Non-traditional NHL fanbases can take shape when a Wiffle ball rattles into a net on a community-center floor. At Seattle’s Rainier Beach Community Center in July 2025, a group of seven-year-olds swarmed a makeshift ball-hockey clinic. Several held sticks for the first time. Every successful swing brought squeals from the gym, as Seattle Kraken reporter Geoff Baker observed.
There was no need for skates, a frozen pond or parents who already understood icing. The Kraken weren’t there to sell upper-bowl seats. They were letting children discover what scoring a goal felt like.
In Salt Lake City, meanwhile, residents helped choose an NHL franchise’s name. South Florida fans gained access to Panthers games through free over-the-air broadcasts. Carolina turned victory celebrations into a crowd ritual, while Vegas borrowed the timing and spectacle of a Strip production.
These weren’t interchangeable marketing stunts. A school clinic removes an equipment barrier; a fan vote gives locals a stake; a free broadcast turns curiosity into a weeknight habit.
For a league long associated with northern rinks and family traditions, each offers a different way into the game. The real test isn’t getting people through the doors once. It’s keeping them interested when the team drops six straight.
Hockey’s Map Has Changed Faster Than Its Viewing Habits
A generation ago, the NHL’s American heartland stretched through the Northeast and Midwest. Supporters in those markets often knew the sport before they bought their first professional ticket. Elsewhere, teams had to introduce the rules, the players and sometimes the very experience of stepping onto ice.
According to SSRS’s 2026 Sports Poll analysis, NHL fandom spread far beyond that old belt over the previous three decades. The research identified particularly strong gains in Nevada, North Carolina, Tennessee, Washington and Utah.
In October 2026, SSRS reported that 43% of Americans aged 12 and older identified as NHL fans during the 2025-26 season. Its annual Sports Poll gathers more than 24,000 responses.
Yet identifying as a fan doesn’t necessarily mean watching games regularly.
S&P Global Market Intelligence found in July 2025 that 17% of American internet adults watched NHL hockey, little changed across three years. The two surveys measured different behaviors among different populations, but together they reveal the gap between following the sport and actively watching it.
A new arena might introduce residents to professional hockey, but it won’t automatically create generations of supporters. Teams have responded with free broadcasts, street-hockey clinics and local traditions.
In Utah, residents even helped decide what their team would be called.
Utah Gave Its New Hockey Audience a Vote
Utah’s 2024 arrival was not a conventional franchise relocation. The NHL established a new Utah franchise, which acquired the Arizona Coyotes’ players, draft picks and hockey operations assets. Meanwhile, the Coyotes franchise became inactive.
On the ice, Utah had a ready-made roster. Off it, the organization still needed a name and a relationship with its state.
For the 2024-25 season, the club used the temporary Utah Hockey Club identity. Then Smith Entertainment Group invited supporters into the branding process.
Over 13 months, four rounds of voting drew more than 850,000 votes before the team unveiled Utah Mammoth in May 2025. Those were ballots, not necessarily unique voters, but the scale kept the debate in public view.
The eventual design did more than put an animal on a sweater.
Its Mountain Mammoth logo featured the Wasatch Mountains, a state outline and tusks forming a U. Fans got a rallying cry, Tusks Up, before the brand had even played a full season under its permanent name.
A traditional advertising campaign might have announced a finished product. Utah made the naming itself a recurring local story. Residents argued over options, debated designs and watched their choices narrow.
Deseret News reported in July 2026 that the Mammoth had sold out 85 consecutive home games across their first two seasons. Youth programs and lower-priced limited-view seating offered other ways into the sport.
The streak demonstrated immediate demand, although it couldn’t establish how many supporters would renew their commitments through a difficult season.
In South Florida, the Panthers faced a different challenge. Before families could develop their own hockey traditions, many needed an affordable way to experience the game.
Florida Removed Two Barriers at Once
At Amerant Bank Arena, plastic rats sometimes scatter across the ice after a Panthers victory. The tradition dates to the 1990s, yet the celebrations gained new force during Florida’s consecutive Stanley Cup wins in 2024 and 2025.
It’s an unmistakably local scene, far removed from hockey’s frozen-pond imagery.
Florida’s challenge ran deeper than getting people excited on game night. Potential supporters needed a reason to try the sport and a convenient way to watch it afterward.
According to Associated Press reporting in June 2024, the team’s floorball physical-education program had reached more than 300,000 students at 450 Florida schools. Children could learn stickhandling without skates or rink fees.
Hispanic and Latino participation in Florida’s Learn to Play program also rose 15% from 2023 to 2024. Meanwhile, initiatives such as ¡Vamos Gatos! and the LATAM Cup brought hockey into familiar community settings.
Families could experience the sport without the costs or traditions that often make it feel inaccessible. Keeping those newcomers interested required another change: making Panthers games easier to watch.
When Watching Became Easier
In 2024, the Panthers began working with Scripps Sports on free over-the-air broadcasts and introduced the Panthers Plus streaming service.
A household no longer needed the same regional cable package to follow the team’s available local games.
By December 2024, team president Matt Caldwell reported a 170% increase in television viewership following the switch. In January 2026, the Panthers and Scripps announced that audiences through 48 games of the 2025-26 season had risen another 51% compared with the corresponding period a year earlier.
Two championship runs unquestionably boosted attention, so neither increase can be credited solely to distribution. However, removing the television barrier gave casual supporters a practical way to follow the team after the excitement of a playoff run.
A commercial can persuade someone to care about hockey. An accessible broadcast lets that person watch the next game.
While Florida brought hockey into more homes, Carolina built a tradition around what happened inside its arena after the final horn.
Carolina Made the Postgame Celebration Part of the Ticket
The sound rises before the players leave the ice in Raleigh.
Around the center circle, Hurricanes players clap in rhythm with the crowd, then salute the stands. The Storm Surge began in 2018-19 with elaborate routines that included everything from bowling to basketball-inspired skits.
Though the choreography has evolved, the shared clap remains part of Carolina’s home victories.
The Hurricanes had plenty of ground to make up. When Tom Dundon bought the club in 2018, it was heading toward a ninth straight season without playoff hockey. Average attendance in 2017-18 stood at 13,321.
By 2024-25, Carolina drew 18,795 spectators per game and sold out every regular-season home date, according to the franchise. Its season-ticket base had grown 117% over the same period.
Winning helped transform the business. Carolina built a sustained playoff contender and captured the 2026 Stanley Cup, celebrating its championship with a Storm Surge for traveling supporters in Las Vegas.
The ritual mattered because fans could take part rather than simply watch from their seats. Every home victory gave the crowd another chance to share something recognizable.
Vegas pursued that connection by turning the moments before puck drop into a spectacle.
At T-Mobile Arena, the Golden Knights paired pregame theatrics with the energy around Toshiba Plaza. A production built around knights, lights and crowd participation suited the city long before the first puck dropped.
The team reached the Stanley Cup Final in its inaugural 2017-18 season and won the championship in 2023.
In December 2025, newly appointed marketing chief Bryan Harper described the arena show as an established strength he wanted to improve. His background included more than two decades in NFL sports entertainment.
Elaborate introductions set the stage in Vegas. Competitive hockey supplied the moments supporters would remember long after the lights came back on.
Seattle took another route, investing in people who might never have watched an NHL game, let alone attended one.
Seattle’s Best Sales Pitch Is a Stick in Someone’s Hands
At Rainier Beach, the Kraken’s clinic was part of a free, weeklong sports sampling camp serving more than 80 children a day in July 2025.
Baseball, football and other Seattle sports shared the program. Hockey didn’t require the children to commit to a season before trying a few shots.
That introductory experience has a longer-term counterpart at the Kraken Community Iceplex.
The facility combines the team’s practice headquarters with public skating and recreational leagues. Its adult Kraken Hockey League grew from 129 teams to 172 over five years, according to a 2026 report published by the team.
League organizer Andy Cole estimated that more than 1,000 people who had never played hockey were now participating.
Women, meanwhile, grew from roughly 15% of adult Learn to Play participants to nearly half. The arrival of the Seattle Torrent women’s professional team, which uses the iceplex as a home base, also strengthened the local hockey scene.
Those numbers describe something different from attendance at Climate Pledge Arena.
A child attending one clinic might remember the mascot or a first successful shot. Someone who joins a weekend league spends months learning the game alongside teammates. Practices and scheduled games gradually make hockey part of family routines.
During the 2025-26 season, the NHL and NHL Players’ Association introduced more than 43,000 children to the sport through Learn to Play and First Shift.
All 32 NHL markets participated, while clubs supported another 63 local programs. The NHLPA released those figures in April 2026.
Families still face obstacles involving rink access, transportation and equipment costs. A promising first experience means little if children cannot afford to return.
Seattle’s expanding recreational leagues give newcomers opportunities to keep playing long after an introductory clinic ends. A family that spends Saturdays at the rink has already made hockey part of its week.
The Toughest Marketing Test Starts After the Novelty Fades
A fan vote can dominate the local conversation for months. Championship parades can fill streets, while elaborate pregame shows turn casual visitors into cheering spectators.
None of those moments reveals what happens when a franchise starts losing.
Utah’s sellout streak measures demand for seats. Florida’s television gains show how many viewers found the games, while Seattle’s participation figures track newcomers learning to play.
How many first-time ticket buyers return without a promotional offer? Do season-ticket holders renew after a disappointing year? Can families afford another term in a youth program?
Local television audiences provide another clue. A supporter who watches every game from home may remain deeply committed even after giving up expensive season tickets. Likewise, a teenager who stops skating because of rink costs hasn’t necessarily stopped loving hockey.
Strong marketing can attract attention, but keeping new supporters involved requires affordable opportunities long after the first event.
Utah has a shared identity that residents helped create. Florida offers easier access to broadcasts and community hockey programs. Carolina and Vegas have distinct arena rituals, while Seattle provides places where newcomers can play alongside experienced skaters.
Then the promotions end.
Renewal notices arrive. Youth leagues open registration. Families decide whether another season of hockey fits their budgets, while teams return to the ice without any guarantee of playoff success.
Some supporters keep attending games. Others watch from their living rooms or spend weekends at local rinks.
For them, hockey has become part of ordinary life.
The real victory for non-traditional NHL fanbases isn’t filling an arena on opening night. It’s giving people a reason to come back when the excitement fades.
READ MORE: The Loyalty Metrics Defining the Most Resilient NHL Fanbases
FAQs
Why are non-traditional NHL fanbases growing?
Teams are attracting new supporters through youth programs, local traditions and easier access to games. Utah, Florida and Seattle show how those approaches work.
How did Utah Mammoth build its fanbase?
Utah involved supporters in choosing the team’s permanent identity. More than 850,000 votes helped shape the Mammoth branding unveiled in May 2025.
How are the Florida Panthers reaching new hockey fans?
The Panthers use school hockey programs, Latino community outreach and accessible broadcasts to introduce new audiences to the sport.
What made the Carolina Hurricanes’ Storm Surge popular?
The Storm Surge brought players and fans together after home victories. Its distinctive celebrations became part of Carolina’s local hockey culture.
How does Seattle Kraken grow youth hockey participation?
The Kraken run introductory clinics and support recreational programs. Their community iceplex gives new players opportunities to learn and keep playing.
