Ice Flyers' holiday crowds extend team's season attendance surge

By mid-afternoon last Saturday, there was a jolt of holiday cheer inside the Ice Flyers team office at the Pensacola Bay Center.

The game that night against Birmingham, coming on the eve of New Year’s Eve, had surpassed more than 5,000 in advance ticket sales with the count rising by the minute.

“The (ticket purchase) numbers were coming in and we’re thinking, 'Wow,' We knew it was going to be a big night,” said team owner Greg Harris.

It became record-setting. The Ice Flyers drew a massive crowd of 7,159, which nearly filled the arena and became the largest single-game attendance – apart from the team’s annual $5 ticket weekend – in the 15-year history of the franchise. It surpassed the 6,672 fans the Ice Flyers attracted a year ago on Jan. 14, 2023, for the popular “Wiener Dog Race Night.”

And Saturday’s crowd, coupled with big crowds for games on Dec. 23 and Dec. 26, pushed the entire holiday week attendance to nearly 19,000 fans in three games.

“It was a special three games,” Harris said. “Unfortunately, we only won one of those three games, but the crowds were electric, the games were fun to watch and it was great to be part of.

“And I think what it’s going to do is create a lot of momentum going forward. We are just hitting the heart of our season coming up. I think what we had done prior to Dec. 23 was incredible.

“And then what we saw in this last week going into January is going to be something even better. Now we are going into more elevation, even higher numbers and it, I think, has been creating a lot of momentum for the last half of the season.”

Through 11 home games this season, the Ice Flyers have rode the momentum from last year’s record attendance of 130,024 for 28 home games to another level. They have already drawn 57,612 at the Bay Center for a per-game average of 5,237. Both totals are second-best behind the Huntsville Havoc in the Southern Professional Hockey League.

The Ice Flyers crowd of 5,418 on the night after Christmas was also noteworthy, since it was a Tuesday night and believed to be the largest Dec. 26 crowd in team history.

“It’s amazing,” said Ice Flyers forward Taylor Egan. “Obviously people could be spending time home with their families, but they chose to come here and support us and that’s very special. The players notice that and are very thankful.”

At this pace, the Ice Flyers will shatter box office totals from last season. The Ice Flyers (13-11), currently tied for fifth place in the league standings, will play their next home game on Thursday at the Bay Center against the Peoria Rivermen.

As last year showed, the Ice Flyers win-loss performance did not faze the attendance surge. They were the last team to make the playoffs with a 26-25-6 overall record.

“I think a lot of it has been our approach,” said Brenden Arney, the team’s director of marketing and operations, who is now in his fourth season with the team. “When I first came in, the approach was that we need to build out from the inside. So, the focus was on the game presentation and the game experience.

“I think once we started figured out the game-day experience, then the marketing switched from instead of just focusing on players and stuff, we switched to showing the experience. I think that is what has contributed to the growth. Because we are showing people having fun and people want to have fun.

“And it’s something different. Hockey, too, is growing like crazy right now. (Chicago Blackhawks rookie star) Connor Bedard is the new face of the NHL right now. Younger generations are getting into it.”

Local evidence of that assessment occurs frequently when first-time fans to Ice Flyers games or visitors to the front office inform of how they got interesting in Ice Flyers games.

“We had a bunch of groups (Saturday). And they said, 'Hey we’re all from Minnesota and we all just came down here. We just found out there was a hockey team and we wanted to come,” Arney said. “I think the snowbirds are getting more involved. I met one fan who said, ‘Our daughter has never watched sports. ... We can’t get her to sit and watch sports, but we take her to an Ice Flyers game and she is non-stop talking about it.'

“People come into our office saying, 'Our kids love it, and it’s such a good night out.' We are building a good connection with kids and the new people moving into Pensacola.”

Arney is one of six full-time front office staff members. Digital content creators Alyssa Cherney and Eric Kagdis are in their second full season with the team. Julia Demola, the team’s merchandise and community relations coordinator, joined the team in 2023 along with digital content creator Alana Dackiw.

In addition, the Ice Flyers hired interns Eveline Eldering, Niamh McRobbie and Ryan Labrato to help with digital media, game production and administration.

The staff has worked in tandem, along with interns this season, to make the fan experience buzzworthy.

Arney earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of West Florida and a master’s degree from Loyola University of Chicago. He did not have prior experience in the hockey world and joined the Ice Flyers after the new video panel scoreboards had been installed at the Bay Center.

The video scoreboards, ribbon boards and improved sound system were part of upgrades the Bay Center received, after signing a five-year agreement with Escambia County to host the Sun Belt Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

Those improvements have helped make the Ice Flyers game experience far different from the prior years of an outdated matrix scoreboard.

“I think the fact that I don’t have anything before to base it off, it helped me to create something new and something different here,” Arney said. “I think the same applies with Alyssa.

“We didn’t really know anything about hockey and it helped us develop a production where we said, hey this is what we think a hockey game should look like. We’re having a lot of fun. And our staff is really meshing well.”

There is also an economic impact element with Ice Flyers games. Large crowds at the Bay Center translate into high concession sales, parking sales, along with downtown restaurants and businesses benefitting from so many people at one location.

“Everything we do, it’s not just about the Ice Flyers, it’s about bringing people into the Bay Center, which then helps the county and the spillover effect and the economic impact and reach we have as an organization,” Harris said. “We are definitely a part of the community. Our team’s first name is Pensacola, so we have to take care of Pensacola. That is part of our identify.”

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

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Ice Flyers see surge in attendance this season at Bay Center