Attendance to the 34 North Bay Battalion games this past season was down.

The team says 88,433 fans took in the 2016/17 campaign, which averages out to 2,601 spectators per game.

That’s a 21.8 % drop from last year when the Battalion averaged 3,327 a game, for a total just over 113,000.

This was also the first year after the three year initial season ticket commitment to help bring the team here had expired.

Owner Scott Abbott says the team had a disappointing season on the ice and missed the playoffs for the first time, but the difficult economic climate also played a role.

He says they have work to do in growing the attendance back.

According to the website www.hockeydb.com North Bay had the lowest attendance in the OHL last season.