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.
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“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.”