JMoney, if you listen to Les on the radio he gives some valid reasons as to why the attendance is so bad during the first half of the season.
First, you have the Riders who take a lot of attention away from the Blades when the season is on. Then you have all these high def TVs so people can plop their lazy ass on a couch and watch the NHL, which by the way I don't follow much anymore since the dinosaurs that run the league don't seem to be protecting the safety of players much, and propping up teams in markets that shouldn't have a team in the first place. Anyhow....
You also have a lot of kids involved in minor hockey, and the kids are playing games when they could be watching the Blades, plus the equipment and fees are stupidly high so I can see how some families can't afford it. Plus, I think once the weather gets warmer people get out to the games more, because there are hockey fans in Saskatoon, and most will wait to go to a meaningful playoff game with a full house rather than sit in a building with only 3300 for a regular season game.
Remember Holtby's last year here? When we won game 6 vs. Lethbridge the next day the game 7 here was sold out, thus furthering my point above. Whether you call them bandwagon jumpers or not, they are hockey fans, first and foremost, and I think most of them will fill the rink to watch a meaningful playoff game. Think about it, the Riders have been inconsistent in the last few regular seasons, and they manage to draw people from all over the province who drive for hours to watch them play. Maybe people were waiting to see if the Blades would hit the skids at some point during the year, which they didn't.