First home game with no audience number restrictions for Kitchener Rangers
The Kitchener Rangers’ 5-1 win over the Sarnia Sting on Friday marked a significant milestone.
It was the first home game at the Aud with a full capacity crowd allowed in the stands, under the province’s recently relaxed restrictions.
“There’s only been six days’ notice compared to three or four months, which is when regular season games are released,” said Rangers COO Joe Birch. “You have that time to prepare.”
While the puck dropped at 7:30, doors were open an hour before and saw lines to get in.
“It’ll be nice to see everybody because it’s been so long since we’ve had this,” one fan said before the game.
Max capacity at The Aud is 7,777, but staff expected just shy of 5,000 of those seats to be filled.
The Rangers usually sell about 5,000 season tickets, but were only able to sell about 65 per cent of that for this season.
Fans have to show proof of double vaccination and wear masks when they’re not eating.
“We’re really happy where we’re at with for tonight’s attendance,” said Birch.
Last Friday, the Rangers were allowed 50 per cent capacity and able to sell out.
Birch adds that, just because they’re not filling up all 7,000 seats this Friday, they’re confident attendance will keep rising in the coming weeks, as pre-pandemic crowds typically started to get bigger after mid-November.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Competition bureau finds 'substantial' anti-competitive effects with proposed Bunge-Viterra merger
The proposed merger of agricultural giants Viterra and Bunge is raising competition concerns from the federal government.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Canada's favourite sport to watch is hockey, survey shows
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs have already delivered a fever level of fan excitement in Canada.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.