Postseason Attendance

[Sean Pickett]

I have been researching Hockey East teams' attendance and have the official attendance figures for almost every game back to the start of the 2002 season. One thing I have noticed is almost every postseason series has had lower average attendance than the regular season average. For BU the postseason average used to be higher when they required season ticket holders to buy the playoff tickets as part of the package. But since they changed that policy BU's postseason average has dropped from an average of 3,599 for 9 playoff series from 2005-13 to an average of 2,399 for 3 playoff series from 2015-17. This has gotten me to question how many teams require season ticket holders to pay for playoff tickets in advance and if it truly does affect postseason attendance, hence this poll.

Sean

 

[Riz]

Re: Postseason Attendance

At Denver, you must pay for your NCHC first round tickets with your season tickets and are refunded if they don't host the first round. Hockey East seems a little trickier though because of the bye round.

 

[Sean Pickett]

Re: Postseason Attendance

Hockey East seems a little trickier though because of the bye round.

Not really as each Hockey East team can only host one series, so requiring season ticket holders to pay for the postseason games still holds. However, I don't know which Hockey East teams include the postseason games in the season ticket package and which don't (other than BU).

And thanks for taking the time to answer the poll.

Sean

 

[ericredaxe]

Re: Postseason Attendance

Hi Sean,

Not sure how it might affect your poll and answers, but there is also the answer of "Not included in season tickets but bought and used some (but not all) of the postseason games".

For example, I could not go this past weekend on Friday or Saturday, but if the series had gone to a third game, I would have purchased tickets and gone on Sunday.

 

[Riz]

Re: Postseason Attendance

Not really as each Hockey East team can only host one series, so requiring season ticket holders to pay for the postseason games still holds. However, I don't know which Hockey East teams include the postseason games in the season ticket package and which don't (other than BU).

And thanks for taking the time to answer the poll.

Sean

I guess I meant to logistics of sending the tickets out for HE since it's not certain which weekend you'd be hosting. It would be easy to bill for sure. Maybe there's an issue with them billing and not sending out the tickets that prevents them from wanting to bill the season ticket holders up front? I know, with Denver you have your playoff tickets as soon as you get all your other tickets with the date, time, and TBD team. Obviously, if they don't host the tickets are not valid.

Hi Sean,

Not sure how it might affect your poll and answers, but there is also the answer of "Not included in season tickets but bought and used some (but not all) of the postseason games".

For example, I could not go this past weekend on Friday or Saturday, but if the series had gone to a third game, I would have purchased tickets and gone on Sunday.

This does make things more confusing. With Denver, you couldn't even get Sunday tickets until there was for sure a game three in the series; so no season ticket holders were billed for this game. The building would have been VERY empty if there was a game on Sunday.

 

[Sean Pickett]

Re: Postseason Attendance

Hi Sean,

Not sure how it might affect your poll and answers, but there is also the answer of "Not included in season tickets but bought and used some (but not all) of the postseason games".

For example, I could not go this past weekend on Friday or Saturday, but if the series had gone to a third game, I would have purchased tickets and gone on Sunday.

I actually though of this scenario (after creating the poll), but I do think (and I certainly hope) that it should be a very small minority overall. Since you posted your response I do have it and if anyone else also bought tickets and ended up being unable to use them they can post a comment as well.

Sean

 

[Sean Pickett]

Re: Postseason Attendance

I guess I meant to logistics of sending the tickets out for HE since it's not certain which weekend you'd be hosting. It would be easy to bill for sure. Maybe there's an issue with them billing and not sending out the tickets that prevents them from wanting to bill the season ticket holders up front? I know, with Denver you have your playoff tickets as soon as you get all your other tickets with the date, time, and TBD team. Obviously, if they don't host the tickets are not valid.

When BU included them in the season ticket package I believe that they usually came with just Quarterfinal Game 1, 2 & 3 printed on them; no opponent, time or date. Now I guess they would say Playoff Game 1, 2 & 3 if BU still included them in the season package. BU also used to charge for all three games up front and give you an option of a refund or credit on next season's tickets. Since BU only had 2 series in the first 9 years at Agganis not go 3 games refunds were not really much of an issue. Since changing to not including playoff tickets as part of the season tickets BU has not had a game 3. From that perspective I'm all for BU keeping things the way they are now.

Sean

 

[ericredaxe]

I actually though of this scenario (after creating the poll), but I do think (and I certainly hope) that it should be a very small minority overall. Since you posted your response I do have it and if anyone else also bought tickets and ended up being unable to use them they can post a comment as well.

Sean

Interesting. I was actually thinking it could be a large percentage in that situation... Particularly those who might personally go to all of the playoff games but might not use all their tickets to all the games (example wife and kids would want to go to one game but not all three)

Thanks for compiling this. It Will be interesting to see the results.

 

[tape]

Re: Postseason Attendance

Just seeing this thread now and thought I'd chime in with what Lowell's been doing.

I have season tickets and every year you have the option to pay for playoff tickets at the beginning of the year. As the logistics of the Hockey East playoffs mean that a team can host a maximum of one round, this isn't much of a problem. They issue tickets as PDFs as soon as it's known what round they'd be hosting. You pay for all three games but if they sweep they credit your account with the value of the third game for next season. It hasn't happened yet since I've gotten season tickets but I assume if they don't host you'd get all three games credited.

If you don't get them before the season, you also have first rights to the seats after the regular season ends.

So, in a sense they're not "part of the season ticket package" per se, but you have the option.