Christina Tsimenis, Commentary Editor

Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena seats 3,386 hockey fans who want to watch Quinnipiac’s Division I nationally ranked men’s and women’s ice hockey teams. But the only team that routinely sells out the rink, leaving hundreds of fans with standing room only tickets, is the men’s team. The women’s team had an average attendance of 518 for the 2025-26 season, counting 16 regular season home games and three home ECAC quarterfinal games. 

For an even more glaring comparison, men’s ice hockey’s 8-0 victory over Yale on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, had an attendance of 3,625. Meaning almost 300 fans were standing on the concourse during the biggest rivalry game of the season. Meanwhile, just one week later, on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, the women’s ice hockey team had a  4-3 overtime win against Yale for its final game of the regular season. There were 876 fans in attendance according to recorded data. That’s a difference of 2,749 fans. 

The attendance for all games is available on gobobcats.com, Quinnipiac’s athletics website. In an email, Matt Calcagni, Associate Athletic Director, Ticketing & Operations wrote, “The most accurate and publicly available attendance figures for both men’s and women’s ice hockey can be found on our official athletics website within each game’s box score. At this time, we typically rely on that same reported data for historical reference.” 

Both teams were ranked as low as No. 5 in the USCHO poll at some point this past season and both teams made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. The women’s team was also arguably the better Quinnipiac hockey team this season. It won the ECAC Championship, while the men struggled at home in the ECAC Quarterfinals, getting swept in two games by No. 8 Clarkson. But why does the women’s team not have the unwavering support of the students and community like the men’s team does? 

Jennifer Sacco is a Professor of Political Science and Women’s & Gender Studies and Chair of Philosophy and Political Science at Quinnipiac. She had some insight to share about the feminist theory behind this disparity in attendance. 

“Well, sometimes it has to do with timing, right, like who gets the premium playing time, you know, what’s the better day for people to attend, what’s the better time slot for people to attend. Sometimes it has to do with promotions, you know, and I think the university does a pretty good job of promoting attendance for women’s sports…” Sacco said. 

Looking at each team’s schedules, the women’s team’s puck drop is 6 p.m. on Fridays and 3 p.m. on Saturdays. Some puck drops when the team was away at other ECAC schools were even as early as 2 p.m. Looking at the men’s schedule, most of their ECAC home and away games had a puck drop of 7 p.m. Some outlying non-conference home and away games, however, started as early as 4 p.m. This is consistent across all of D1 hockey, with men’s Big Ten games starting in the evening, usually around 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. While their Western Collegiate Hockey Association women’s team counterparts’ games are usually in the morning, afternoon or early evening. This disparity in scheduling is something that can be causing the difference in attendance, since most fans might be at work or running errands on a Friday or Saturday afternoon. 

From the perspective of the players and coaches, why is it so important to have a crowd showing up to support the team? Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey junior forward Kahlen Lamarche talked about what having fans in the crowd means to the players. 

“​​When you have a big fan base at home, it kind of taunts the visiting team. So it kind of gets in their head in a way… Having a good fan base also motivates you to want to play well as a player because you obviously don’t want to let anyone down in the stands. I think it just makes us play hard and also you want to win in front of your fans because that’s how you’re going to get them to come back,” Lamarche said. 

Assistant Coach Amanda Alessi also talked about how having a big crowd makes the team want to win more. She said, “There’s so much pride around playing with that Quinnipiac logo on the front of their jersey, and we are a hockey school, so I think whenever there are big crowds, it just gives that kind of extra boost, an extra motivation to want to score, to want to win, and to want to kind of impress the people that are that are in the crowd for sure.”

Lamarche and Alessi both brought up the fact that the physicality of the men’s game might be something that draws a bigger crowd.

“A lot of it probably has to do with, like, the physicality of men’s hockey and they also won a national championship, like, only three years ago now…
So, like, I think that’ll still always kind of bring them fans, you know? Um, and just men’s hockey always kind of has that they got, like, that big atmosphere and that big hype around them. Um, it’s also always cool. I think, to watch, like, you know, future NHLers, like [Ethan] Wyttenbach and Mason [Marcellus]…” Lamarche said. 

Professor Sacco says that while the men’s national championship definitely drew more people into attending hockey games that have never been before, their often sold-out games weren’t always the case. 

“The fact that the men did win a national championship drew people into hockey games that never attended before, right? And so you’re still seeing the effect of that because it was just what, three years ago? And so you still see people who show up to men’s games now who did not used to 10 or 15 years ago. You know, I’ve been at Quinnipiac 20 years. And so I’ve watched the attendance at both these things and the men’s hockey was not always sold out. ” Sacco said. 

In its third year, the Professional Women’s Hockey League has been selling out arenas around the United States and Canada. It has been breaking records and barriers for women’s hockey, bringing more eyes than ever to professional women’s hockey players. 

“​​I think that it’s gonna hopefully bring more people to watch our games just because it’s a professional league now, like so many girls are gonna want to play hockey and just watching, you know, hoping that you can be an idol for someone…” said Lamarche,  “I think you’ve already seen a rise in little kids just wanting to kind of go pro and you hope that that league stays afloat for so many years so that when they get to that age, they can play pro.” 

Lamarche is hopeful for the future of women’s hockey fandom. Former Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey players like Zoe Boyd, Kati Tabin, Kendall Cooper and Logan Angers just to name a few are all a part of the PWHL. 

“​​It’s fast, it’s fun, it’s competitive,” said Alessi. “The games are exciting. The skill level is high. I think you’re gonna enjoy it, and, you know, it’s not to take away from the men. It’s just another opportunity when the men are on the road. Like, there’s still hockey going on over here at the hill, so we’d love to have you out.”