This much for a preseason tilt?

[Magnus]

http://ev12.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/...r=&appCode=

[Don]

yikes...odds are that itll sell out anyway.

[HedleyLamarr]

If the NHL wants to build a fanbase and gain these potential, on-the-fence fans, they should make these preseason games free and reduce the prices of concession items and let the game itself entice these possible fans.

[DG_YouKnowWhatThatMeans]

If the NHL wants to build a fanbase and gain these potential, on-the-fence fans, they should make these preseason games free and reduce the prices of concession items and let the game itself entice these possible fans.

How many people are they expecting? 15,000 at an average of $60 or so apiece? That's $900,000, and probably half that amount in concessions and merchandise too. For a sport with a crap TV deal and no income coming that way (at least in US coverage), I don't think they can simply write off that amount of money.

[Don]

If the NHL wants to build a fanbase and gain these potential, on-the-fence fans, they should make these preseason games free and reduce the prices of concession items and let the game itself entice these possible fans.

thats nice for on the fence fans, but this game is in London Ontario, itll sell out, no problem.

[HedleyLamarr]

If the NHL wants to build a fanbase and gain these potential, on-the-fence fans, they should make these preseason games free and reduce the prices of concession items and let the game itself entice these possible fans.

How many people are they expecting? 15,000 at an average of $60 or so apiece? That's $900,000, and probably half that amount in concessions and merchandise too. For a sport with a crap TV deal and no income coming that way (at least in US coverage), I don't think they can simply write off that amount of money.

It's called taking a business risk.

The attendance for preseason games is basically season ticket holders and folks who got free tickets through some business or sponsor, and the total attendance likely doesn't sniff 10,000 south of the border. The numbers for folks buying tickets to a preseason game is already minimal. Comp the tickets, and you'll bring in more folks to a game, and in turn, the possibility of more concession sales increase. I think most arenas would take 15,000+ potential customers on half-priced concessions than their current 8,000 potential customers on full-priced concessions.

There's only tremendous upside to allowing fans to enter for free during the preseason. If the first-time customer has a great time with their family, you don't think they'll want to buy tickets to a future time?

[DG_YouKnowWhatThatMeans]

That all depends. Would you pay for something you got for free? I don't know that I would. I would probably just wait until next preseason when the tickets are free again.

And 15,000 free tickets at half-price concessions or 8,000 paying customers at full-price concessions doesn't seem like a choice to me -- teams make way too much money off of selling inside the arena to cut it at a loss just on hopes that some of those people might come back. And what would be success there? Ten percent returning? Twenty? Or five?

There's good reason team don't give their product away for free. It has to have some value, and free tickets don't help that cause.

[HedleyLamarr]

That all depends. Would you pay for something you got for free? I don't know that I would. I would probably just wait until next preseason when the tickets are free again.

And 15,000 free tickets at half-price concessions or 8,000 paying customers at full-price concessions doesn't seem like a choice to me -- teams make way too much money off of selling inside the arena to cut it at a loss just on hopes that some of those people might come back. And what would be success there? Ten percent returning? Twenty? Or five?

There's good reason team don't give their product away for free. It has to have some value, and free tickets don't help that cause.

You aren't looking at this from the family standpoint. You yourself might wait, but you as a family man (let's assume you and the wife have a job, with children in school and involved with other youth activites such as sports or dance or Boy/Girl Scouts, etc.) are looking for a family activity where everyone has fun and is together. You go to this free preseason game, everyone has a great time....just how likely are you, as this family man, going to buy tickets to a regular season game?

I just see this a different way: I do work for a sports team (well, teams). I see little willingness from fans from all sports in purchasing tickets to a preseason (i.e.: meaningless, not-for-real) game when you can spend the same amount of money for a game that matters later on in the season. Most of the attendance for preseason games comes from season ticket holders (who get these games as throw-ins as part of their ticketing package in most cases), tickets for sponsors/businesses that have their ticket deals, and very few folks that bought tickets. In other words, these tickets likely won't be sold anyway, so you won't be making any money regardless from ticket sales....so give them away for free and possibly sell more concessions that an empty seat can't purchase. Yes, you'll lose some potential money from ticket sales in these 2-3 games, but you'll get a little back instantly from an extra 7,000 fans that would likely be purchasing concessions that you wouldn't have had before, and to another extent, you possibly sell a little more merchandise. And if these first-time attendees have a great time, the likelihood of these folks becoming purchasing customers gets a little higher. Over time, that small loss you took from preseason sales becomes a gain when these folks purchase more tickets and more food and more merchandise. If the return rate is even one percent, it's one percent more that they didn't have before.

Has there ever been a product you got for free/reduced price, liked it, and paid full-cost for the same product at a later time? Same exact concept.....

[DG_YouKnowWhatThatMeans]

Yeah, I'm familiar with loss leaders. I get the concept. I'm just not sure it's scalable to sports team operations. And unless a team does it, we won't know. There are good points to be made on both sides though.