Last year, Ralph Engelstad Arena at UND had the third best attendance in the 10 years that it's been open, according to figures released by arena management Monday.
There were more than 452,000 visitors during the arena's fiscal year 2011, from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. This was exceeded only by years in which special international events attracted more visitors than usual.
Management said 2010-2011 attendance was primarily driven by UND men's hockey games, which had the second-highest attendance in the NCAA. Fans of men's hockey made up 52 percent of total attendance.
Concerts and other shows made up the rest.
The total attendance over the past 10 years was 4.4 million.
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The biggest attendance the Ralph has seen in one year was 628,000 in 2004-2005 when the arena hosted the World Junior Hockey Championship. The second biggest was 501,000 in 2007-2008 when the arena hosted the World Men's Curling Championship.
The fourth biggest attendance was 441,000 in 2005-2006.
The Ralph celebrates its 10th anniversary on Wednesday.
