Clarifying for a UNO perspective (not many boards out there to read up on college hockey)....
The novelty of a brand new arena was a selling point for the opening series, nothing more. If you look at UNO's attendance numbers ever since the program started, it has been steady in the 4-6 range. Support for the team is higher than ever. Season tickets sold out and more students are attending now that the arena is on campus (and serves beer). Still room to grow, though. There is a very solid core of dedicated fans down here. Even when Husker football and Creighton basketball were playing at the same time (very popular local events) UNO still got a great turn out for the Minnesota-Duluth series.
Here are the current attendance numbers (first is the attendance, second is the size of the arena, the third represents the percentage of the arena that is filled each game):
1) North Dakota 11,738,-11,634, (100.9)
2) Minnesota 9,680-10,000 (96.8)
3) Wisconsin 8,690-15,325 (56.7)
4) Nebraska-Omaha 6,698-7,898 (84.8)
5) Minnesota-Duluth 6,387-6,600 (96.8)
6) Penn State 6,091-5,782 (105.3)
7) Colorado College 6,020-7,343 (82.0)
8) Massachusetts-Lowell 5,455-6,003(90.9)
9) Michigan 5,351-5,800 (92.3)
10) Boston College 5,307-7,884(67.3)
11) Denver 5,200-6,026(86.3)
12) Ohio State 5,004-17,500(28.6)
13) Connecticut 4,982-9,000(55.4)
14) Michigan State 4,903-6,470(75.8)
15) New Hampshire 4,871-6,110(79.7)
18) St. Cloud State 4,293-5,159(83.2)
31) Western Michigan 2,875-3,667(78.4)
38) Miami 2,435-3,200 (76.1)
All Big 10 teams are in the top 15, but I would say the NCHC is still represented pretty well. Not much of an argument to make against the NCHC as far as attendance goes.