Simple question: Season ticket holders... To renew or not to renew

[Futzee]

Do they always announce the % renewal rate at some stage? Will we get to find out eventually if this poll is any indication of what is really going on? I have a feeling the real renewal rate stays pretty high.

[ken0042]

We typically hear about it at STH info sessions if the number is high enough; and if KK has time. It all depends on how many people he has recently visited in a hospice that he needs to tell us about.

[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by Futzee

Do they always announce the % renewal rate at some stage? Will we get to find out eventually if this poll is any indication of what is really going on? I have a feeling the real renewal rate stays pretty high.

Even in the 'good' years they only announced a vague range for renewals, like "The percentage of renewals was in the high 90s".

The best indication we'll likely get is when relocation starts and we get reports of what is available.

I would guess the CP renewal rate is similar to the non-corporate renewal rate for all fans. The corporate renewal rate is probably much higher though. If companies didn't give up their seats when oil tanked a couple years ago, they probably won't give them up this year either.

[woob]

Just a note; If you missed the May 15 "deadline" for the contests/what not, you can still renew, you just won't be entered in the contests. Not sure when the hard renewal deadline is?

[united]

There was no option of "wait and see if the Flames screw up in not buying out Brouwer or by trading Hamilton" so I renewed.

As frustrating as the arena fiasco and uninspired play has been, ultimately I still love watching hockey live as it's so poor to watch on TV. I also maintain the Flames have a top ten core in the NHL and with a little optimization of the bottom six/third pairing the Flames can easily rebound to a top five team the next couple seasons, and I would hate to miss out on that.

[InglewoodFan]

Originally Posted by woob

Just a note; If you missed the May 15 "deadline" for the contests/what not, you can still renew, you just won't be entered in the contests. Not sure when the hard renewal deadline is?

I asked my ticket rep and he said June 1. Take that with a grain of salt as he sounded a bit unsure.

[hixxes]

Renewed. For the first time it was not an easy decision.

Years of mediocrity has taken it's toll. It's getting hard to justify the cost of it all.

[Sec218]

Originally Posted by InglewoodFan

I asked my ticket rep and he said June 1. Take that with a grain of salt as he sounded a bit unsure.

That sounds correct considering past timelines. The relocation event usually takes place approximately 3 weeks after the posted renewal deadline.

[GullFoss]

Brian Burke has said a lot about his work with connecting with corporates, or as he calls it "corporate outreach." Given that there is a long waitlist for boxes, I can only imagine he's increased sales of non-box seats to corporations.

That in turn would have allowed them to push through higher price increases without the risk of reduced attendance since corporate accounts tend to have higher renewal rates.

[RM14]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

Brian Burke has said a lot about his work with connecting with corporates, or as he calls it "corporate outreach." Given that there is a long waitlist for boxes, I can only imagine he's increased sales of non-box seats to corporations.

That in turn would have allowed them to push through higher price increases without the risk of reduced attendance since corporate accounts tend to have higher renewal rates.

Except for the fact that many of the high priced seats are available for any game. I don't think the corporate support has returned yet. And it will take a while. When oil crashed, the cancellations were immediate. Oil is up right now but companies will need at lot longer to get into the level of pre-crash spending that was happening.

[csnarpy]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

Brian Burke has said a lot about his work with connecting with corporates, or as he calls it "corporate outreach." Given that there is a long waitlist for boxes, I can only imagine he's increased sales of non-box seats to corporations.

That in turn would have allowed them to push through higher price increases without the risk of reduced attendance since corporate accounts tend to have higher renewal rates.

This I can believe, the two rows ahead of us were definitely corporate owned and were filled filled less than half the games.

[Armchairpro]

I didn't renew.

I'll always cheer for the team, but the organization's arena approach has taken the joy out of being a STH for myself. The economic arguments and cost structures that Ken King has trotted out for the past few years, range from misleading to patently false. I felt that the Flames were appealing to the lowest common denominator, which insulted me as a city tax payer and STH.

In turn, this soured the experience of attending games over the past season. So despite being a life-long and die-hard Flames fan, I just don't want to spend my money on a CSEC product anymore.

[gordo67]

After a few year hiatus (sold my whole season tickets) I decided to take my seats back. My wife wasn't sure she even wanted the seats back, but we convinced her. I have had 3 seats (their own row) in green since 2000. Now we are considering going to 2 seats, but have to move seats if we want that option, because they say the 3rd seat will become unsellable which I get.

Holy am I struggling to move seats, my son was born in 2002 and has been in those seats his whole life, my daughter was 3 when we moved into those seats. we really don't need 3 seats anymore with the kids being busy with their own activities. Having no one in your row is going to hard to give up.

[Russic]

That feels like a pretty high instance of people who didn't renew, doesn't it? Granted it's a sampling of 122 people (at the moment), but that feels like an unexpected number of "no" responses. I don't want to imply that anyone would ever violate the sanctity of a web poll and answer falsely....

[JD]

Seems to me like most of the people who answered felt the same way I did; reluctant but eventually renewed.

Everybody has their own unique situation and reasons but there's no doubt that if the team was doing better and the arena experience had hope for the future none of us would feel an ounce of this reluctancy.

One of my high school friends who I used to share seasons with years back moved to Vegas about 10 years ago. He's got Knights season tickets and I can't imagine he'll ever consider himself a Flames fan again. What polar opposites now.

As for me, I actually do live in Abu Dhabi so my tickets are mostly being held for when I come back. I hit up as many games as I can when I'm in Calgary which is becoming less and less. The secondary market has almost completely dried up so it's increasingly harder to justify.

Winning does solve everything but there's something just so unlikeable about this team lately for me. Back in 2002 the team sucked but I somehow loved them anyway. I used to argue tooth and nail on the internet that they were due to break out and make the playoffs and even do some damage. Turns out I was right. This version of the Flames just doesn't have that feel. Intellectually, I think the rebuild was handled reasonably well but I dunno....

And then there's the arena debacle. I'm more on the side of the City should pay a chunk but that's for each person to decide how they feel. No matter what side of that argument you're on, there's no question it's been handled atrociously and I'd say we have less to look forward to now than we did 5 or even 10 years ago. The stories from up north in the 'chuk don't help as I'm not sure I'm looking forward to double digit percentage ticket increases doubled down with crazy F&B prices.

Sigh. Let's just wait and see what next year has to offer.

[pepper24]

I am surprised by the negative response by a lot of fans. Too many got caught in the hype of expecting a long playoff run after getting swept by the Ducks and adding Hamonic. I expected to squeak in like the season before or just miss the playoffs. Flames missed a bit more from key injuries down the stretch. Flames still missing key pieces especially with secondary scoring.

Night and day from making the playoffs with Hartley then missing the year after. Repeating this with GG and a much different vibe.

[Slacker]

Originally Posted by pepper24

I am surprised by the negative response by a lot of fans. Too many got caught in the hype of expecting a long playoff run after getting swept by the Ducks and adding Hamonic. I expected to squeak in like the season before or just miss the playoffs. Flames missed a bit more from key injuries down the stretch. Flames still missing key pieces especially with secondary scoring.

Night and day from making the playoffs with Hartley then missing the year after. Repeating this with GG and a much different vibe.

It’s not that I was expecting the Flames to make the playoffs, it was how painfully boring it was to watch them live. I renewed my tickets because I love watching the Flames play and my seats are awesome for the price, but I really hope they play a more entertaining style of hockey next season

[stone hands]

Originally Posted by pepper24

I am surprised by the negative response by a lot of fans. Too many got caught in the hype of expecting a long playoff run after getting swept by the Ducks and adding Hamonic. I expected to squeak in like the season before or just miss the playoffs. Flames missed a bit more from key injuries down the stretch. Flames still missing key pieces especially with secondary scoring.

Night and day from making the playoffs with Hartley then missing the year after. Repeating this with GG and a much different vibe.

From the entertainment perspective, personally it has nothing to do with expectations and everything to do with spending thousands of dollars to go see about 35+ eye gougingly pathetic efforts on home ice. I got better things to do than watch what I did this year

[RM14]

Rhett was remembering 2004, Stanley Cup Finals, Tie-game, late third period, and the dome was playing the "Kiss me" song... Show's how the in game entertainment is way too scheduled. A DJ who changes it up from game to game would be a good start.

[GullFoss]

Season ticket relocation emails just went out. To take place June 11-15