USA Hockey Enrollments Fell Due To Lockout

On the excellent USA of Hockey Blog, Chris Peters writes about the latest statistics from USA Hockey on last season's level of participation. I found this snippet on Illinois of particular interest:

Of the states that include an NHL team, aside from D.C., Illinois was the biggest grower. The Land of Lincoln grew to a record high of 27,638, representing a 4.41 percent increase from the previous season. It’s not that difficult to see what is stoking hockey’s growth in the state. It’s actually rather remarkable to look at the numbers.

For almost a decade, USA Hockey’s membership in the state of Illinois was essentially flat, hovering between 21,000 and 22,000 hockey players statewide. The Blackhawks resurgence basically started in 2008-09 when the team made the Western Conference Finals and kind of turned the corner it seemed with new ownership. Since 2009-10, hockey in Illinois has been on a precipitous rise. In 2008-09, there were 21,954 players statewide. As of 2012-13, Illinois’ hockey participation has grown by more that 25 percent in the “resurgent years” for the Blackhawks.

Considering almost a decade of stagnancy in membership, this 25 percent bump in a state that has hovered between the fifth and sixth highest hockey-playing population of any state is pretty incredible.

Illinois had the infrastructure to support such growth with plenty of rinks, particularly in the Chicago area and surrounding suburbs, so that helps a lot. The Blackhawks appear to be a huge spark, though. Considering interest in the team was even higher this year, expect another increase in Illinois in 2013-14′s numbers.

The full post can be found here.

We know that some of that growth occurred in Tier II hockey.


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