Ticket prices???

[Puck Swami]

Re: Ticket prices???

But even still, the regular prices are far too high in my opinion. As has been discussed a number of times already, trying to draw local crowds is downright impossible with the current cost. For all the clamoring heard about trying to "grow the game," charging an arm and a leg to get into a 30% full arena is totally counterproductive to this endeavor.

Is $32 for an NCAA game an arm and a leg? Seems to me it's about half the cost of an NHL game. Also far less money than your average rock concert. I am fine with offering students lower cost tickets, but if you priced the NCAAs regionals any lower, you would be charging equivalent pricing for regular season hockey, which doesn't seem right to me for a premium event....

 

[CLS]

Re: Ticket prices???

No. Businesses seek to maximize profit. Consumers as a group have a level of demand that is a function of price. If demand doesn't drop off quickly with increasing price - making this what economists call an inelastic good - the extra money made per ticket can more than offset the drop in number of tickets sold. And nothing about that contradicts 'fair market.'

Exactly.

And note that at least two of the venues -- the TUC and the DCU Center -- have been doing this for years. With the ticket prices where they are, they continue to put in bids for Regionals despite the fact that the crowds are what they are. Now it's possible that their ticket pricing strategy is wrongheaded, but it's also possible that they know what they're doing and that they don't believe that the extra revenue they'd get by lowering the ticket price and selling more tickets would offset the fact that they're now selling tickets for, say, $20 to people who'd be willing to pay $35.

Is $32 for an NCAA game an arm and a leg? Seems to me it's about half the cost of an NHL game. Also far less money than your average rock concert. I am fine with offering students lower cost tickets, but if you priced the NCAAs regionals any lower, you would be charging equivalent pricing for regular season hockey, which doesn't seem right to me for a premium event....

I agree with you, but it the “premiumness” doesn’t necessarily translate to demand. It appears that there are two kinds of hard core hockey fans – one type may have a favorite team, but also love the game generally, and can enjoy a game that doesn’t involve their teams, and a second type who would rather see their team in a regular season game than see two unfamiliar teams in a higher stakes game.

But even still, the regular prices are far too high in my opinion. As has been discussed a number of times already, trying to draw local crowds is downright impossible with the current cost. For all the clamoring heard about trying to "grow the game," charging an arm and a leg to get into a 30% full arena is totally counterproductive to this endeavor.

I’m not familiar with the western venues, but IMO, neither the TUC or the DCU Center would sell out if the tickets had a nominal cost, say $5, or were even free.

 

[Priceless]

Re: Ticket prices???

Is $32 for an NCAA game an arm and a leg? Seems to me it's about half the cost of an NHL game. Also far less money than your average rock concert. I am fine with offering students lower cost tickets, but if you priced the NCAAs regionals any lower, you would be charging equivalent pricing for regular season hockey, which doesn't seem right to me for a premium event....

Again, different sites have different economies. Albany, Worcester and Manchester all have AHL franchises where tickets are available for $10/game and the AHL team will be there next week, next month and next year. The college teams may appear once every few years. It's hard to justify spending $94 to see three games in two days when you can drop $100 and get a quarter of the home games of the local pro team.

The NCAA is also tying the arena manager's hands with this minimum price crap. A seat in the nosebleed section should not be sold at the same price as one at center ice. People are willing to buy those seats, so let them. But if you want to maximize attendance, lower prices on different sections of the stadium.

 

[JW Tigers]

Re: Ticket prices???

That's very well-priced in my book. Regular season tickets for the Minnesota Gophers are $35 per seat, which if you bought the three-game NCAA regional package at $94, is actually works out to less money per ticket than 3 Gopher Games in the same market - that's NCAA playoff hockey at a discount rate.

Regionals are a more prestigious NCAA event, and should bring fair market value for tickets and should cost far more than you pay for regular season college hockey. We should all be proud to pay more money for a higher-stakes event.

The big problem for the regionals is one largely of timing. People have already spent on conference tourneys, and a week's turnaround for the NCAAs is a short time to plan travel and sell tickets. I'd like to see a week's break between the conference tourneys and the regionals. That would help people plan and have a longer time for ticket sales and hype.

You know me pretty well on these boards and know what a good hockey fan I am, and $47.50 was too much for me to justify for a game between Yale and BC, two teams that I enjoy watching but have no attachment to. If a fan like me doesn't want to pay that much, how is the casual fan going to feel? The fact that a place like Worcester drew under 7000, and Minneapolis/St. Paul drew under 8000 per game lead me to believe that prices are way too high. Both are areas where hockey is big and where people will show up if they are given ANY real reason. Also, keep in mind that places like Mariucci and DU are far more expensive tickets than average during the regular season, so comparing NCAA ticket prices to those isn't fair. Tickets at Matthews are around $12, and that is a far better atmosphere than an NCAA Regional. You know from all of your travels that those $30-35 tickets at Magness and Mariucci are the exception rather than the rule in college hockey.

Is $32 for an NCAA game an arm and a leg? Seems to me it's about half the cost of an NHL game. Also far less money than your average rock concert. I am fine with offering students lower cost tickets, but if you priced the NCAAs regionals any lower, you would be charging equivalent pricing for regular season hockey, which doesn't seem right to me for a premium event....

Swami, first off, it is closer to $50 for a single game ($47.50 for day 2 in Worcester). 2nd, Rock concerts and NHL games are more in demand.

 

[nanotiger]

Re: Ticket prices???

That's very well-priced in my book. Regular season tickets for the Minnesota Gophers are $35 per seat, which if you bought the three-game NCAA regional package at $94, is actually works out to less money per ticket than 3 Gopher Games in the same market - that's NCAA playoff hockey at a discount rate.

Regionals are a more prestigious NCAA event, and should bring fair market value for tickets and should cost far more than you pay for regular season college hockey. We should all be proud to pay more money for a higher-stakes event.

This is not a fair comparison, and may not last much longer, but: I think currently student tickets for RIT games are about $6.

I understand the argument of looking at the ticket prices as being a decent deal for 3 games, but clearly few are looking at it like this and the NCAA regionals will continue to suffer smaller crowds because of it.

I was talking about the finals, and I was making the (perhaps flawed) assumption that most people traveling for the event are going a significant distance, and that the cost of traveling that far plus the fact that they must pay for tickets for all three games would mean that they would go ahead and stay for all games. I don't know about your regional, but for Albany, I purchased tickets for each day. A package was an option, but not a requirement. I got student tickets so buying each individually made sense, but if I remember correctly, for general admission the cost of a weekend pass was about $10 more than a pass for the first day.

All I'm saying is that if you're making the trip to Detroit, getting tickets in advance is not an unreasonable thing to do, to make sure you can see all the games you want to. I don't like that it's forced, but it helps maintain order, rather than a Friday run on the box office.

 

[GopherBigGuy911]

Re: Ticket prices???

This is not a fair comparison, and may not last much longer, but: I think currently student tickets for RIT games are about $6.


I was talking about the finals, and I was making the (perhaps flawed) assumption that most people traveling for the event are going a significant distance, and that the cost of traveling that far plus the fact that they must pay for tickets for all three games would mean that they would go ahead and stay for all games. I don't know about your regional, but for Albany, I purchased tickets for each day. A package was an option, but not a requirement. I got student tickets so buying each individually made sense, but if I remember correctly, for general admission the cost of a weekend pass was about $10 more than a pass for the first day.

All I'm saying is that if you're making the trip to Detroit, getting tickets in advance is not an unreasonable thing to do, to make sure you can see all the games you want to. I don't like that it's forced, but it helps maintain order, rather than a Friday run on the box office.

Really????? Only 6 bucks????? I would think with all of rich biaches and cake eaters at RIT they could EASILY charge 10x's that and still not make the kid's think twice about sucking off daddy's teat