Can the Flames afford to keep losing?

[CaptainCrunch]

Wonder if Seattle is still looking for a team?

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by handgroen

sure

pretty much, anyone who didn't think a top 5 pick wasn't a possibility this year was kidding themselves.

[The Familia]

Good. I hope the Flames and every team in the league struggle financially at the gate and see crowds of 12000. If it takes losing so be it. Maybe then the owners and players will start to get the message. The prices teams are charging people to watch grown men skate around chasing a puck is ridiculous. Look at the prices the Oilers are now charging in their new arena. Unbelievable. If that is what is going to happen here (and it will) I hope they don't build a new arena. It is time for these billionaire owners and millionaire players to get a reality check.
I'm glad to see the people of Ottawa start to take a stand. There attendance has dropped considerably this year with a game as low as 12000 last week.

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by GGG

I picked up cheap seats on stubhub for the Buffalo game. 6.50 US per seat. All told $50 cad for 4 tickets. Then we got to our seats and the Usher gave up seats for one of the superboxes in the corners of the second level.

The Supersuite by my section was empty on Saturday. I have never seen that before, on any night, and I have been in that section for twelve seasons. I noticed at the second intermission that there was a half dozen people sitting in the seats. Which I found odd, because there was no food out and they didn't have drinks in their hands. After seeing your post it makes more sense. I guess they can't sell all four of those suites at the current prices every game.

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by The Familia

Good. I hope the Flames and every team in the league struggle financially at the gate and see crowds of 12000. If it takes losing so be it. Maybe then the owners and players will start to get the message. The prices teams are charging people to watch grown men skate around chasing a puck is ridiculous. Look at the prices the Oilers are now charging in their new arena. Unbelievable. If that is what is going to happen here (and it will) I hope they don't build a new arena. It is time for these billionaire owners and millionaire players to get a reality check.
I'm glad to see the people of Ottawa start to take a stand. There attendance has dropped considerably this year with a game as low as 12000 last week.

Supply and demand. But I agree, if the demand isn't there will the team drop prices? Renewals will be interesting to see later this season.

[N-E-B]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

I don't think that's ever been true has it? I went to a lot of games back then and always remember the 3rd level being completely tarped off, but nothing in the second bowl. I'm not 100% sure though.

Could be remembering incorrectly, I was pretty young at the time. May have just been empty seats but either way we're nowhere near the 90's now.

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

Could be remembering incorrectly, I was pretty young at the time. May have just been empty seats but either way we're nowhere near the 90's now.

They didn't sell any tickets outside of the first three rows of the press level back then. We are not close to that point yet. But they say the Alberta economy is the slowest since the NEP back in the early 80's. If that doesn't improve I can see that happening again. Might take a couple years though.

[christoph186]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

Even before the losing started I took a look at the buy sell forum and bought some super cheap tickets.

There were several others below STC that were for sale as well. Tough times are coming for the Flames but losing will make it even worse.

You can buy tickets for pretty much 40% of face value to any game.

This. STH here, it's crazy how hard it is right now to try and sell or give away tickets right now. I've missed 2 games due to work so far, and nearly had to give those games away. We could really use a hot streak to fire up the fan base, that's for sure.

[browna]

3 games in a week (Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday) last week (and 4 in 7 days with the home opener on the previous Friday), with no rivalry games, certainly has something to do with this, especially one week into the season. Two games a week is tops for any of us in our ticket group, and has been in the 14 years we've had seats.

[Shazam]

Not even close to the 90s. My friends and I would wait outside for scalpers to finally give up their tickets for around $10. Those would be upper bowl tickets. For a very long time the ushers didn't mind if you moved down to the lower bowl. Lots of empty seats.

[Fire in the disco]

Awwww yisssss

[Hockey Fan #751]

Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn

They didn't sell any tickets outside of the first three rows of the press level back then. We are not close to that point yet. But they say the Alberta economy is the slowest since the NEP back in the early 80's. If that doesn't improve I can see that happening again. Might take a couple years though.

And if the team wins, they won't have any problem selling out just like they didn't from 1980 to 1994.