seasons tickets

[hockey4]

How many season ticket holders does ur team have? I went on rebels web site under the season ticket section and i saw their season ticket holder map. WOW, i knew we had a lot but there are barely any seats left that arent held by season ticket holders. I was trying to possibly add 2 more for next year but man there are no good seats left. They must have 5300 of them. This comes back to an arrgument i ahd with a buddy the other day that the westerner better buck up for some expansion money and put another 500-800 seats in there.

[rezstyle]

Ironically, this reminds me of a case study from one of my marketing classes back in college. Don't remember the team nor town it was referring to, but they had a similar situation. Marketers thought they were doing everything right when they filled season ticket holders seat throughout the arena. This meant they had no walk up sales. Well, a few years down the road these people were dying off, moving, and just plaing not renewing their tickets for some reason. Well, since fans were use to be told they didn't have any seats for walk ups, they stopped coming. Ended up the team couldn't survive in that city and had to move.

[ihlemic10]

I heard at the start of this year that the Silvertips had around 3300 Season tickets. You can still walk up and buy 1st row in the lower bowl, just got to know where to look.

[RunTheGoalie]

Calgary had something like 6500 last year during the lockout. They obviously lost some when the Flames returned, but I believe the Hitmen are still well over 5500.

[Swando]

Giants must be near or over 5000 as I haven't been to a game where there has been less than 6000. Between the goal lines in the lower reds are all sold to season ticket holders as well as a few in low rows of the upper section. The Giants close off the upper section with large curtains to make it a friendlier atmosphere and on special nights they open up the top. Tonight on fan appreciation night and the night the Giants won their division over Kelowna we had 10,000+ fans and the building seats 15+. Come play-off time I'm sure we'll draw that every night. If the Canucks are out of it, it will be packed.
An intersting side not--the Giants offer several night of garanteed win where you can cash in your season ticket for a $5 sports action bet and get a ticket to a Giants game. I redeem these and give the tickets away and every person attending loved the entertainment value. That's promoting our game.. The best in North America WHL!!! :groovy:

[rinkrat]

The Hitmen are the class of the league for attendance.They had 17,000+ a feww days ago! The Giants had over 16,000 in the playoffs last year.Great crowds!

[Swando]

Thanks for mentioning that Rinkrat. I was tring to think of who drew an enoumous crowd. The Hitmen! Do you notice that it's the Oilers that are going to own the Jr. team---following suit with Calgary. That supports my point that "MARKETING" is the key. Let professionals market a "better" product. It's really to bad that smaller markets can't afford to replace some of the older/poor vision buildings. Maybe it's only a matter of time.

[RunTheGoalie]

Well, you can be sure that the Oilers are looking at the Hitmen averaging 8870 (and drawing 31,000 fans to their last two home games), the Giants averaging 6939 and the 67s drawing 8151 - against the NHL.

You are absolutely correct that the key is marketing. Even against a first place Flames team that sells out every game, both the Hitmen and Roughnecks are carving out their best seasons at the gate ever (excluding the lockout) becuase both are promoting the hell out of their teams.

In the case of both Calgary and Vancouver, the lockout really helped them, as it gave them the best exposure in their franchise histories. Towards the end of last season and the playoffs, the Hitmen were getting coverage usually reserved for the Flames or Stampeders. That has obviously carried over into this year, as the Hitmen's average of 8870 represents a 17% increase over 2003-04, when they averaged 7570.

[ynot]

I wouldn't even want to take a guess at the waiting list for season tickets for the Tigers. It's impossible to even get a game ticket for the Tigers. Does anyone know how many consecutive sell outs they've had now? I think I lost track when they were just over a hundred.

[puckcollector]

i heard last night it was 131 sellouts

[hockey4]

Red Deer, Calgary, Kelowna, ect.... had only 4006 seats in their building, their sellout streak would be a hell of a lot longer. I dont think red deer has had crowd that small since 1999. Thats well over 200 games and over 250 if u include playoff games.

[Bran]

Red Deer, Calgary, Kelowna, ect.... had only 4006 seats in their building, their sellout streak would be a hell of a lot longer. I dont think red deer has had crowd that small since 1999. Thats well over 200 games and over 250 if u include playoff games.
Well, that's probably the case for most teams in the league...

If there is one team in this league that needs a bigger building though, I think it's Medicine Hat. They're going for a bigger rink in MJ, but they don't sell out all of their games as it is. I'm not saying they couldn't sell more tickets if they had a bigger building, or that there isn't a need for a new building, however, there isn't the same demand for tickets as there is in MH.

[RunTheGoalie]

Adding more seats isnt the only reason why you would want or need a new building.

Luxury suites, club seats, better concessions, effeciency, better concourses, better parking. All things that help the bottom line considerably.

[Tinner]

There has been discussion in Red Deer about adding more seats. The Centrium has room for about 3000-4000 more seats if they fill in ends on the 2nd tier.

As for the Rebels, I'm sure they could sell more season tickets, for sure more walk ups for certain games, but selling out with the bigger capacity wouldn't be a sure thing except for some games and any playoff dates that might happen.

From a fans and the Westerners perspective, the extra seating would be welcomed and from a residents point of view, the extra seating would bring in bigger concert acts and trade shows, making the full use of the building more often thoughout the year.

All that said, I can understand some of the hesitation to build new rinks for only 1 full time tennant. In Medicine Hat's case, the rink seats 4000 +- and to build a new rink the seating should be in the 7000 seat area, mainly because its got to last for 25 years of growth. But the question is, the team may never fill it just because of the current population. On the upside though, the rink is aged and they need something better, located somewhere better, which gives the proponents an edge.

There have been new rinks built lately that are already not big enough and no thought by designers was given as to rink exspansion, which seems strange.

[Bran]

Adding more seats isnt the only reason why you would want or need a new building.

Luxury suites, club seats, better concessions, effeciency, better concourses, better parking. All things that help the bottom line considerably.
Absolutely. I said Medicine Hat needed a bigger building, probably more than most teams. There are other places that could use new buildings, not necessarily bigger. A bigger building in Regina would be nice, not necessarily for hockey though. Moose Jaw badly needs a new building, however, if they had a better building the same size as the Civic Centre, there wouldn't be the same demand for tickets as Medicine Hat and a bigger building probably wouldn't be necessary. If that makes sense at all.

[RunTheGoalie]

True enough. I misread your post somewhat. I agree that in some places, like Moose Jaw, no extra seats are likely needed in an arena, but as rebel39 mentions, future growth planning would be wise to be included.

As far as the Rebels go, I wonder if the rebuilding phase will affect the discussion on expanding the Centrium? A couple down years might pull crowds back down to levels easily accomodated by the current layout.

Not that it necessaraly means anything, but the Rebels put 6313 "officially" (about 5700 in reality) into the Centrium for the last game against Calgary this year. The last game vs Calgary last season was an arena record of around 7200.

I have heard this mentioned as an excuse not to replace the Medicine Hat Arena as well. "They wont fill it if they start losing again, so why bother?"

[Bran]

I misread your post somewhat.

I don't think you did, I think I worded it wrong. :spineyes:


Not that it necessaraly means anything, but the Rebels put 6313 "officially" (about 5700 in reality) into the Centrium for the last game against Calgary this year. The last game vs Calgary last season was an arena record of around 7200.

Didn't they get into trouble a few years back for overfilling the arena?

[RunTheGoalie]

Probably. I remember being there about three years agp for a game 7 between them and Medicine Hat, and they had people standing on stairwells, and anywhere else they could fit them.

At that 7200 game last year, the fans were more orderly - I think the endzone temporary bleachers they have now were not there for the MH game, so there werent people blocking aisles.

However, on the topic of expanding the Centrium, I really don't believe they could expand it by more than 1000 at the most. Certantly they could add 3-4000 seats, but the concourses are way, way, way too small to accomodate 10,000 people. They are terrible at 5500.