Paul Kukla touched upon this issue this morning, and I want to talk about it as well:
According to NHL.com’s game sheet, the announced attendance at last night’s Red Wings-Blue Jackets game was 19,515, but The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline and the Detroit News’s Gregg Krupa noted that the rink was…not full:
either no-shows or folks taking advantage of the amenities, elsewhere.
@LCArena_Detroit #RedWings pic.twitter.com/MWaOgpaUYl
— gregg krupa (@greggkrupa) October 5, 2018
My understanding is that a significant number of full and partial season-ticket holders did not renew their seats for this season, which is why the Red Wings are aggressively pitching $20 seats and are working very hard to advertise that the product’s trending younger…
But it’s hard to pay X amount for tickets, then pay $15-25 for parking, and pay arena prices for concessions when you’re a single person or pair heading to the rink, never mind a family of 3 or 4.
It’s very, very early, but it appears that the fans don’t feel that the Wings provide enough bang for their buck, and they’re voting with their butts.
I certainly hope that the Wings can sell more tickets as the season progresses, and I hope that the fans feel that they’re getting a solid return on their investment, but I get the feeling that we will be seeing a lot more empty seats this season as the “new rink” excitement has worn off, and the reality of witnessing a mediocre team at top-dollar prices has hit the fan base.
What do you think about the situation?
I went to 2 preseason games, one with the full family (4 of us). We dropped over $100 on food and drinks. Nothing crazy…pizza, chicken tenders, soft pretzel, the usual. I had 2 beers, the wife had a glass of wine and the kids each had a pop ($5.50 for a 20oz bottle). Lucky for me the tickets and parking pass were free. Otherwise, there is no chance that I would have went. For the 4 for us to go, buying tickets, parking and concessions it’d easily be a $400-$500 evening (plus an hour drive each way). And their $20 ticket has you basically sitting in the U.P., no thank you.
People were still finding their way to their seats, but a couple minutes into the second period I did a count of people actually seated in the sections behind the benches (121/122/123) and came up with fewer than 100. It filled in better as the game continued (but still not great) but it’s an ugly look when the cameras turn back on.
We were in M13, with an empty seat on one side of us and two on the other.
I took a look at Ticketmaster around midday on Tuesday and there were 354 tickets available, including resale. There were 227 on StubHub, some of which I assume were duplicates.