Made with many notes from Director of Marketing Jacob Faith’s
The 2023-2024 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League campaign was certainly its best yet.
Several metrics back that statement up.
Attendance in arenas was up 9.72 percent from the 2022-23 season across the league, with half of the 12 SJHL markets reporting increases of over 10 percent, and three of those well over 20 percent.
That level roared ever higher in the playoffs, as the eight markets in the post-season reported a whopping average of 1,250 paid fans per game, up 71.52 percent from the regular season.
Social media traffic was off the charts.
Over 423,000 unique viewers logged in to SJHL.ca during the post-season, and the website was viewed just under 4.5 million times between the beginning of the playoffs on Mar. 22 and the end on Apr. 30.
While Twitter (or X) engagement remained consistent, the league added 1,808 new unique followers on Facebook and experienced a 357% growth in engagement on that platform from the fans.
Similarly, on Instagram, fan engagement per post was up nearly 30 percent.
All this is to say, we the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League media team this season, in partnership with IKS Media, have worked hard to create fresh new content to provide exposure to our incredible players, coaches, communities, and fans and hockey world in general have more-than done their part to engage with us.
The games themselves were viewed at a historic rate.
Approximately 330,000 minutes were watched on FloHockey and IKS Media’s presentation of the SJHL’s Warman Showcase in mid-November, while 3,130 unique viewers on average watched the four SaskTel TV Games of the Month in Kindersley, Weyburn, Melfort, and Melville.
On top of the remarkable, sold-out rinks in the final between the Melfort Mustangs and the Flin Flon Bombers, an average of 4,719 unique viewers per game tuned in to the SaskTel TV broadcast.
The players easily reached the 1,000 home goals scored to trigger a $20,000 donation from SaskEnergy to the Goals for KidSport program designed to provide funds to make sports participation more affordable for youth in Saskatchewan. Spencer Bell of the Humboldt Broncos, who ultimately led the league in goals, hit the mark on Feb. 24.
It was the 10th consecutive year of SaskEnergy’s participation in the programme.
The Battlefords North Stars won the ‘KidSport Cup’, a trophy awarded yearly to the team in Saskatchewan who scored the most home goals.
At the time of this writing, 57 players from the 23-24 SJHL season have committed to post-secondary hockey programs, including a wide and impressive variety of programs from the United States’ NCAA and ACHA levels, and Canada’s USport and University club levels.
Thanks to all of you fans, family, friends, players, and communities for making this a season to remember!
A message from our Commissioner Kyle McIntyre:
“On April 30th, the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League crowned the Melfort Mustangs the Canterra Seeds Cup and SJHL Champions.
Another tremendously competitive SJHL season has now concluded and our Canterra Seeds Cup Champions won the right to represent the SJHL at the Centennial Cup. The Melfort Mustangs were outstanding ambassadors and representatives both on and off the ice and came within one goal of bringing home the first SJHL Centennial Cup since 2014.
I want to thank our tremendous sponsors and friends for their unwavering support of our league, their interest in our athletes, and their passion for Junior “A” Hockey.
The SJHL has never been stronger on or off of the ice. This year our FloHockey viewership was up just over 300% and our overall fan attendance was up in both our regular season and playoffs!
We continue to aspire to develop the whole player- both on and off the ice. We aim to produce student athletes and future citizens for our SJHL communities and our province.
Thank you for accompanying us on our journey this past season. Thank you for ongoing support and your interest in helping to make the SJHL Canada’s Premier Junior “A” hockey league.”
