France, one of the two host countries of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship together with Germany, has a new attendance record. 25,182 fans watched an outdoor game of the domestic league.

The game in Lyon between the local team, the Lyon Lions, and regional rival Grenoble Bruleurs de Loups took place at Parc Olympique Lyonnais, the stadium of the football team of France’s third-largest city.

With the attendance, Lyon took away the previous French attendance record from its archrival Grenoble, which hosted an outdoor game three years ago in a smaller stadium that was attended by 19,767 fans.

The previous records were held at the French Cup Final at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris with up to 13,364 at the indoor venue. The arena in the Bercy district of the French capital, which was recently refurbished and extended, will host the 2017 Worlds together with Cologne in Germany in May.

Only on the ice Lyon, which leads the Ligue Magnus, didn’t manage to beat its rival. Grenoble won 5-2 – the 16th consecutive victory – to move to third place.

MARTIN MERK