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Edmonton Oilers latest homestand shows concerning attendance trend

Offside Staff
Offside Staff
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Oct 29 2026, 10:53 pm
Edmonton Oilers latest homestand shows concerning attendance trend
Perry Nelson/Imagn Images

The Edmonton Oilers are seeing a downtick in attendance this season.

Throughout the last five seasons, the Oilers are tied for fifth in the NHL with a .658 points percentage, have the third most playoff wins, and boast some of the most exciting players in the NHL in Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard.

The team is off to one of the best starts in franchise history at 9-2-2 through 13 games, and McDavid is scoring at a record pace. Fan excitement should be bursting through the roof, but Rogers Place attendance levels have been unremarkable early on.

Just 17,032 fans attended the first Battle of Alberta of the season on Thursday night, more than 1,000 short of selling out the 18,347 seats in Rogers Place. It may not seem like a big drop, but people are starting to take notice of the empty seats on social media.

Edmonton has just two sellouts through the first eight home games of the season: the home-opener against the Vancouver Canucks and last weekend’s matchup vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs. The six other games fell below the mark.

The team’s recent five-game homestand accentuated that declining attendance, as all but a single game failed to reach capacity. A date with the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes yielded the smallest crowd, with just 16,420 attending the game.

Here are the official attendance figures from Edmonton’s latest five-game homestand:

  • 16,420 vs. Carolina Hurricanes
  • 17,032 vs. Minnesota Wild
  • 18,347 vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
  • 17,043 vs. Detroit Red Wings
  • 17,032 vs. Calgary Flames

A downward trend

On the surface, those numbers may not seem that bad. Selling 17,000 tickets out of a possible 18,347 is still over 90 per cent capacity, but it’s a stark drop-off from what the team has posted in previous seasons.

Since the 2022-23 season, the Oilers have ranked near the top of the league in average attendance, with numbers coming either close to or above Rogers Place capacity:

2022-23: 17,838
2023-24: 19,173
2024-25: 18,437
2025-26: 18,308

The Oilers have seen that average attendance fall to 17,308 so far this season, which is just over 1,000 empty seats per game. That puts them 21st in the league, according to Kalshi.

It would be unfair, however, to attribute attendance problems solely to the Oilers. Other successful teams have also had issues selling tickets, including the Vegas Golden Knights, who saw a 420-game sellout streak come to an end earlier this month.

NHL attendance overall has taken a slight dip one month into the new season, with an average crowd of 17,545 as compared to last year’s average of 17,651.

Are high costs having an impact?

It’s impossible to quantify every possible reason as to why fans aren’t buying tickets in the volume that they used to, but we can make some educated guesses.

The thing that is most likely preventing Rogers Place from selling out every game is the cost of everything. NHL tickets are more expensive than ever these days, with the cost of the cheapest available standard-price tickets for the Oilers’ next home game against the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 5 sitting at a pricey $111 for upper bowl seats as of Oct. 29.

Even if fans are willing to spend the high price of admission, they will still encounter inflated prices at the concession, where a single beer costs $16.50 at the cheapest, and a regular bottle of Aquafina water goes for $9.

Combine those skyrocketing prices with a poor economy where more people are having to budget their money more than ever, and it’s possible that going to an Oilers game is simply too expensive for a lot of people.

The Oilers have attempted to alleviate some of those high costs, introducing a series of “Decade Deals” to help out at the concessions, but it remains to be seen if that will move the needle.

Even watching the game at home has become more expensive, with many Oilers fans lamenting Sportsnet for paywalling Monday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings.

Formenton effect?

Edmonton was also the subject of a controversy before the season started that may have put a little bit of a dent in their fan support.

The decision to sign Alex Formenton, who was one of five players named in the 2018 Hockey Canada sexual assault case, did not go over well with sections of the fanbase. Though he was acquitted on all charges, many fans detested the decision and renounced their Oilers fandom as a result.

Mary Loewen, also known as Mama Stanley, was the most vocal in her opposition to the Formenton signing. The former superfan said she would no longer cheer for the Oilers as long as Formenton was a part of the team, and started a petition asking to reverse the signing that has garnered over 75,000 verified signatures.

mama-stanley-oilers

mamastanleyyeg/Instagram

It’s impossible to say just how much that signing could have affected attendance levels, but it’s certainly something to consider when seeing lower-than-expected turnouts.

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