Columbus Thread IV (All City/Arena Questions, Ticket Exchange, Meetups, etc in here)
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Lots of tickets available on Ticketmaster. I guess the good news would be less whining from CBJ fans about having obnoxious Red Wings fans sitting near them at the game or, while watching the game on TV, complaining about how it looks like a Wings home game.
I think Portzline posted earlier this year that the CBJ were expecting to sell more tickets this year due to more interest in Eastern Conference teams (closer for visiting fans and that CBJ fans would have more interest in teams like Toronto, NYR, Philly, etc), but CBJ have been pretty disappointed. Hopefully, a good playoff series or two will ignite some interest.
The Jackets need to win back the casual fans. That will take a playoff series win to do. Until then, attendance will be in the 13,000 -16,000 most games. As has been pointed out before, the Hawks and Pens were drawing squat back in the early to mid 2000's and Wings crowds at the old Olympia could be sparse - people like winners.
I wonder if regular season attendance will ever return to what it was in the first 7 years. Something has happened and I don't think it's just the losing. They were coming when we lost big then.
Either it's too expensive for the common man (the economy sucks)
Or technology makes it comfy from the home.
Dunno....
It was new and exciting, then two stoppages and a decade of lousy hockey ensued. The honeymoon excitement has worn off and I think that only winning will reignite fan fervor.
Even if the CBJ win a playoff series, I don't ever see us drawing big numbers on weekday nights. I really don't see it in this market. The reason we drew well in the beginning was because of the novelty of the new team in town. Maybe if this team wins multiple Stanley Cups, we could sell out hundreds of games in a row, but I just don't see it with the economy, and especially the rise in ticket prices. I don't think there's enough disposable income amongst the "common man" or family in this city.
I think you'll still see the Saturday night sellouts, but Tuesday nights will perpetually be in the 13,000-16,000 range, IMO.
I think you'll still see the Saturday night sellouts, but Tuesday nights will perpetually be in the 13,000-16,000 range, IMO.
Mayor Bee
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- Dec 29, 2008
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Every team has an early window where attendance will be high regardless of success. This applies for both when the team comes into existence and when there's a new venue that they play in; the Indians, for example, had been terrible for years but saw huge attendance when Jacobs Field opened.
No, the real problem is fairly simple: the OSU monolith. I think there are a lot of people under age 25 who find the whole "you can either be an OSU fan or a CBJ fan, but you can't be both" idea to be completely idiotic, but they're not the ones buying season tickets. It'll take a few more years to purge that type of thinking, and as long as I'm alive, it'll never be completely gone.
But as long as the mid-week focus on 97.1 or 95.5 is entirely on OSU football and basketball, only switching for a few minutes for two weeks in March, then it will continue to be an issue.
Bobcat110
Registered User
Some people posted other good responses, but here's another big reason:
Personal Seat License (PSL)
The CBJ sold some 13,000+ or so of them to get the team. They cost $750-$3,000 per seat to buy just so you could then buy season tickets to the game. Once purchased, people felt a little vested in renewing their seats. It was a feeling of "I paid a fee to buy these seats, I don't want to throw them and that PSL fee away". As the years of losing mounted, that feeling went away.
Recently, there's been almost no value of being a season ticketholder. You can walk up most nights and buy a $10 seat. I think a couple good playoff series' will cure this problem.
Viqsi
"that chick from Ohio"
I dunno how much radio you've been listening to lately, but 97.1 actually does talk Jackets hockey a lot more frequently nowadays. They still don't do so intelligently, but, hell, the same can be said about their Buckeye coverage.
Novelty was certainly there for first 2 years. Other thing I would suggest is lot of folks paid premium prices in years 2-5 to watch bad hockey with little effort. It's different if you're team fights hard but just doesn't have the talent but some of the crap we saw (and heard from ownership, front office, players, coaches) was a turn off.
Winning will cure most things. PSls certainly hurt. If/when the CBj start winning and it gets tough to get good seats for games then it would force more folks to invest in season tickets, for now noone has to do that.
Additionally I would say (unless you are an autograph hound or have kids) that the perks of a PSl holder are not great (I like the "discount", rebate for prepaying, discount on fan bucks and the opportunity to buy extra playoff tickets before general public would be great if we got to use more often), but most of "perks" I have no interest in. Again if/when we start making the playoffs then the ticket perk before the general public will be huge. Will tick off (again) lot of the general public that they can't get tickets, but that is what drives season ticket sales.
Winning will cure most things. PSls certainly hurt. If/when the CBj start winning and it gets tough to get good seats for games then it would force more folks to invest in season tickets, for now noone has to do that.
Additionally I would say (unless you are an autograph hound or have kids) that the perks of a PSl holder are not great (I like the "discount", rebate for prepaying, discount on fan bucks and the opportunity to buy extra playoff tickets before general public would be great if we got to use more often), but most of "perks" I have no interest in. Again if/when we start making the playoffs then the ticket perk before the general public will be huge. Will tick off (again) lot of the general public that they can't get tickets, but that is what drives season ticket sales.
Mayor Bee
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- Dec 29, 2008
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I usually get more and better coverage from 96.3 in the morning. Of course, it usually goes something like this.
ELLIOTT: "Welcome back to Torg and Elliott. We're joined now by Blue Jackets president of hockey operations John Davidson. John, it's been quite a run lately, but no one's been able to solidify a playoff spot. How do you see the last four weeks of the regular season shaping up?
DAVIDSON: "First, thank you for having me on the show. Yeah, it's definitely been an extended hot streak, and this has become a really tough team for opponents to play against, and..."
TORG: "HI JOHN. I USED TO COVER HOCKEY IN PHOENIX AND IN MINNESOTA. DO YOU REMEMBER SHANE CHURLA AT ALL? YOU KNOW THAT THE NORTH STARS ALWAYS WON A TON OF GAMES AND IT WAS BECAUSE THEY HAD A BUNCH OF GUYS LIKE HIM AND BASIL MCRAE. BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER SINCE BRASSARD GOT TRADED AND HE WAS THE REAL REASON THIS TEAM NEVER WON ANYTHING."
AUDIENCE: (facepalming, either mentally or physically)
jacketsnc33
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- Nov 24, 2007
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Fro
Cheatin on CBJ w TBL
Viqsi
"that chick from Ohio"
I couldn't comment on what Torg's up to now.
Never listen to him.Frankly, a goodly portion of why I approve more of 97.1 is that they actually legitimately advertise Blue Jackets games nowadays, and not always during or near hockey games either.
So I get to attend my only game of the season tomorrow (Wooo!!!)
Anyway, it's been about a year and a half since I've been to the arena district and I know they were starting a parking garage by the ice haus when I was last there.
Any tips on parking and congestion when I head up there? Not sure what to expect at the moment.
Thanks!
Anyway, it's been about a year and a half since I've been to the arena district and I know they were starting a parking garage by the ice haus when I was last there.
Any tips on parking and congestion when I head up there? Not sure what to expect at the moment.
Thanks!
Columbus Mike
2015-16 CBJ
- Feb 21, 2008
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For a mid week game there shouldn't be any parking issues. Plenty of spots will be available in garages or ground lots.
That garage right next to the Ice Haus is like $15 or $20, I think. If you don't mind a SHORT walk (we're talking like 1 city block), you can park in the garage next to BD Mongolian's $10, or the garage on Front Street attached to the Hilton hotel is $10 as well.
Depending where you are coming from (I'm assuming southern Ohio since you said 'up there'), likely to hit some traffic out in the suburbs (Grove City area), but once you get into the city, heading into the downtown shouldn't be bad on a Thursday night.
Thanks man
, heading in from Louisville so didn't want to get there and be wholly confused when I don't recognize anything!10 dollars would be good. Don't need to be too close since I'm not old quite yet!
End of Line
Sic Semper Tyrannis
- Mar 20, 2009
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I couldn't comment on what Torg's up to now.
Frankly, a goodly portion of why I approve more of 97.1 is that they actually legitimately advertise Blue Jackets games nowadays, and not always during or near hockey games either.
97.1 is getting better regarding to talking about the Jackets and hockey in general. If the 3-6 slot wants to be better, they need to put T-Bone on another show, again. I cannot stand listening to him talk about sports he has no clue about and constantly going off topic for 5-10 minutes at a time.
Man....there are tons of lower bowl tickets at a very nice rate on Stubhub for the Carolina game Tues. Looks like another dud crowd unless interest picks up quick.
Iron Balls McGinty
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- Aug 5, 2005
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True, but look at Friday's game with the Rangers. That should be a rocking crowd that night. The return of Rick Nash. Playoff position on the line in a key divisional match up on a Friday night.
Hopefully....Gene Smith (OSU AD) will probably engineer a bracket setup where OSU will play their tourney game at 7PM (Friday) just to spite the CBJ lol.
Again....Carolina on a Tuesday night doesn't exactly move the needle. I'd like to reverse this and see how many fans Carolina would draw for the CBJ on Tuesday. Something tells me it would be pretty similar.
I'm not sure why people are expecting 19,000 fans for a game like this in this market.
Viqsi
"that chick from Ohio"
I can't see why it wouldn't; it's such a thrilling, classic Original 30 rivalry...Again....Carolina on a Tuesday night doesn't exactly move the needle. I'd like to reverse this and see how many fans Carolina would draw for the CBJ on Tuesday. Something tells me it would be pretty similar.
I'm not sure why people are expecting 19,000 fans for a game like this in this market.
And to piggyback on this....Columbus has always been an "event" type of sports town. The bigger the name, the bigger the crowd. Even OSU football has trouble selling out games from time to time. Check out the issues they had with selling tickets to the Florida A&M non-conference game last season. They practically had to give them away. OSU basketball struggles mightily to sell tickets to non-conference games against no-names. Big Ten games and non-conf games vs. Kansas and the like are usually close to sellouts.
That's why I think, even if the CBJ gets in the playoffs and wins a couple games, matchups like this in the years to come will still be a struggle attendance-wise. (Although I'd love to actually, you know, win a playoff game and see what effect it actually has.)
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If Ticketmaster is any indication, it will be a pretty decent crowd on Tuesday. While there are still a decent number of tickets left, I was surprised how many lower bowl seats are spoken for. Add in the fact that OSU is back from break which should boost student rush sales, and I bet the Jackets get at least 14,500.
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