ottawah
Registered User
- Jan 7, 2011
- 3,509
- 641
What I know is that Phoenix is affecting nearly half of public servants by last count. That's a negative pressure on their disposable income, which is going to impact ticket sales.
It is not affecting half of public servants not even close. The number of cases is about half of what the public servants are, but many have multiple cases logged against themselves.
I work in Ottawa in the public service and know a good number (100's) of people working in it and no one I know has had an issue. Now obviously there are issues, but they seem to be mainly affecting people in shift work (which are 99% regional, not Ottawa), people on maternity/paternity/sick leave who are not likely going to game anyways.
You are very correct, however, in your comment on "disposable income". I just got my first raise in 4 years this month. It was worth 5%. And the raise before that was worth 4% for the previous 4 years. Federal servants in the past 10 years have been significantly behind the rest of the country in raises and account for 10% of all people (not just working people) in the entire region. When you consider a 66% employment participation rate that means 1 out of 6 working people are directly employed by the federal government in Ottawa, and with families with at least one public servant likely closer to 1 in 5 who before this month saw a 2% after tax raise over 8 years, that means "disposable income" in Ottawa compared to the rest of the country, inflation and game day costs, has been sinking dramatically. Its not a wonder that Attendance has taken a hit.
You can argue location (downtown attendance sucked before was great where it is now), Pheonix (which I personally do not see), but everyone I know who had cancelled season tickets through the years cite costs as the primary reason.