The Winnipeg Sea Bears may have been eliminated from the Canadian Elite Basketball League playoffs, but the club — in just its second year in operation — continues to rewrite the league’s record book.
The Sea Bears announced Thursday that the 86,275 fans who attended the 10 home games at Canada Life Centre in 2024 set a new league record — by a significant margin.
Those numbers smashed the previous record single-season attendance record of 55,029, which the Sea Bears also set in their inaugural CEBL season.
“We did not expect to grow it again the amount that it did,” team president Jason Smith said.
“It’s a bit surprising, although we had a great home record, so the basketball team played well. The folks that run our game-day presentation do an excellent job.”
Smith said there are early indications the Winnipeg club will continue to have a strong fan turnout in 2025, especially as the Sea Bears are set to host the CEBL championship weekend next season.
“We’ve had quite a few people, when they’ve renewed their season tickets, opt in to get tickets to championship weekend already,” he said.
“It looks like we’re going to have a very engaged fanbase, which will be a fun opportunity for us to do a lot of things that hopefully will have a lot of fan engagement next year.”