Kölner Haie & DEL break own European attendance records

Last year, Kölner Haie grabbed the top spot in European attendance standings, toppling then-champion SC Bern. This year, it broke the European average attendance record to stay atop the rankings. The new record is 17,829.

Another European record also saw the light of day in 2024-25 as a full dozen clubs hit five-digit averages, one up from the season before. Four of them were teams in the German DEL league, which also raised its league average by 8.64 percent.

Eight of the teams in the top 10 played close to capacity crowds all season, and Eisbären Berlin had a practically sold-out season at 98.84 percent capacity.

Sparta Prague also continues its ascent. Last year, the Czech capital team broke the Extraliga attendance record it had set in 2023 (11,586). This year, they repeated the feat and took the attendance to the next level with 12,804, enough for sixth place in 2025.

Another record-breaker were the Sheffield Steelers who recorded the highest number in the history of the UK’s Elite Ice Hockey League, 7,938, even though their ranking dropped by two positions to 20.

There were no big changes in the rankings this season as the first 11 teams were the same ones as last year, with a couple swapping positions. The number 12 team, EHC Red Bull Munich jumped from the 60th position to 12th, thanks to the brand-new SAP Garden which almost doubled their capacity to 10,400. Other climbers were Lausanne HC, who went from 22nd place to 15th, and last year’s 41st placed team Löwen Frankfurt, now in the 22nd position.

The comprehensive and exclusive E.H.C. Alliance survey includes 376 European club teams and 29 leagues, including six second-tier leagues.

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The highest second-tier division team was Stockholm’s Djurgården whose average of 6,560 was enough for 38th place, with eight Swedish SHL teams behind it. In the DEL2, Krefeld Pinguine jumped from 67th position to just outside the top 50 in Europe.

One third-tier team was close to cracking the top 100 again. The Hannover Indians averaged 3,539, placing them 110th.

On a league level, there was even less change. The first seven leagues were the same, in the same order as last year, with the Germans leading the way. The average attendance in DEL was 7,781, up by another 8.64 percent compared to the record-breaking 2023-24 season, and, by definition, the highest average attendance ever recorded by a European league.

Again.

It was followed by Switzerland's National League at 7,365.

All top-10 leagues grew their attendances, except the Slovak Extraliga that lost 7.45 percent of its average attendance compared to the year before. The Austrian-based ICE Hockey League made the biggest jump with its 13.49 percent jump from 2024, to 2,986.

Germany was also the second-tier league champion with 3,284, followed by the Swedish HockeyAllsvenskan (2,871) and the Swiss League (1,715).

In North American leagues the growth was smaller. The National Hockey League average attendance went up by a half a percentage point, and the ECHL by 1.64 percent while the AHL took a slight step (0.34 percent) backwards. The attendance also went up in all three Canadian junior leagues (Ontario, Western, and Quebec), by approximately three percent.