Quote:
Originally Posted by GordonBlue
it's a take on what the GSW appears to be doing. it's basically a no interest, long term loan the team takes from the fans under the guise of a PSL to pay for the arena.
I just thought it was something that could work in Canada with rabid hockey fans and a team with a waiting list. easy way for a team to raise some of the money they would have to commit.
so yeah. I was thinking the team could do it and the fans would suck it up and pay because they have no choice. ( I don't think they should, but that they could do it and get away with it)
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I'm much more skeptical of the Calgary hockey market, especially as our city looks to be heading to a new economic reality rather than a two to three year recession.
Ticket sales have cooled immensely over the past few years despite some exciting hockey and making the playoffs twice. The Flames have sucked literally as much money as they could out of this city for years (nothing wrong with that) and it's starting to show with many nights having thousands of unsold seats and upwards of 5k actual empty seats.
Beware the writing on the wall with this city's ability to support the Flames at the level to which this organization has grown accustomed to. The warning signs are there, and without a major rebound in oil the expected excitement to jump into a new building at much higher cost isn't going to be there in this city like it was in Edmonton. (They had perfect timing with McDavid).
And certainly beware the mostly mythical wait list. There's a waitlist for specific seats and sections, there's no waitlist to get season tickets in the building. They wisely sell the former as the latter.