Quote:
Originally Posted by strombad
Higher need: Winnipeg
If the average ticket price for those 4500-6000 seats they are missing is say... $150 (assuming none of them would be lower bowl, etc) then Winnipeg is costing themselves approximately 675,000-900,000 in revenue EVERY GAME. That's generally over 30 MILLION dollars they aren't getting every year.
That's downright embarrassing. It's one thing if you have the space and the people don't come, it's another if you don't even have the space.
|
First off, they are at most "missing" 4500 seats, they do not need to be the second largest arena in the country.
And you're right to not assume that they're missing seats in the lower bowl because assuming they're missing seats anywhere other than the nose bleeds would be ridiculous. So find the cheapest seat prices and make them slightly cheaper. That's the seats they're missing. These seats also cost the most to build for bringing in the least amount of revenue, closer to $10M a year. When you consider the cost of a new arena ($150M+ more than what MTS cost) you're expecting those seats to pay off the additional construction cost alone after 15 years. Is it really worth it?
The smaller arena also proves helpful in the diversity of concerts that come through which is why the smallest arena in the smallest market in the league is able to have more non-sporting tickets sold than the likes of the Pepsi Center, Scottrade Center, TD Garden, Nationwide Arena, Xcel Energy Center and the Saddledome (in fact MTS has over 100,000 more tickets sold to non-sporting events than the 'Dome *2012 numbers*).
So no, Winnipeg does not need a new arena more than Calgary. If you want to talk about embarrassing you should look at the suite revenue of Canada's second largest corporate base and how much less non sporting event tickets the Dome sells compared to its Canadian counterparts (it's eighth).