Re: Maine Hockey 2013-2014 - Red White Bleeding Blue...
That makes perfect sense. Price tickets at $50 and then give them away. And apparently they give them away to people who then don't go to the game. But they remain available on the website, because there must have been a thousand of them according to Bob (even though there aren't that many $50 seats in the building). No wonder things at the university are so screwed up.
Priceless you seem to continue to defend and now are comparing Maine to the Bruins or I'm sorry Columbus. You say it is only a couple hundred for sale, and lord knows you take the time to count them. All I can tell you is that when I went on the site to buy tickets for the last home game there were way too many for sale at $50 each. So Columbus is a good example, like Orono it's a college town! So let's say the new NHL franchise moves to Bangor, into a 6,000 seat arena. What is the goal of this new business. Is it A) to charge as much as possible extracting every dollar from ticket holders? Or is it B) to fill the building, introduce new people to the product, get people to buy merchandise, tell friends about the experience and have people come back for more?
If your answer is A congratulations you are the current University of Maine! In a small market your goal is to get as much as possible from the people who have been feeding the program for years, and have succeeded in not only disenfranchising many of your former patrons by placing them out of the market, you also have succeeded in not introducing new people to your product. The example, as you point out so well is that not only are there $50 seats available, there are also plenty of $23 seats. Why? Because the market can not "bear" this price tag!
If you want to run a SUCCESSFUL business you price your product to meet demand and leave some money in the wallets of your fans so they can spend money on your insignia products, programs, concessions, and on reinvesting in the program.
I disagree vehemently with those who are afraid that if they ask for less their current season ticket holders will give less. The goal is not to sell the same amount of tickets, it is to sell MORE! These season ticket holders should be rewarded for their past contributions and if it means $50 tickets are now $30, make a one time plea to these donors to give more this year in donations. I know were it me, and having seen the product last year I would be more enthused and be willing to give more. So if I am saving $400 on season tickets maybe I would be willing to give an extra $200 to the University. But it has to be done, the Orono community can not support these ticket prices and as a result we will continue to see more blue seats vacant. Penny wise pound foolish, yankee frugality be ****ed! Believe in your product and the dollars will come back.
Shawn built this place and the people will come, but first give them a chance to come back! I can't begin to tell you how many games we took our daughters to when they were kids. Both daughters enjoyed going to games so much, had jerseys, and for our oldest she watched the pep band and decided one day she wanted to be up in the balcony as a member of that pep band. That daughter fulfilled her goals and spent four years playing in the pep band and is a proud Maine alum. Today, given the ticket prices and what I was making back at the start of my career, neither one of my daughters would have been going to games, and my wife, a lifelong fan now, would have stayed home. The result would have been less interest in the sport and one less student at the University of Maine. $100 for 4 $23 tickets for a young family is way too much money for a college hockey game. Especially in Orono, Maine.
