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Post by Penguins23® on Apr 12, 2023 11:27:03 GMT -4
Logically thinking, Cats shouldn't win a game but my gut says they might steal one.
For those that were disappointed by the 28% decrease in attendance for the first round I've got some good news. Ticket prices have gone up $2/ticket. That should help pay some fines at least.
Cats will probably not stop being an embarrassment in the attendance department but hopefully they can keep it respectable on the ice.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Apr 12, 2023 11:37:49 GMT -4
Its amazing to me that so many of these teams still are operating like its 1994 with some of these policies. Ticket prices rising while fans are staying home at the time of year when teams actually make money tells me there's a disconnect that the team either doesnt care about or doesnt even see that it exists.
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Post by Reesor on Apr 12, 2023 11:44:53 GMT -4
I think playing Halifax will help the attendance. A few Moose fans will make the trip, and there will be some more interest in playing an arch rival. The price increase is typical with teams getting farther into the playoffs. It's usually $1 per series in Halifax. What won't help are the weekday playoff games as they tend to draw less anyway compared to the weekend.
Halifax doesn't have any ticket promotions in the playoffs, and they haven't as far as I can remember even in years where they were expected to get smoked.
Moncton averaged 4500 in their 2nd round series vs Halifax in 2019 under similar circumstances. I would suspect something similar or maybe a few hundred less this year, as in 2019 the novelty of the Avenir Centre helped sales.
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Post by Reesor on Apr 12, 2023 11:54:09 GMT -4
Its amazing to me that so many of these teams still are operating like its 1994 with some of these policies. Ticket prices rising while fans are staying home at the time of year when teams actually make money tells me there's a disconnect that the team either doesnt care about or doesnt even see that it exists. The only thing I can think of is that some ownership feels they are devaluing the brand by putting prices cheaper. I don't feel the same way. I think it's much better to get fans in the seats and grow the brand rather than leave seats empty. Empty seats can't purchase beer, popcorn or ball caps. The ownership of the arena and the Wildcats should step in and subsidize tickets. You'd think they would have a vested interest in having more fans in the seats if they stand to profit from increased concession & merchandise sales. |
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Post by Jack Bauer on Apr 12, 2023 12:00:32 GMT -4
Its amazing to me that so many of these teams still are operating like its 1994 with some of these policies. Ticket prices rising while fans are staying home at the time of year when teams actually make money tells me there's a disconnect that the team either doesnt care about or doesnt even see that it exists. The only thing I can think of is that some ownership feels they are devaluing the brand by putting prices cheaper. I don't feel the same way. I think it's much better to get fans in the seats and grow the brand rather than leave seats empty. Empty seats can't purchase beer, popcorn or ball caps. The ownership of the arena and the Wildcats should step in and subsidize tickets. You'd think they would have a vested interest in having more fans in the seats if they stand to profit from increased concession & merchandise sales. Agreed. I see our empty upper bowl in C200 as lost potential in down seasons when we average like 30% capacity. There is a way to find some middle ground in getting some new faces in the rink while not devaluing the commitment of a season ticket holder. I think as a league there should be an initiative to get school aged children out more often. As of now its mostly tied to minor hockey. But empty rinks with unaffordable tickets isn't growing any brand. Its just pushing kids into other activities which means even less chance those kids grow up with any interest in watching live sports. |
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yorb
Draft Pick
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Post by yorb on Apr 12, 2023 12:37:25 GMT -4
Its amazing to me that so many of these teams still are operating like its 1994 with some of these policies. Ticket prices rising while fans are staying home at the time of year when teams actually make money tells me there's a disconnect that the team either doesnt care about or doesnt even see that it exists. The only thing I can think of is that some ownership feels they are devaluing the brand by putting prices cheaper. I don't feel the same way. I think it's much better to get fans in the seats and grow the brand rather than leave seats empty. Empty seats can't purchase beer, popcorn or ball caps. The ownership of the arena and the Wildcats should step in and subsidize tickets. You'd think they would have a vested interest in having more fans in the seats if they stand to profit from increased concession & merchandise sales. I was curious and checked the prices across the Q for the 2nd round. Québec: $22 Drummondville $25 Moncton: $26.60-$27.10 (except for for section 116 & club seats) Rimouski: $26.40 Halifax: $27.50 lower, $25.50 upper Sherbrooke: $27 (standing room tickets) Rouyn: $27.82 Québec is interesting, because they're the only ones other than Moncton playing in an arena completely too big for a junior team in its market. It's nice to see they have the sense to adjust their pricing to compensate and get more people in the building. On one hand, I feel like people aren't realistic with their expectations for crowds here. Moncton has a smaller population than places like Chicoutimi, Sherbrooke and Gatineau. If we had an arena built specifically to accommodate the community instead of the entire province/region, it would ideally have a capacity of 4500-5000, and you wouldn't have the wild swings from 7400 at the last regular season game to 3000 in the 1st round. 3100 for a game 7 is awful for sure. But what pisses me off about it is how predictable and avoidable it was. They had a loaded home schedule in March, they could have eased up on promoting some of those relatively meaningless games, and prioritized getting people in the building in the 1st round instead of burning out the casual fans at high ticket prices. |
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Post by Penguins23® on Apr 12, 2023 12:50:54 GMT -4
3100 for a game 7 is awful for sure. But what pisses me off about it is how predictable and avoidable it was. They had a loaded home schedule in March, they could have eased up on promoting some of those relatively meaningless games, and prioritized getting people in the building in the 1st round instead of burning out the casual fans at high ticket prices. Yup pretty much. Their obsession with regular season crowds over playoffs is a well known fact at this point. Heck, they had a playoff watch party and gave away some flex tickets. They are only valid for next year's regular season. That pretty much sums it up. |
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Post by lirette on Apr 12, 2023 12:57:55 GMT -4
The only thing I can think of is that some ownership feels they are devaluing the brand by putting prices cheaper. I don't feel the same way. I think it's much better to get fans in the seats and grow the brand rather than leave seats empty. Empty seats can't purchase beer, popcorn or ball caps. The ownership of the arena and the Wildcats should step in and subsidize tickets. You'd think they would have a vested interest in having more fans in the seats if they stand to profit from increased concession & merchandise sales. I was curious and checked the prices across the Q for the 2nd round. Québec: $22 Drummondville $25 Moncton: $26.60-$27.10 (except for for section 116 & club seats) Rimouski: $26.40 Halifax: $27.50 lower, $25.50 upper Sherbrooke: $27 (standing room tickets) Rouyn: $27.82 Québec is interesting, because they're the only ones other than Moncton playing in an arena completely too big for a junior team in its market. It's nice to see they have the sense to adjust their pricing to compensate and get more people in the building. On one hand, I feel like people aren't realistic with their expectations for crowds here. Moncton has a smaller population than places like Chicoutimi, Sherbrooke and Gatineau. If we had an arena built specifically to accommodate the community instead of the entire province/region, it would ideally have a capacity of 4500-5000, and you wouldn't have the wild swings from 7400 at the last regular season game to 3000 in the 1st round. 3100 for a game 7 is awful for sure. But what pisses me off about it is how predictable and avoidable it was. They had a loaded home schedule in March, they could have eased up on promoting some of those relatively meaningless games, and prioritized getting people in the building in the 1st round instead of burning out the casual fans at high ticket prices. Quebec also includes playoffs in their season ticket packages, so they are kind of miles ahead of everyone else when it comes to that. The worst part is Irving got a shit deal when it comes to concessions at Avenir compared to the Coliseum. I dont know the exact numbers, but lets say he gets like 5-10% cut from concessions, and before he got 90% at the coliseum. He now has even less incentive to fill the building with cheap tickets. This would be an obstacle for any team, but someone like Irving its even worse. He has never shown that he cares about the building atmosphere. The only reason the Wildcats product doesn't look like its still stuck in the late 90's is because Avenir comes with a built in production team, state of the art sound system/lighting etc. If they didnt have that he'd still have a bunch of volunteers running things no doubt. The video board would be run on microsoft powerpoint. I feel bad for the new general manager. He has some really good experience, including working at music festivals, so he obviously is going to be in tune with attracting a younger crowd. But he could have the best ideas in the world and they will get micromanaged to shit under Irving. |
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Post by Jack Bauer on Apr 12, 2023 14:10:44 GMT -4
The only thing I can think of is that some ownership feels they are devaluing the brand by putting prices cheaper. I don't feel the same way. I think it's much better to get fans in the seats and grow the brand rather than leave seats empty. Empty seats can't purchase beer, popcorn or ball caps. The ownership of the arena and the Wildcats should step in and subsidize tickets. You'd think they would have a vested interest in having more fans in the seats if they stand to profit from increased concession & merchandise sales. I was curious and checked the prices across the Q for the 2nd round. Québec: $22 Drummondville $25 Moncton: $26.60-$27.10 (except for for section 116 & club seats) Rimouski: $26.40 Halifax: $27.50 lower, $25.50 upper Sherbrooke: $27 (standing room tickets) Rouyn: $27.82 Québec is interesting, because they're the only ones other than Moncton playing in an arena completely too big for a junior team in its market. It's nice to see they have the sense to adjust their pricing to compensate and get more people in the building. On one hand, I feel like people aren't realistic with their expectations for crowds here. Moncton has a smaller population than places like Chicoutimi, Sherbrooke and Gatineau. If we had an arena built specifically to accommodate the community instead of the entire province/region, it would ideally have a capacity of 4500-5000, and you wouldn't have the wild swings from 7400 at the last regular season game to 3000 in the 1st round. 3100 for a game 7 is awful for sure. But what pisses me off about it is how predictable and avoidable it was. They had a loaded home schedule in March, they could have eased up on promoting some of those relatively meaningless games, and prioritized getting people in the building in the 1st round instead of burning out the casual fans at high ticket prices. And a big issue is everyone has a different break even point...yet there's clearly collusion on what to charge for a ticket. I just see them pricing out normal hockey fans. Not the minimum wage earning students or seniors on pensions....the working middle class trying to have a mortgage, kid(s), and keep a vehicle on the road and groceries in a warm house. If you're squeezing that group out of your league...who exactly are you trying to attract? It doesnt help that all our local media are just in bed with our teams now as extensions of the teams marketing. So there is no fair and proper coverage given to the public...go read the CB Post and Herald's comments on the Eagles for the last decade. If you only read Wily Palov's Eagles comments you'd think there's nothing wrong with how the team has operated. Our local reporter will tell you a goaltender is solid based on a game 2 even if he gave up 8 in game 3. Its almost like the plan for these teams is to focus on the non-vocal fan who doesnt read news or have any interest in the teams makeup or rebuild plan...they just want the people who want to go out on a Friday night and take the approach of we'll open our doors and you pay to come in and have no expectations and everyone will be happy with the outcome and win or lose our media person will let you know why a loss is really a win and why poor performance is just lacking context. |
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Post by Reesor on Apr 12, 2023 16:09:41 GMT -4
I was curious and checked the prices across the Q for the 2nd round. Québec: $22 Drummondville $25 Moncton: $26.60-$27.10 (except for for section 116 & club seats) Rimouski: $26.40 Halifax: $27.50 lower, $25.50 upper Sherbrooke: $27 (standing room tickets) Rouyn: $27.82 Québec is interesting, because they're the only ones other than Moncton playing in an arena completely too big for a junior team in its market. It's nice to see they have the sense to adjust their pricing to compensate and get more people in the building. On one hand, I feel like people aren't realistic with their expectations for crowds here. Moncton has a smaller population than places like Chicoutimi, Sherbrooke and Gatineau. If we had an arena built specifically to accommodate the community instead of the entire province/region, it would ideally have a capacity of 4500-5000, and you wouldn't have the wild swings from 7400 at the last regular season game to 3000 in the 1st round. 3100 for a game 7 is awful for sure. But what pisses me off about it is how predictable and avoidable it was. They had a loaded home schedule in March, they could have eased up on promoting some of those relatively meaningless games, and prioritized getting people in the building in the 1st round instead of burning out the casual fans at high ticket prices. Quebec also includes playoffs in their season ticket packages, so they are kind of miles ahead of everyone else when it comes to that. The worst part is Irving got a shit deal when it comes to concessions at Avenir compared to the Coliseum. I dont know the exact numbers, but lets say he gets like 5-10% cut from concessions, and before he got 90% at the coliseum. He now has even less incentive to fill the building with cheap tickets. This would be an obstacle for any team, but someone like Irving its even worse. He has never shown that he cares about the building atmosphere. The only reason the Wildcats product doesn't look like its still stuck in the late 90's is because Avenir comes with a built in production team, state of the art sound system/lighting etc. If they didnt have that he'd still have a bunch of volunteers running things no doubt. The video board would be run on microsoft powerpoint. I feel bad for the new general manager. He has some really good experience, including working at music festivals, so he obviously is going to be in tune with attracting a younger crowd. But he could have the best ideas in the world and they will get micromanaged to shit under Irving. That's an awful concessions deal. No wonder there's no appetite to fill the rink at the expense of the bottom line. There's always a price point that tips the scales. Putting the price of an adult ticket down from $25 to $20 requires 20% more adults to attend just to break even. Would that happen? Would more adults attend and bring their kids? At least giving the impression that the organization is trying to be creative has to count for something. Halifax is guilty of not doing these things as well, but it looks like the new ownership has some aggressive promotion plans for next season. |
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Post by Captain Obvious on Apr 12, 2023 16:15:09 GMT -4
I think playing Halifax will help the attendance. A few Moose fans will make the trip, and there will be some more interest in playing an arch rival. The price increase is typical with teams getting farther into the playoffs. It's usually $1 per series in Halifax. What won't help are the weekday playoff games as they tend to draw less anyway compared to the weekend. Halifax doesn't have any ticket promotions in the playoffs, and they haven't as far as I can remember even in years where they were expected to get smoked. Moncton averaged 4500 in their 2nd round series vs Halifax in 2019 under similar circumstances. I would suspect something similar or maybe a few hundred less this year, as in 2019 the novelty of the Avenir Centre helped sales. Given the shitty 1st round attendance, if they were smart they would have kept prices the same. If the series is 2-0 there might be more Halifax than Moncton fans in the building. |
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yorb
Draft Pick
Posts: 71
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Post by yorb on Apr 12, 2023 16:21:42 GMT -4
The worst part is Irving got a shit deal when it comes to concessions at Avenir compared to the Coliseum. I dont know the exact numbers, but lets say he gets like 5-10% cut from concessions, and before he got 90% at the coliseum. He now has even less incentive to fill the building with cheap tickets. This would be an obstacle for any team, but someone like Irving its even worse. He has never shown that he cares about the building atmosphere. The only reason the Wildcats product doesn't look like its still stuck in the late 90's is because Avenir comes with a built in production team, state of the art sound system/lighting etc. If they didnt have that he'd still have a bunch of volunteers running things no doubt. The video board would be run on microsoft powerpoint. I feel bad for the new general manager. He has some really good experience, including working at music festivals, so he obviously is going to be in tune with attracting a younger crowd. But he could have the best ideas in the world and they will get micromanaged to shit under Irving. Absolutely. This franchise has everything in place to be so much more than it is. But they keep getting in their own way. Lowering prices is surely not an option for them at Avenir, but I don't see why they don't do the following as an alternative: In the regular season, curtain off the upper halves of both ends and corners. Every game. Max out total capacity at 4500, which really should be the top end of what capacity should be in a city this size anyway. If it sells out, then it's a sellout and that's it. In the playoffs, then you open it up incrementally based on demand. Maybe 2 sections at a time depending on how ticket sales are going. Revenue should theoretically remain around the same, but you'd have attendance better distributed throughout the year, a much better atmosphere in the rink, less fan burnout once playoffs start, and the building would look so much better every game. So much more appealing to go a game in that kind of environment. Last night was a PR nightmare for them... rink looked horrendous and the CHL community noticed. I'll bet they miss the old days when there was no social media or CHL all-access passes lol. They're in such an enviable position with the infrastructure, the staff, the solid fan base, the booming local population and the fact that they're pretty much the only game in town. If only they could make the most of it. |
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Post by upndown on Apr 12, 2023 18:27:03 GMT -4
At the old rink the parking was free same amount of people at the old and new rink
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Post by hockeyfanatic on Apr 12, 2023 19:14:32 GMT -4
From my experience going to playoff games in Moncton, the first round attendance sounds about right, the next round against Halifax attendance will be much better but the games in Moncton are all weeknights. If 1 of the mooseheads game was on the weekend the place would be packed
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Post by lirette on Apr 12, 2023 22:38:22 GMT -4
At the old rink the parking was free same amount of people at the old and new rink You are really doing it wrong if you are paying for parking at Avenir minus a few exceptions. I haven't paid to park for a single game and generally have a walk equivalent to the back of the coliseum parking lot. We really gotta be done with this parking argument. Thousands and thousands of people attend regular season games and other large events with no parking issue. I have no idea if anyone cares if it's $25 vs $27 for a Cats playoff game, it's pretty silly to increase prices when there is no actual increase in demand. I could see it making sense for other teams but not when you have an 8800 seat arena. It's kind of petty when you realize the extra money they make off that 2 bucks pays off for the video review fines at best. Anyways, this has been an issue for 20 years and probably will be an issue for another 20 besides perhaps in 2024-25 if they host. Irving obviously doesn't give 2 shits. Not much use wasting anymore brain power trying to figure out why they won't use any one of the dozens of suggestions that have been given to them free of charge over the years. Including the first few games or first series in the season tickets is such a simple fix that would go a long way that you basically know they don't care. The answer to all this confusion is an easy one and it's at the top of the org chart. |
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