What do the Stanley Cup Playoffs mean to you?
As a fan it means great excitement and anticipation for your team to have a chance to win it all. You can get excited by talking more about it with your co-workers at the water cooler banter center. You can even buy a jersey or a hat (or two). Some fans go bragging about it on online forums or call in to their sport radio shows. Some fans go out and buy tickets to the home games. All trash talk.
So, here is the real question. What do the Stanley Cup Playoffs mean to your team?
The glitz or the glory? Well, all of the fan support is nice, but I bet what really is nice and truly exciting for the owners and certainly for the GMs are the ticket sales. Ticket sales are the bread and butter of each franchise. The impact of having a good team on the ice is immediately felt by the ticket sales. You would be very hard-pressed to find a good team that makes the playoffs and is having trouble selling tickets. Such truth applies when a team is losing and has trouble filling the seats. Anomalies do exist like the New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs.
The prime example of this financial and popularity “boom” has got to be the New York Islanders this year. The ticket prices for this team have averages about 10 bucks for the 300 sections and as low as 50 dollars for seats in the lower bowls – they obviously dipped a bit higher against the NY Rangers, Penguins, and other “HOT” teams in the NHL.
Still, the revenue was low and there were always empty seats at the Coliseum. This was always due to the fact that for the past few years the Islanders were the bottom dwellers of the Atlantic division and the Eastern Conference. They lacked super-star appeal, besides John Tavares, and lacked any scoring depth to scratch away at a playoff appearance. Having to play constantly against NJ Devils, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and New York Rangers did not help their standings one bit.
So what has changed?
Yeah, that is 120 dollars for the seats in the 300 section. That, folks, is “Madison Square Garden money” right there.
Sure, this is “Stub Hub”, meaning that the NHL teams themselves don’t get the money. But what does it tell us? Simply that this game is most certainly sold out, that the demand is high, and tickets are hard to come by. A 1/2 full or 3/4 full building will not be something that the Islanders experience for their big showdown with the Rangers next week.
The impact? The owners are very happy to see this happen, and whether winning is the number one goal or not, making money has to be. In the immediate term they have a sold out game, and they have an increase in the amount of concessions, merchandise and parking that can be sold. They also see a spike in demand which can support price increases for the playoffs or for next season. This could explain the moves we see that are made around the league. The fact that most owners will support any trade that will help them get into the playoffs or at least hype-up their team into the playoff competition.
Islanders are not the only team to come from ‘poor to riches’ this year as you have Blue Jackets in the West making a stellar push for a playoff sport behind the stellar play of – Jay Onrait’s favorite Cop, BOBROVSKY!
So, again, what do the playoffs mean to you and your team?
There is a parallel between winnings, team popularity, revenue, and ticket prices. This once again shows us that player salaries have nothing to do with ticket prices but simple demand is what drives them up and down. It shows us that the lockout has nothing to do with the fans and yet the fans have everything to do with the owners’ revenue. After all, nothing new has been said here, yet it is very interesting to see it happen before our eyes.
With Islanders moving to Brooklyn soon, look for their prices to rise on average even more and rival those of MSG, especially if the team keeps on winning. The decreased supply (a smaller overall building) and increased demand will lead to this. Plus you have to think that ownership and management will notice the prices that scalpers are getting for the tickets and realize fans are willing to pay more for a competitive product.
For now though you can still grab some cheaper tickets against a team like the Florida Panthers, but even those have increased to about 25 dollars for 300 section, up from 10 dollars at the start of the season. The reason for this is that the overall availability of Isles tickets at the box office has dropped with their playoff push. Business 101.
The days of cheap ticket prices at long Island are coming to an end, but I bet not one Islander fan will care as long as they are winning again.
And that’s the last word.
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photo credit: Robert Kowal via photopin cc
