Checkmate
ult! CSKA opened the season with just 2800 fans in attendance, it was sad to watch.
To be fair, it may be the biggest case of bad KHL marketing. It looks like while I was riding horses the CSKA fans were ranting about their new season tickets program; I ran into
this outburst just yesterday completely by surprise. Key points for those who don't read Russian:
- the ST prices were dramatically raised: basic price for the author's category ST leapt from 7k to 12k (the author calls the price "sky high"), and this only includes the 1st round of the playoffs instead of its entirety like it used to be.
- no loyalty system;
- no bonuses like fan shop discounts or free candies;
- lack of flexibility and different ST types.
The fans have also
complained to the CSKA CEO Igor Yesmanovich about prices, to what Igor replied that an average game price for a 15k ST was just 365 rubles.
Sure, both parties have their reasons, but I side with Igor here. 7k was one of the cheapest season tickets in all of the KHL, that price was not "pretty reasonable" as that guy writes, it was completely ridiculous, especially for Moscow which is the wealthiest Russian city. And the attendance was still very poor. CSKA fans can complain as much as they want about an outdated 25 year old arena, but the idea they should pay the least in the league to watch one of the best teams is exactly what's dragging down the KHL. If the team had 30k requests for a home game against SKA, they can easily charge 2-4k for a ticket, so one Western Final series can give them more income than all the ST program.
One question remaining is why not just Megasport?..