Will Sens sell out their playoff games?

[frightenedinmatenum2]

8 years of no playoffs should be enough incentive to sell out the playoffs IMO.

Season ticket base is far from where Leeder likes it to be which is 13k. I would guy it's 8-9k for STH this year.

Generally Ottawa is a massive walk up market and having one of the cheapest if not cheapest tickets in Canada you don't have to sell an arm and a leg to see live playoff hockey.

I generally agree with you - and I hope for a sellout, but what I am getting at is that if it's not a sellout I am not going to look too much into it because of where the team is currently at with the SSM base after how the team was handled by Melnyk since 2012.

 

[thinkwild]

You could make an argument that if the Sens do sell out all their playoff games, then they didnt set ticket prices high enough and left money on the table. Being just shy of a sellout could mean they maximally milked fans for the most revenue possible, an apparent fan goal.

Went to a movie the other day and the theatre was half empty. I hope we arent going to lose our movie theatres if people dont start selling out all the movies.

 

[bert]

Barring a complete collapse, it’s looking promising that the Sens will see some post-season action! IIRC, last time the Sens were in the playoffs, there was at least one home game (vs the Rangers?)where they didn’t sell out. What are the chances that this happens again? IMO it’s disgraceful for a Canadian team not selling out a playoff game!

It was a few single tickets. It happens to lots of teams but Sportsnet pushed the story. Too bad you didn't mention any of that.

Of course they will sell out the games.

 

[bert]

Yeah, the last time the Ottawa people blamed the owner and ownership group. Lets see if those whiners actually buy a ticket and support their team! Or are they going to blame Trump that tickets are too expensive?

Attendance has been way better since the disgraceful owner is gone. Or did you miss that?.......

 

[bert]

If it's confirmed that it's the Leafs, and they sell packages for anywhere near what they offered for renewal, they are all going to sell out.

A SSM could buy an extra pair of 300 level seats to ALL ROUNDS for 4K, and get back 2k-3k of that just by selling the first round.

I am not going to sell my first round tickets, but I don't blame anybody who sells part of their package when a single pair of tickets will probably pay for the entire round of 3 games.

At this point as a STH you can only buy your seats. There might be an opportunity this week to buy more we are waiting. I share my seasons with someone so it was no brainer we bought the entire playoffs as that's the only choice we had. We tried to buy more but we couldn't at this point.

Each round gets more expensive. On average the ticket price was about 100 dollars more per game than they cost in the regular season. For those complaining about the prices. This team has a salary cap of like 135 million Canadian. They have spent money everywhere and delivered a winning product. Save your tears for someone else.

Cant wait to be back in the building for playoff hockey. The atmosphere has been amazing the last 2 months. Hope most of the rest of the games left are sell outs.

Also I won't be selling any of my playoff tickets if the sens play the leafs. I have no issues with regular season. But not the playoffs f that.

 

[bert]

What an ignorant thing to say. By how you humble brag on here all the time, you seem to be quite secure financially.

Things have not been good economically here for a few years, so I find it difficult to just tell people to pony up.

I have a ticket package and 2 tickets, if we played 3 home games each series en route to the Cup, would cost me over $7k. That's insane, and that's just to get in! No parking or concessions.

So while I want a sold out barn, the cost is absolutely something that has to be considered.

Wish I could like this post 10 times... It's pretty obvious this person is not what they like to represent online in real life. People simply don't talk that way if they are wealthy.

I see with my 6 month absence the same people have dug in... You gotta admire it, they won't go down easy. The pro melnyk gang is hanging on no matter how much everything has obviously improved. It's proven beyond a doubt how terrible he was with how quickly, obviously and easily Andlauer has changed everything about this organization for the better.

Also FYI those prices are based off of playing the full 16 games. Not 12, they have to assume the maximum when selling right now. It's a bout a 40% mark up.

 

[Hotsam Batcho]

It was a few single tickets. It happens to lots of teams but Sportsnet pushed the story. Too bad you didn't mention any of that.

Of course they will sell out the games.

It was 1500 shy of a sellout for that one game vs the Rangers

500 shy of a sellout for one of the ECF games against the Penguins as well.

 

[bert]

It was 1500 shy of a sellout for that one game vs the Rangers

500 shy of a sellout for one of the ECF games against the Penguins as well.

It was not that much. Please show your work.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Probably. The city has a population over a million, and there will be some folks also looking to get tickets for whoever our opponents will be.

You also have to remember, that Phoenix (was it called Phoenix??) government pay screwup really hurt a ton of people the last time we made the playoffs. And those government workers are the main demographic for Sens ticket holders in the area.

 

[StoicSensFan]

Wish I could like this post 10 times... It's pretty obvious this person is not what they like to represent online in real life. People simply don't talk that way if they are wealthy.

I see with my 6 month absence the same people have dug in... You gotta admire it, they won't go down easy. The pro melnyk gang is hanging on no matter how much everything has obviously improved. It's proven beyond a doubt how terrible he was with how quickly, obviously and easily Andlauer has changed everything about this organization for the better.

Also FYI those prices are based off of playing the full 16 games. Not 12, they have to assume the maximum when selling right now. It's a bout a 40% mark up.

Careful now, we might get some Italian beach vacation pictures.

 

[Hotsam Batcho]

It was not that much. Please show your work.

Game Summary

I was there for game 6 vs the Penguins and there were rows of empty seats in the 300s

Senators 2-1 Penguins (May 23, 2017) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Ottawa Senators vs. Pittsburgh Penguins NHL game from May 23, 2017 on ESPN. Includes all goals, assists and penalty minutes stats.

www.espn.com

 

[thinkwild]

Didnt sell about 2,000 tickets for one playoff game. That's nearly a quarter million dollars in revenue lost out on. Understandable why salaries had to be cut back by $10mil after that.

 

[Hotsam Batcho]

Didnt sell about 2,000 tickets for one playoff game. That's nearly a quarter million dollars in revenue lost out on. Understandable why salaries had to be cut back by $10mil after that.

To be fair I believe they had a few home games that sold over capacity. Not sure if it made up for the ~3k in total empty seats but I recall some games had over 19k in attendance

 

[jbeck5]

Yes. I think this is accurate… and unacceptable

If I remember correctly it goes like this:

2023-2024: attendance started off really strong with new ownership, but waned as the season went on and it was obvious no playoffs...but some tickets were already purchased so still decent attendance.

2024-2025: attendance started a bit more reserved after missing the playoffs AGAIN. As the season went on and playoffs started looking realistic, attendance has started to trend up. Still have almost 1/4 of home games left, where most, if not all will be above that average, continuously bringing it up, and higher than last year.

I would expect quite a few sellouts. Especially home games where they can clinch a spot. Will be pure "woohoo" celebration in and around the building. Honking horns in the parking lot (and not because they're impatient) and sens flags waving everywhere.

Maybe they lose 1 or 2 and extend those sellouts for a few games lol

 

[jbeck5]

I have no idea of the demographic of the posters here, but you don't have to be paycheque-to-paycheque in order to consider how you spend your money.

Lots of people these days make good money and have to be smart. Maybe spending $X on a night of hockey doesn't add up.

I think they asked a few years ago and most were 30 or older and if someone was like 20 they were considered a young pup.

Whereas back in like 2005, message boards were like 90% people under 30...if you were 30 you were a grandpa.

Heck, even when I worked minimum wage at sportchek, me and my sisters decided to go to a round 3 game against Pittsburgh in 2017. I think it was game 6? I they they won game 5 in overtime to go up 3-2 and we said "f*** it, buying $100-150 tickets in the nosebleeds" at midnight lol. That was making $12.75 an hour or whatever min wage was back then.

You'll make room financially if you care. I'm well more able financially now, but have a baby at home so it's more of putting the family first. I don't want to be saying "sorry wide, you're on your own" while I go away for 4 hours when I can just record the game and start it an hour later and FF through everything and get the game done in 1:15 and finish it live. I can pause and help out with the baby and be there for my family.

But in a few years I'll be taking my kids to games though.

 

[bert]

Didnt sell about 2,000 tickets for one playoff game. That's nearly a quarter million dollars in revenue lost out on. Understandable why salaries had to be cut back by $10mil after that.

Which game was that?! Only one i saw the attendance was 18,111

 

[bert]

Game Summary

I was there for game 6 vs the Penguins and there were rows of empty seats in the 300s

Senators 2-1 Penguins (May 23, 2017) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Ottawa Senators vs. Pittsburgh Penguins NHL game from May 23, 2017 on ESPN. Includes all goals, assists and penalty minutes stats.

www.espn.com

18,111 show me the game they had 16500 for a playoff game please. Thats what your claim was.

 

[thinkwild]

Which game was that?! Only one i saw the attendance was 18,111

Yeah i was just being silly. I thought i remembered that Rangers game they were saying 2000 tickets didnt sell, but i dont trust my memory anymore. I think you're right, it was less than that. But my labored point was that even if there were 2,000 unsold playoff tickets at say $200 each, that's less than a quarter million dollars of foregone revenue which was hard to reconcile with the claim that therefore salaries need to be pared back to the floor. And as Hotsam noted, other games were over capacity. And also my first thought would be that they priced them too high, not that fans didnt perform their duty.

 

[Hotsam Batcho]

18,111 show me the game they had 16500 for a playoff game please. Thats what your claim was.

It's in the very post you quoted. The first link

 

[bert]

It's in the very post you quoted. The first link

They had 18,111. You claimed there was a game with 2000 empty seats. Show me the playoff game where the sens had 16,500 attendance in the playoffs. It didn't happen but you claimed it did. Please show me.

 

[Hotsam Batcho]

They had 18,111. You claimed there was a game with 2000 empty seats. Show me the playoff game where the sens had 16,500 attendance in the playoffs. It didn't happen but you claimed it did. Please show me.

Are you being difficult on purpose?

The post you quoted had 2 links. First one was against the Rangers second one was against the Penguins.

Also I never claimed they had 16500 in attendance. I said they had 1500 shy of a sellout but it was even more than that.

 

[bert]

Are you being difficult on purpose?

The post you quoted had 2 links. First one was against the Rangers second one was against the Penguins.

Also I never claimed they had 16500 in attendance. I said they had 1500 shy of a sellout but it was even more than ththat.

If they had 1500 shy of a sellout the attendance would have been in the 16000's.

 

[Hotsam Batcho]

If they had 1500 shy of a sellout the attendance would have been in the 16000's.

A sell out is 18500.

Attendance for that Rangers game was 16744.

18500 - 16744 = 1756 unsold tickets.

 

[Karl Eriksson]

They always have. So yes.

 

[OmniSens]

Eastern Conference first round is apparently starting April 20th. I'll be in Toronto from the 24th-27th (Which is probably when game 3 and 4 will be in Ottawa)... Otherwise, I'd be there!