed that in the 3rd through, making it 4-1 Blades as he worked the man advantage when he wristed a shot past Sterling. Hartlieb and defenseman Brandon Roach were credited with the assists on the play.

Jason Lawmaster would dance with Brad Herauf just under 7 and a half minutes into the final period and Ryan Van Buskirk tangled with Brian Mullally just past the 12 minute mark to add some fisticuff action to the scoring. Mississippi would manage to cut the score in half when Campbell picked up his 2nd tally of the night, when he rebounded a deflected blue line shot into the net with the man advantage.

Hartlieb picked up the 3rd star of the game for Florida, while Campbell's pair of tallies earned him 2nd Star of the game for the Riverkings. Taylor's goal and an assist for the winning team got him first star of the game.

The teams rematch Saturday night for the second of two exhibition games. The Everblades regular season begins Friday, October 19th as Florida hosts the Mississippi Sea Wolves for a 7:30 contest at Germain Arena. Tickets to both games are available that the Everblades box office and at all Ticketmaster locations.

The game tonight between the defending CHL President’s Cup Champion Laredo Bucks and the Amarillo Gorillas has been cancelled due to "inclement weather". The makeup engagement will be announced at a later date.

Evidently there is a winter storm warning in effect for the area, including rain mixed with ice pellets.

The storm warning is in effect through noon on Wednesday for all of Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle.

The Gorillas take on the Oklahoma City Blazers on Friday, and Lubbock Cotton Kings on Saturday. Laredo plays at home Friday against the Corpus Christi Rayz and Saturday against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees.

Laredo is an affiliate of the NHL Phoenix Coyotes and the AHL San Antonio Rampage.