Preds limiting Hawks fans at home games

[transplant99]

The Nashville Predators adjusted the way tickets for games against the Chicago Blackhawks are purchased next season in order to limit the number of Chicago fans in Bridgestone Arena.

Some have labeled the effort: "Keep the red out."

The Predators recently announced they will not sell single-game tickets to their three home games (Nov. 16, Dec. 17 and April 12) against the Stanley Cup champions. To attend those games, fans will have to purchase tickets to a second game as well.

"Our objective is to give our team the best home-ice advantage each and every game," said Gerry Helper, Predators vice president of hockey communications and public relations, by phone Wednesday. "Our ticket plans benefit and appreciate our ticket holders by giving them the best possible pricing, sales and availability, so they can have the chance to purchase these tickets before anyone else, whether they're from Nashville, Chicago or Timbuktu."

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nhl/story...lackhawks-fans

[dissentowner]

Nothing like discriminating against a rival fan base. Lame.

[The Swedish Flame]

Uh... what?

Is this common in the NHL?

[Machiavelli]

That's unbelievably stupid. You want fans in the seats, no matter who they cheer for...plus rival fans set up a fun atmosphere with hopefully good-natured ribbing and the like.

Can they afford to do this down South?

[getbak]

I would fully support the Flames doing the same with Oilers and Canucks fans. We could call it "keep the #### out".

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Machiavelli

That's unbelievably stupid. You want fans in the seats, no matter who they cheer for...plus rival fans set up a fun atmosphere with hopefully good-natured ribbing and the like.

Can they afford to do this down South?

IIRC they outdrew Edmonton last year.

[CalgaryFan1988]

I remember a few years ago they tried something similar, not as blatant, but similar in Ottawa. When Toronto fans showed up they had to donate to the food bank or something. Didn't last long.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by transplant99

IIRC they outdrew Edmonton last year.

Which doesn't actually mean much, since the Predators have much lower ticket prices. Forbes.com calculates their gate receipts at $29 million in 2011-12, compared to $60 million for Edmonton (and $51 million for Chicago).

It was those relatively cheap tickets that encouraged Chicago fans to travel down to Nashville to see the Blackhawks play. No tickets, no trips. I don't suppose the city of Nashville will be particularly happy to see the team pissing away all those tourist dollars on its behalf.

As for this:

"Our objective is to give our team the best home-ice advantage each and every game," said Gerry Helper.

That's an obvious falsehood, since there are 82 games in a season and only 41 of them are at home. Surely the best advantage you could give your team for all 82 games is to put the best possible players on the ice. That means having money to spend. Since the Predators have been spending below the cap and still losing money, they need to be bringing in more revenue, not turning it away.

An appallingly stupid decision, this. It appears to me that Mr. Helper and his superiors are thinking with their gonads instead of their heads.

[browna]

Oilers did this to Flames fans as well in varying forms over the year in the mid 2000's.

After about 4 straight years years of going up there and getting group tickets mostly together, one year, (2003 I think), couldn't get groups of more then 3 seats together (at least that's what they told us). So the 14 of us were spread over half the building.

The next year, you had to buy tickets to another game to get that game if you wanted to buy more than 4 seats in total to that game (which were again spread out), or, so they told us. So, we had to all buy tickets separately, which was a PITA.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Which doesn't actually mean much, since the Predators have much lower ticket prices. Forbes.com calculates their gate receipts at $29 million in 2011-12, compared to $60 million for Edmonton (and $51 million for Chicago).

It was those relatively cheap tickets that encouraged Chicago fans to travel down to Nashville to see the Blackhawks play. No tickets, no trips. I don't suppose the city of Nashville will be particularly happy to see the team pissing away all those tourist dollars on its behalf.

As for this:



That's an obvious falsehood, since there are 82 games in a season and only 41 of them are at home. Surely the best advantage you could give your team for all 82 games is to put the best possible players on the ice. That means having money to spend. Since the Predators have been spending below the cap and still losing money, they need to be bringing in more revenue, not turning it away.

An appallingly stupid decision, this. It appears to me that Mr. Helper and his superiors are thinking with their gonads instead of their heads.

Its simply not that big of a deal...particularly financially as you point out the tickets are inexpensive to begin with.

[GeoffSK]

Stampeders tried this for Rider games and the labour day game.

After some bad press they reversed the decision.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk 2

[BACKCHECK!!!]

Originally Posted by GeoffSK

Stampeders tried this for Rider games and the labour day game.

After some bad press they reversed the decision.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk 2

Yeah, but Rider fans are awesome.

[MrMastodonFarm]

I'm not even a CFL fan. If the Stamps are doing well I'm very much a bandwagon football fan, I don't follow the sport closely and I really don't care.

And with all of that said, I can easily say, Rider fans are the scummiest group of fans I've ever encountered.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by BACKCHECK!!!

Yeah, but Rider fans are awesome.

That's not how you spell a-holes.

[TSXCman]

Aren't they one of the US franchises in tough economic existence?

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Its simply not that big of a deal...particularly financially as you point out the tickets are inexpensive to begin with.

It doesn't have to be a big deal to be appallingly stupid. When Tim Leiweke announced that he was already planning the Stanley Cup parade route for the Leafs, that was no big deal either — but it was still an incredibly dumb thing to do. In such cases, it's the stupidity itself that I find appalling, not the consequences.

[MRCboicgy]

I'm getting this secondhand here from someone I live with who grew up near there - so take it for what it's worth.
Apparently the Blackhawks did this in the 90's for out of state zip codes trying to get tickets by phone through ticketmaster. Making it so those close-by in Indiana and Wisconsin were shut out when tickets first went on sale in the fall.

Again, can't confirm this, but he says it was to limit the Det & StL fans

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by CalgaryFan1988

I remember a few years ago they tried something similar, not as blatant, but similar in Ottawa. When Toronto fans showed up they had to donate to the food bank or something. Didn't last long.

Ottawa's done it several times, actually. On top of that, Melnyk also whined to the media about the number of Leafs fans, and had the team send out letters to season ticket holders asking them not to sell to Leafs fans.

And yes, it is just as pathetic now that Nashville is doing it.

[Stampede2TheCup]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Which doesn't actually mean much, since the Predators have much lower ticket prices. Forbes.com calculates their gate receipts at $29 million in 2011-12, compared to $60 million for Edmonton (and $51 million for Chicago).

It was those relatively cheap tickets that encouraged Chicago fans to travel down to Nashville to see the Blackhawks play. No tickets, no trips. I don't suppose the city of Nashville will be particularly happy to see the team pissing away all those tourist dollars on its behalf.

As for this:



That's an obvious falsehood, since there are 82 games in a season and only 41 of them are at home. Surely the best advantage you could give your team for all 82 games is to put the best possible players on the ice. That means having money to spend. Since the Predators have been spending below the cap and still losing money, they need to be bringing in more revenue, not turning it away.

An appallingly stupid decision, this. It appears to me that Mr. Helper and his superiors are thinking with their gonads instead of their heads.

It may not really affect their bottom line at all. Just by quick Googling they basically average just below capacity and had a long sellout streak, though it's been reported they may have given up to 2000 tickets to some games. I don't know how they do for Hawks games but it seems very possible they'd still sell out without any Chicago fans making the trip.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Ottawa's done it several times, actually. On top of that, Melnyk also whined to the media about the number of Leafs fans, and had the team send out letters to season ticket holders asking them not to sell to Leafs fans.

And yes, it is just as pathetic now that Nashville is doing it.

Alfredsson getting booed loudly every time he touched the puck was hilarious ... but I would have been so mad/embarrassed as a Sens fan.