Bettman: "Salary Cap will NOT go down next year"; and GMHockey investigates NHL attendance

wprager wrote:Well, another week, another drop in the attendance. I'll keep saying "Still early" until it's not anymore.

wprager wrote:Well, another week, another drop in the attendance. I'll keep saying "Still early" until it's not anymore.

wprager wrote:Don't give me grief about the scale. Originally I had the min set to 16,800. I expected the average to waver a bit around last year's average or slightly below -- it *did* start above the 2009 line.

You want to see a trend, you have to zoom in. Fact remains, it has been steadily dropping. The only good thing is that I'm pretty sure the average is dragged down by the likes of Florida and Phoenix -- those places give tickets away, so if the average is down by 1,000 (which looks like a very achievable number at this point) then it's not a shortfall of $150 x1,000, but more like $15 x 1,000. Still, even at such a low average ticket price, $15K multiplied by 6,632 games is still close to $100M.

As half-full arenas become the norm on too many nights, hurting teams are getting aggressive in novel (and cheap) ways to get peole in the seats. The bargains are enough to make ticket buyers in Toronto sick. A tour around some of the more challenged teams revealed the following offers:

- In Tampa, try the Holiday Pack where $96 US gets you a pair of tickets for three games of your choice, an autographed Victor Hedman hat and a $10 food and beverage voucher.

- In Columbus, the Guys Night Out promotion gives you two tickets, two beers and two cheese coney dogs for a mere $60.

- In Anaheim, for select games fans can get two tickets, a pair of hot dogs and wash them down with two beers all for $41.

- Even in Detroit, the self-professed Hockey Town of the U.S., the Wings are all but giving away tickets again this season. Granted the economy is woeful in Motor City these days, but the Wings announced yesterday they will sell $9 tickets for selected games.

- The Coyotes have yet to get into the deep discounting yet, but for every win fans can turn in the ticket stub for a voucher for a future home game.

davetherave wrote:Mr. Bettman responds to The Prager Investigation:

davetherave wrote:Mr. Bettman responds to The Prager Investigation:

wprager wrote:

davetherave wrote:Mr. Bettman responds to The Prager Investigation:

Wow, I didn't realize I was *that* tall ... or he was that short.

wprager wrote:Another week, another drop. Hot on the news that Leafs@Sens failed to sell out, the average attendance is down another 105.

Edit: Actually I don't know if they sold out or not. There were close to 3,000 left the afternoon before the game so I'm just assuming.

Tuesday night’s meeting between the Senators and the Toronto Maple Leafs — usually a slam dunk sellout — drew an announced crowd of 17,406 to Scotiabank Place, which has an official capacity of 19,153 but can hold up to 20,500.

According to attendance figures published in the Senators’ game notes, through 12 homes games this season, the Senators have attracted 217,808 fans for an average of 18,151 fans a game.

The Senators averaged 19,081 for the entire season last year meaning the Senators are down an average of 930 fans a game. It’s believed the NHL’s average ticket price is in the ballpark of $56 US, and it’s probably reasonable to assume the Senators’ is slightly more than that.

That would mean the dip is costing the Senators close to $56,000 a game. Projected over an entire season, that comes out to a loss in ticket revenue of $2.3 million US. The hit to the bottom line, of course, is much more than that since having almost 1,000 fans fewer at the rink means fewer cars parked, hot dogs eaten and beers consumed.