Winnipeg WCF games aren't selling out

[CherryToke]

Is anyone respectable reporting on this?

Didn't think so.

 

[Mobiandi]

Franchises have learned to not care about sellouts anymore. It's more prudent and profitable for them to charge more for tickets and "suffer" the embarrassment of having some empty seats than it is to attract a sellout crowd every night with lower prices.

As for this Jets thing, it's a nonissue borne out of jealousy by the Toronto media

 

[Eternal Leaf]

They have thousands of people standing outside every game. Whether true or not, you have to take the "not selling out" point with a big grain of salt.

Plus, it's Simmons.

Two grains of salt for that alone.

 

[ryerockarola]

125 tickets likely released on game day unsold for one playoff game when the ticket price is jacked up significantly every round of the playoffs compared to the regular season.

13,000 season tickets (out of 15,000) sold out in 17 minutes to get the Jets back with at the time 8,000 people on a waiting list to buy season tickets. The Jets aren't having attendance problems.

 

[almostawake]

Enh, if your are pricing optimally, you should expect a small amount of product to go unsold.

Realistically though, face value of these playoff tickets is over priced. Face value on a WCF ticket is nearly six times the regular season STH cost of the seat. Potential SCF tickets will be more than 8 times.

What does this mean? This means that many STH are selling their playoff tickets at face value for enormous profit. If you'd have sold your playoff tickets at face value thus far, you'd be close to having paid off your 19-20 season tickets.

This is a pretty straightforward result of the economics of how they've priced their playoff tickets coupled with the huge % of their seats that are season tickets.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

How many people defending this are the same people who bashed Ottawa last year?

Seriously.

Half a dozen threads bashing Ottawa last year, but people this season are falling over themselves to defend Winnipeg. Sens had the same problems last year with tickets only released the day of the game and jacked up to insane prices.

 

[Micklebot]

Technically it was a sellout. The empty seats are probably the result of blocks of tickets being held for sponsors/vendors/etc. and third-party websites buying large amounts of tickets and marking the prices up to crazy levels. That happens everywhere come playoff time.

Except that they were available on ticket master mid way through the first.

Jets lose home-ice advantage but that’s not likely to faze them

There were unsold tickets for Game 2 last night and there were empty seats, with towels draped over them, for the whole game at the arena. There were still about 125 tickets available on Ticketmaster midway through the first period.

It's no big deal, the city cleary is supporting the team, and investing a ton of money. Glad the media isn't going drama queen about this with Cherry demanding they move the team to Quebec or Roenick giving his 2 cents on the subject.

 

[Senscore]

Seriously.

Half a dozen threads bashing Ottawa last year, but people this season are falling over themselves to defend Winnipeg. Sens had the same problems last year with tickets only released the day of the game and jacked up to insane prices.

Eagerly awaiting Tim and Sid's new red-in-the-face self righteous grandstanding rant about this.

Any day now.

 

[almostawake]

Oh, and in terms of the long term viability of the Jets. This is utterly laughable. The franchise is perfectly profitable based solely on regular season revenue. Playoffs are gravy. Each playoff game they're raking in at least two times the revenue of a regular season game. So so far they've put 16 regular season games worth of ticket revenue in their warchest. Accounting for only 8 games of game day costs, that is likely closer to 20 games of revenue.

In other words, Jets have already banked half a regular season's worth of additional ticket revenue out of these playoffs. That is money is over and above the profits they already turn season in, season out, based only on regular season revenues.

 

[Devonator]

If Steve Simmons put this out, I think we can safely ignore...Mr. Simmons is notorious for purposely stirring up crap....

 

[Saitama]

Seriously.

Half a dozen threads bashing Ottawa last year, but people this season are falling over themselves to defend Winnipeg. Sens had the same problems last year with tickets only released the day of the game and jacked up to insane prices.

Every time you post, no matter what the post is about, the first reply that's enters my mind is "ach, crivens!"

 

[Karl Eriksson]

Just let staff take any of those for free if unsold after first period.

 

[ryerockarola]

Just let staff take any of those for free if unsold after first period.

Print them and throw them off the Met balcony into the WhiteOut party. Wait, maybe that`s not a good idea.

 

[DKH]

Absolutely a great atmosphere, but the team has been advertising tickets for sale just days before the games, and there are still unsold tickets on Ticketmaster after puck drop.

The famous Bruins comeback against the Leafs in game 7 was not a sell out.

I sit in row 2 Behind the goal Judge and my friend had the two aisle seats. She couldn’t go and I told her I wanted them so I could have all 4 and take friends. She instead sold them the day before to Ace Tickets.

They didn’t move and as the game began we looked at the site and still there so I moved over a seat to block anyone from moving up texted friends to come down late in period.

Right before drop of puck second period an usher came down and showed two college girls where they were sitting - they were from Panama and had just got out of dance and were looking for something fun and different to do.

My daughter was 17 in high school and they weren’t much older so they all got along great - my kid played so she explained the game to them.

The only thing I really contributed was when one asked when it was 4-1 if Boston could come back and my reply was ‘not a chance - zero.’

It was there first NHL game and if you see the famous photo after Bergeron scored the girl in the yellow is one of them

 

[Cletus Marley]

Nobody wants to pay to see Vegas destroy the Jets.

 

[Warden of the North]

It warms my heart to see people from out of market realizing that Simmons is an idiot.

 

[the4thlinegrinder]

I was thinking about going to the game last night but the cheapest pair I saw on ticketmaster was $704. I simply can’t justify spending that kind of money on a hockey game that isn’t the SCF.

I guess a lot of people felt the same way.

 

[mouser]

Also, you’re looking at very old numbers for Winnipeg. The current fan base is ****ing crazy and given the white out street rallies that occur in Winnipeg, I have no doubt they would support a terrible team a lot better than Pittsburgh supported their pre-Crosby teams.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I mean I don’t care obviously Winnipeg is a great hockey market with great fans, gotta also just throw out the whole double standard with the media when it came to Ottawa last year. Good stuff.

 

[Jets4Life]

Not sure if anyone has posted this thread from the Winnipeg Jets sub-forum, but all your answers lie here:

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/threa...-price-per-seat.2490679/page-3#post-146009553

Winnipeg is a working class city, with a metro population of approx. 825,000 people. The sad fact is the Jets have out-priced themselves from the market they are located in. The people that have bought tickets, likely never anticipated that the Jets would make it to the WCF, and since the majority of unsold tickets are going for over $600/seat + 120 ticket processing fees, and many Jets fans realize that they simply cannot afford the prices, or are betting on Winnipeg defeating Vegas, and advancing to the Stanley Cup.

I guarantee the SCF games will be sold out, but the sad fact is there is not enough people in the Winnipeg area with the disposable income to afford to pay these kinds of prices for tickets for every playoff game. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future seasons, if the Jets perform this well. TNSE will either have to drop prices for later rounds, or watch in embarrassment, as there could very well be 1,000+ tickets left unsold next year, assuming the team repeats it's success, and advances to the WCF within the next couple of years.

 

[tgo0]

Looks like a couple hundred.

A lot of people outside though. I'm guessing it's just because they are super expensive.

Nowhere NEAR a couple hundred. I was at the game and there were maybe 20-30 seats that were empty (in blocks/had towels still on). Those were in P1/2 and were FV of ~$600.

My guess is most empty ones were ones that didn’t sell on the resale market.

 

[Jets4Life]

If this is true then it is absolutely pathetic and the team should be relocated..again. Shame on them for failing to fill an AHL size arena. Go Vegas.

Glass houses.

Pittsburgh rarely ever sold out, and nearly moved a few times, due to poor attendance, and the team bled money for nearly two decades. If it was not for Lemieux, Pittsburgh would have moved by the mid 80s, as they had been struggling for at least a decade, averaging under 10,000 fans/game. After Lemieux retired in 1997, the Penguins rarely sold out, and the team was not profitable, and rumors began to circulate that they would be relocated, until Lemieux himself bought the team in late 1999. The Penguins continued to face an uncertain future, and as late as 2007, they nearly moved to Hamilton, ON and Kansas City. It was not until Crosby and Malkin came along, and the team began winning, that the francise began to sellout, and make money.

However, as history tends to repeat itself, my honest belief is Pittsburgh will run into more issues in a few years once Crosby and Malkin are approaching retirement age. At least Winnipeg has grown by as many as 15,000 people a year, since the Jets returned (nearly 100,000 since the return). Pittsburgh metro area has been losing population for decades.

 

[PromisedLand]

So what's the deal? Just insane ticket prices or what?

Edit: another link since people don't believe Simmons. Stolen from @Micklebot


Jets lose home-ice advantage but that’s not likely to faze them

The thread title looked interesting so I came in then saw the tweet is from Steve Simmons

 

[JetsHomer]

300 dollar singles released a few hours before puck drop when most people already have plans. Not surprising they aren’t that desirable

 

[saffronleaf]

let's go veqas!