Ticket/Attendance Discussion: The Sequel

[Holden Caulfield]

The Bombers actually play a lot on Thursday nights (apparently they ask the league for this so they don’t have to compete with people going to the lake for the weekend).

Actually no. The Bombers have openly critized this year's schedule for having too many home Thursday games. Their attendance is worse on Thursday's vs Friday or Saturday and I imagine their concession sales suffer as well. Wade Miller talked about how frustrating this year's schedule was and how the are requesting a more favorable schedule next year.

 

[snowkiddin]

Actually no. The Bombers have openly critized this year's schedule for having too many home Thursday games. Their attendance is worse on Thursday's vs Friday or Saturday and I imagine their concession sales suffer as well. Wade Miller talked about how frustrating this year's schedule was and how the are requesting a more favorable schedule next year.

That’s interesting, I always heard the opposite. Never anything directly from the Bombers but the chatter (I probably read it from the brain surgeons on Reddit) was the Bombers wanted Thursday games.

I’d be all for them moving games to the weekend because as I get older and move from my early 20s to mid 20s, I’m finding it much harder to work the next day after being out late at the game.

 

[None]

How is Ottawa managing to get more corporate support than Winnipeg when they have fewer corporations?

I assumed that Ottawa was the lower end of that 45-85% range from Mike McIntyre's article+tweet as well. And yeah, there are stats available for metropolitan areas and businesses. Winnipeg is closer to Edmonton/Calgary than they are to Ottawa. There's really not many excuses for our local businesses.

The organization hasn't done a great job in embracing local either though. It only took 12 seasons for local beer options and the tender was put out so late that the only breweries that could reasonably bid were the breweries that already had excess capacity.

 

[Joe Hallenback]

That’s interesting, I always heard the opposite. Never anything directly from the Bombers but the chatter (I probably read it from the brain surgeons on Reddit) was the Bombers wanted Thursday games.

I’d be all for them moving games to the weekend because as I get older and move from my early 20s to mid 20s, I’m finding it much harder to work the next day after being out late at the game.

It used to be bad to have Bomber games on the weekend because of the Lake crowd but nowadays you can't afford to buy a Cabin so more people are around and the tickets to a game are pretty good price

 

[Holden Caulfield]

That’s interesting, I always heard the opposite. Never anything directly from the Bombers but the chatter (I probably read it from the brain surgeons on Reddit) was the Bombers wanted Thursday games.

I’d be all for them moving games to the weekend because as I get older and move from my early 20s to mid 20s, I’m finding it much harder to work the next day after being out late at the game.

From July..
There was a bump in season tickets this season, Miller said, though he didn’t discuss exact numbers. Miller added he’s a fan of the new Sunday games, that he prefers CFL weekend games rather than doubleheaders on Friday.

The Bombers prefer Thursday and Friday home games, but Miller, while certainly not complaining, would prefer fewer Thursday games than the Bombers have now, which is at a league-high four.

Blue boss Miller talks shop

The 3downnation article had more info, but I can't seem to find it now.

 

[roccerfeller]

https://x.com/mikemcintyrewpg/status/1714700337020338534?s=20

View attachment 754384

That’s really low support from the corporate community

Winnipeg has some rich companies and more corporate presence than Ottawa. Maybe we shouldn’t be pointing the finger at the general fan support but rather the corporate community to step it up even a little bit

 

[None]

That’s really low support from the corporate community

Winnipeg has some rich companies and more corporate presence than Ottawa. Maybe we shouldn’t be pointing the finger at the general fan support but rather the corporate community to step it up even a little bit

For what it's worth that's what the Jets were apparently trying to target with their marketing drive last year. I'm skeptical but that's what was claimed.

 

[jetsmooseice]

That’s really low support from the corporate community

Winnipeg has some rich companies and more corporate presence than Ottawa. Maybe we shouldn’t be pointing the finger at the general fan support but rather the corporate community to step it up even a little bit

Winnipeg is not the kind of town that's going to have a lot of large corporations buying up tickets like in Toronto or NYC. I'd be surprised if there were many IG/Canada Life type corporations that didn't already have season tickets.

But there are probably a lot of smaller businesses that have tickets held in the name of the owners. So a lot of those personal accounts are "corporate" in a manner of speaking. John Smith Auto Body might not have season tickets, but John Smith himself, personally, might. This is the cohort that needs to step up IMO. They are the people with capacity to pay the freight on season tickets, not Joe or Jane Wageslave.

 

[bustamente]

As long as the lower seats, loge and private boxes are generally full the Jets will be is good shape, more popular teams will bring in fans for sell outs this year. Every team even the mighty Black Hawks had real lean years that saw 10k in a 20k arena, or even a lesser teams like the Coyotes and Panthers that had consistently crowds under 10k. Jets 1.0 and Jets 2.0 have vastly differently business models and Chipman has revenue that the Jets 1.0 owners could only dream of.

 

[oldcoot]

If I were TN, I would consider keeping TV production in-house like Vegas and offering streaming subscriptions---maybe $299 a season or $9.99 a game. Then reducing seat prices enough so the building is full. That might create more revenue and reduce the difference between paying $200 a seat and watching for free at home.

 

[tbcwpg]

32 Thoughts: Why it's important to showcase NHL player personalities

In this week's notes Elliotte Friedman writes about the media demands on Connor Bedard and the growth of the game, Cale Makar's historic career start, and much more.

www.sportsnet.ca

18. To take this a little further, what’s happened in Washington and Winnipeg is a lesson on why teams are nervous about total rebuilds — even if some of their fans want it. It’s early, so I hesitate to draw too many conclusions, but the Jets drew 11,226 Tuesday against Los Angeles, their lowest non-COVID crowd since returning to Manitoba. The Capitals’ 588-game sellout streak ended Monday versus Calgary.

Jets fans love their hockey, and Washington is a tremendous market where the team missed the playoffs for just the second time in 17 years. There are contributing factors, such as day of the week, cost to attend games, overall quality of the game presentation, etc., but it comes down to one major thing: winning. And, in a gate-driven league, not everyone’s willing to take the big-rebuild chance.

 

[roccerfeller]

Winnipeg is not the kind of town that's going to have a lot of large corporations buying up tickets like in Toronto or NYC. I'd be surprised if there were many IG/Canada Life type corporations that didn't already have season tickets.

But there are probably a lot of smaller businesses that have tickets held in the name of the owners. So a lot of those personal accounts are "corporate" in a manner of speaking. John Smith Auto Body might not have season tickets, but John Smith himself, personally, might. This is the cohort that needs to step up IMO. They are the people with capacity to pay the freight on season tickets, not Joe or Jane Wageslave.

That is fair, and I agree Winnipeg is not going to compete with Toronto or NYC

But 15% in a city that has more head offices than Ottawa?
Never mind the crown corps, that’s a low number

Now if Ottawa has similar corp support sure then it’s different but implications of that tweet are that winnipeg is hitting below its weight in that area

 

[Gm0ney]

This thread sums it up pretty well. One organization is fostering a fun gameday experience, while the other is doing its best to stamp out fun.

https://x.com/JetsPope/status/1714745839589965929

 

[MardyBum]

Downtown always will be the problem, and the inability to just stand around and get hammered and walk up like young people love to do.

I know so many f***ing people that treat it as a pregame lol.

 

[The Blue Baron]

Not sure Gary would allow them to be relocated. Way too much money in new Franchises now. If this gets too tough for Mark they would most likely have to sell to someone who would keep the team in Winnipeg. Things were pretty rough in Ottawa attendance wise for a while with a rebuild and a troubled owner and yet they were able to sell the franchise for close to $1 billion. Ottawa is a little bigger than Winnipeg but it is by no means a desirable market image wise either. Its also a government town so their business community is modest by NHL standards.

Professional sport properties as an asset class have seen a huge uptick in the past decade. One of the underlining numbers driving it is the explosion in growth of Billionaires in North America.

I don’t love seeing the empty seats early in the season but nobody who has owned a business said its easy. Mark needs to roll up his sleeves and keep grinding.

Or perhaps grind less and let the hockey operations people do what they feel is best for the on ice product. Chipper may not be Jerry Jones involved but sure as heck is in Chevys room frequentry.

 

[nobody imp0rtant]

I’d be all for them moving games to the weekend because as I get older and move from my early 20s to mid 20s, I’m finding it much harder to work the next day after being out late at the game.

 

[WiscoJet]

Lots of theories. I have come to the conclusion that it is a giant mess. I really don't see any easy way out. They definitely took their customers for granted, I don't know how you dispute that at this point. My question for everybody is how much winning would bring folks back? My fear is a lot of customers that left are just simply fed up and the relationship is broken no matter what. I ask myself if they had as much success as the Carolina Hurricanes would the barn be full? I honestly don't know the answer but that is the most successful team I could think of who hasn't one "the big one" in the past couple years.

I live in Wisconsin and the Winnipeg metro size is a lot closer to Madison than it is to Milwaukee. I couldn't imagine Madison supporting a big 4 franchise and that is with large cities within a 2 hour drive. I think of all the big 4 franchises that have neighboring metro areas within a couple hours drive and the Jets don't have this luxury at all. Thinking about it, it is kind of crazy how you guys have filled up the barn year after year.

 

[Buffdog]

TNSE really needs to get a big group of former season ticket holders who don't attend games anymore together and ask them why. Some kind of focus group

 

[MarkWheeler]

Winnipeg fans for all sports are very fair weather.
Bombers didn’t draw flies for years.
Jets had a few boring years and now the economy for some has made games a luxury purchase.
So the perfect storm.
There are several NFL stadiums playing to less than capacity also.

What?! They had one year that wasn’t.

 

[MarkWheeler]

Biggest factor though is there are over 4x the number of games. Also the Bombers play exclusively on weekends so hard to compare in that regard.

Go look up how many Thursday home games the Bombers had this season. It’s far from exclusively on weekend.

 

[MarkWheeler]

Jets need a better mascot. Mick E Moose doesn’t cut it. I have herd rumors he will be replaced.

He’s always been lame right from day 1, come up with something original, don’t just take the safe route on everything.

 

[cbcwpg]

How is Ottawa managing to get more corporate support than Winnipeg when they have fewer corporations?

nothing specific to Ottawa but corporate support, or lack of that support, is the same as saying a city can support a team because they have a large population (Arizona).

its not about how many corporations a city has, it’s about how many are willing to support the team. Winnipeg could have 1000 large corporations, but it means nothing to helping the team, if the team means nothing to them.

 

[pegcity]

Jets season tickets are at 9500, per Dreger.

 

[snowkiddin]

Lots of theories. I have come to the conclusion that it is a giant mess. I really don't see any easy way out. They definitely took their customers for granted, I don't know how you dispute that at this point. My question for everybody is how much winning would bring folks back? My fear is a lot of customers that left are just simply fed up and the relationship is broken no matter what. I ask myself if they had as much success as the Carolina Hurricanes would the barn be full? I honestly don't know the answer but that is the most successful team I could think of who hasn't one "the big one" in the past couple years.

I live in Wisconsin and the Winnipeg metro size is a lot closer to Madison than it is to Milwaukee. I couldn't imagine Madison supporting a big 4 franchise and that is with large cities within a 2 hour drive. I think of all the big 4 franchises that have neighboring metro areas within a couple hours drive and the Jets don't have this luxury at all. Thinking about it, it is kind of crazy how you guys have filled up the barn year after year.

So that’s where the WisoJet username comes from …

 

[WiscoJet]

So that’s where the WisoJet username comes from …

Yes it is. As a child my dad taped the all star game and I had it on in the background on a loop daily as I would fire balls on net in my basement. For some reason I loved the jets logo on the graphic when they talked about teemu. I remember going to that website frequently about bringing the jets back in the mid 2000s.

The lockout really pulled me away from even being a casual follower of the nhl until the 2010 Olympics. I really got into that with team USA. Every team I thought becoming a fan of didn’t seem natural until the jets came back. Then I was all in from day 1. I could cheer for a city and team that most reminded me of the Green Bay packers. People don’t want to believe it but the packers would have had a really rough time surviving with the product on the field in the 70s and 80s if revenue sharing wasn’t enacted.

I hope the jets will be alright but it will be a tough pill to swallow if this isn’t the bottom of the trough.