Observations III

[jwhouk]

Chicago had a long win streak in the strike shortened season not sure if they every lost back to back games that season.

They did, right after they started 6-0. They were both shootout losses, so they didn't lose in regulation until game #25.

They then lost two straight in regulation.

 

[jwhouk]

I would hope that, when the NHL does expand to 32 teams, that they will move to an eight-division setup like the NFL has, and go back to a wild-card setup where the division winners have home-ice in the first round.

I'd also be all for the addition of a play-in round to give division winners an extra week to healthy up for the first round - but that's just me.

 

[drwpreds]

The new playoff format is a killer. Three of arguably the top 5 teams are in the same division. We will likely need to beat the blues and Hawks just to face the Sharks/ducks/kings.

I hate the new format with a passion.

Same here- I HATE HATE HATE it- awful.

I think it is entirely possible that the 3 best teams in the entire NHL may well be the Preds/Hawks/Blues- all in the same division. So at best you are going to have 2 of the top 4 or 5 teams in the NHL playing each other in the first round.

Ridiculous format

 

[token grinder]

The same lack of respect we are getting, we are giving to the Lightning and Ducks.

I dont know how you call one better than the other. You can lump Montreal in the mix too with Pitt and NY Rangers lurking as well.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

The NHL.com power rankings that came out late last week had the Preds at #6, behind both the Blues and Hawks. What a joke.

Side note, they also had the Rangers at like 14. Total joke.

 

[Armourboy]

You've gotta earn respect in anything you do, sports in no different. Well unless you are Toronto, who hasn't done anything in ages but gets covered like they have been winning cups for the last 25 years.

 

[Pred303]

well the second half is here.

..like everyone else in the central i hate the playoff format, it's a screwed up seeding sysytem, punishing the strongest division. ours.
..we sit in an unbelievable place atop the league, personally i don't think we can hold off CHI this last half, but one can always hope.
..the schedule is always tough, and our next stretch is among the toughest we've seen. if somehow we can get thru these next 7 games without a losing streak i'll be amazed. and pumped.
..i expect us to make moves between now and the trade deadline (mar 2). if we move big (top 6 guy), people will be upset over what we have to give up. if we move small (3rd liner), people will fret over STL and CHI moving big. a couple things to remember. as fans, all teams overrate their own players, especially 15-20 goal scorers or young players with 'potential'. as fans we always 'think' a person's trade value is higher than it probably is. we aren't privy to things like how a guy gets along with the coach or his teammates, or whether they are considered a positive or negative in the locker room among their teammates. we assume since we are winning so much everything is great in the locker room. it isn't always so. won't be surprised to see a big deal in the works.
..again, in my mind we have at most a 2-3 year window with rinne and maybe 3-4 with weber to really make a cup run. 'potential' that might not develop until beyond the 2 year mark therefore might figure heavily into what poile decides.

whatever happens, it's exciting times to be a pred fan

 

[Preds Partisan]

I haven't seen this posted elsewhere but COO Sean Henry outlines stricter ticket buying guidelines for 2015-16 to try and keep down the number of visiting fans from overrunning the arena. From an article on Fox Sports Tennessee Saturday January 10:

"When you talk to our fans now, who's the best home hockey team in hockey? We are," said Henry. "Two home losses, one of those losses was to Chicago [on Dec. 6th]. Was that a home game? No. I don't know if there were 6,000 Chicago fans here or 9,000, it doesn't matter. We lost our home crowd edge.
It wasn't fun for anybody. You have season ticket holders saying, 'what are you going to do?' The fact is we have a lot of season ticket holders that are saying, 'I don't know if I want to come to that game'. You should want that game, it's a division rival. We're in a pennant race, if you will, against [Chicago] and St. Louis.....So we're putting some pretty strong steps in for what we want to do for our fans. It won't be received well nationally, I assume, but again what are we doing? We're building this for our fans."
Including all the previous changes that Nashville used to maintain home ice advantage, the Predators will also be introducing heavily restrictive measures that will seemingly prevent fans from opposing teams in certain games from either buying tickets directly from the team or even buying tickets on the secondary market..."

http://www.foxsports.com/tennessee/story/predators-introducing-stricter-measures-to-limit-ticket-purchases-by-opposing-fans-011015

 

[PredsV82]

I haven't seen this posted elsewhere but COO Sean Henry outlines stricter ticket buying guidelines for 2015-16 to try and keep down the number of visiting fans from overrunning the arena. From an article on Fox Sports Tennessee Saturday January 10:

"When you talk to our fans now, who's the best home hockey team in hockey? We are," said Henry. "Two home losses, one of those losses was to Chicago [on Dec. 6th]. Was that a home game? No. I don't know if there were 6,000 Chicago fans here or 9,000, it doesn't matter. We lost our home crowd edge.
It wasn't fun for anybody. You have season ticket holders saying, 'what are you going to do?' The fact is we have a lot of season ticket holders that are saying, 'I don't know if I want to come to that game'. You should want that game, it's a division rival. We're in a pennant race, if you will, against [Chicago] and St. Louis.....So we're putting some pretty strong steps in for what we want to do for our fans. It won't be received well nationally, I assume, but again what are we doing? We're building this for our fans."
Including all the previous changes that Nashville used to maintain home ice advantage, the Predators will also be introducing heavily restrictive measures that will seemingly prevent fans from opposing teams in certain games from either buying tickets directly from the team or even buying tickets on the secondary market..."

http://www.foxsports.com/tennessee/story/predators-introducing-stricter-measures-to-limit-ticket-purchases-by-opposing-fans-011015

Can anyone give me an idea of just how much the chicago fans overpay? Because if a fan with a 50 dollar seat can get 200 bucks for that game, I can see how some people will say if they can't sell their chicago and st louis tickets they can't afford a season ticket. It sucks but I'm not sure how you can prevent a person from reselling their ticket if its not illegal in the state

 

[Adz]

As long as there are people in other cities who will pay so much for one of your tickets that it defrays the overall cost of your season tickets, it continues. A big city team with a recent Stanley Cup win is turning people away at the doors. They'll pay big to see their team--and to get a road trip to Nashville in the process? Why not pay the same for a trip as they'd pay for a single home ticket and get to be annoying in the process? For the seller, why not finance your season tickets with some doofus Chicago fan?

The only way it ends is if the opposing team's team is so bad that they can get tickets in their own city and/or our barn is filled naturally with our own fans so that opposing fans are still in the vast minority if they do come. I see the first scenario happening first, quite frankly.


Edit: I sat in seats last season that cost around $47 with the family AYCE feature. Someone sat by me that paid $135 for his--I think he had the "adult" option which included beer, though. I have known of people who converted their voucher tickets to real tickets and sold them for a mint, but they were really good tickets.

 

[Pred303]

not long ago, the year before kane-toews, handtrick and i went to a PRED game in CHI where they had less than 4K in the building. we went from the pressbox straight down to on the glass seats because so few were there. was hilarious.

 

[Enoch]

not long ago, the year before kane-toews, handtrick and i went to a PRED game in CHI where they had less than 4K in the building. we went from the pressbox straight down to on the glass seats because so few were there. was hilarious.

I did the same thing. I paid 10 dollars for upper bowl tickets with my dad. We were the only people in our entire upper bowl section. We moved down to the third row center ice, midway through the first. Maybe 5-6k people there. Maybe. We could have sat on the glass, but we were afraid that would be going too far.

 

[Preds Partisan]

Can anyone give me an idea of just how much the chicago fans overpay? Because if a fan with a 50 dollar seat can get 200 bu,cks for that game, I can see how some people will say if they can't sell their chicago and st louis tickets they can't afford a season ticket. It sucks but I'm nt sure how you can prevent a person from reselling their ticket if its not illegal in the state

Well, where I went to college, for hockey games they restrict pre-season sales to the public to only allow for two game purchases of 4 tickets each game (meaning only individual SRO tickets are available once the season starts), season ticket holders have to make a contribution (which keeps out the scalpers), and each person (season ticket holder and general public) who buys a ticket is prohibited from selling that ticket for more than face value. They use tracking software through a vendor monitored program to check for online resales over face value. Nothing really to keep someone from scalping on a street corner of course. Violation of any of their rules can result in being banned from making future ticket purchases/loss of current tickets. It's very strict if they want to enforce it, and there's no legal prohibition for reselling at a profit, it's just their policy you agree to when you buy tickets. They've been doing this for 2 or 3 years. So it can be done.

 

[NoFncyName]

I haven't seen this posted elsewhere but COO Sean Henry outlines stricter ticket buying guidelines for 2015-16 to try and keep down the number of visiting fans from overrunning the arena. From an article on Fox Sports Tennessee Saturday January 10:

"When you talk to our fans now, who's the best home hockey team in hockey? We are," said Henry. "Two home losses, one of those losses was to Chicago [on Dec. 6th]. Was that a home game? No. I don't know if there were 6,000 Chicago fans here or 9,000, it doesn't matter. We lost our home crowd edge.
It wasn't fun for anybody. You have season ticket holders saying, 'what are you going to do?' The fact is we have a lot of season ticket holders that are saying, 'I don't know if I want to come to that game'. You should want that game, it's a division rival. We're in a pennant race, if you will, against [Chicago] and St. Louis.....So we're putting some pretty strong steps in for what we want to do for our fans. It won't be received well nationally, I assume, but again what are we doing? We're building this for our fans."
Including all the previous changes that Nashville used to maintain home ice advantage, the Predators will also be introducing heavily restrictive measures that will seemingly prevent fans from opposing teams in certain games from either buying tickets directly from the team or even buying tickets on the secondary market..."

http://www.foxsports.com/tennessee/story/predators-introducing-stricter-measures-to-limit-ticket-purchases-by-opposing-fans-011015

Utter Hogwash. Get the Red out was a failure the hostility of Blues and Hawks fans at these games have been the determining factor to many of us just refusing to go and eating our tickets or just selling them. All about $$$$$$ and it is difficult to believe that the front office is willing to pay a 10% premium to buyback tickets to try and ensure these games will not be full of opposing fans.

If the marketing dept can't sell the public in the Nashville area to fill the majority of the arena with Pred fans then there are issues. Additionally the sales of alcohol to these fans has its part in the problem, in fact that is really where the problem starts. We all like to have a beer or two at the game but the problem causers have far more than that any in many many cases there could be arrests for PI. Which would be a much better option dealing with this than attempting a policy that makes the whole organization and city look childish.

Until the situation is resolved there will continue to be a large number of people that will just not attend these games including season ticket holders like myself.

 

[Adz]

Every team is going to have its highs and lows. We used to see the same with Detroit fans--granted a lot of them converted to Preds fans but there aren't as many busloads of fans converging on the arena anymore. The economy has made it so they can get tickets in Detroit so they get their fix there. I talked to one person years ago who told me they could get tickets to the game here, get a flight and a hotel room for the same as they'd pay for a ticket in Detroit and if they drove it was cheaper.

 

[Drake744]

It's also a matter of the location of our town and the entertainment options for visitors. People can fly in from Chicago on Southwest for dirt cheap, go to a game, have a party weekend and go home for really not all that much money. People can drive from St. Louis and do the same thing. I personally don't care one way or the other if they come down or not. It's just one of those things that you really can't get rid of.

In the NFL I'm a Chargers fan and we rarely have a distinct home-field advantage because the stadium fills up with fans of other teams who have moved to San Diego or thousands and thousands of away fans who have chosen that game as their away trip for the season. Even some of the veteran players tell newcomers that one of the negatives of playing in a great place is it attracts outsiders and there's not a constant home advantage.

I think the same thing applies to the Preds against teams like the Blues and Hawks. Groups of fans choose this as their trip, because A.) It's fun and I'm sure among those away fans, word of mouth travels very well about how fun Nashville is for an away game. B.) It's cheap (especially for Hawks fans), and C.) They can. Simple as that. I think it's a little childish to puff out our chests and try and ban certain fans from coming in. If the reason for this "problem" is because we have a fun city and great atmosphere, so be it. I doubt a bunch of opposing fans are flocking to St. Louis, Columbus, or Detroit year after year for their away game party weekends.

 

[triggrman]

I fine with keeping annoying Hawk and Blues fans out......



Anyway, just looking at the stats, particularly Wilson's. What's going on with him, he's been a beast since the Toronto game.

Prior to the Toronto game he had 4 points in 15 games. Since that he's had 22 points in 24 games. In the last 10 games he's had 13 points.

 

[SavageSteve]

Utter Hogwash. Get the Red out was a failure the hostility of Blues and Hawks fans at these games have been the determining factor to many of us just refusing to go and eating our tickets or just selling them. All about $$$$$$ and it is difficult to believe that the front office is willing to pay a 10% premium to buyback tickets to try and ensure these games will not be full of opposing fans.

If the marketing dept can't sell the public in the Nashville area to fill the majority of the arena with Pred fans then there are issues. Additionally the sales of alcohol to these fans has its part in the problem, in fact that is really where the problem starts. We all like to have a beer or two at the game but the problem causers have far more than that any in many many cases there could be arrests for PI. Which would be a much better option dealing with this than attempting a policy that makes the whole organization and city look childish.

Until the situation is resolved there will continue to be a large number of people that will just not attend these games including season ticket holders like myself.

I posted the majority of this text in the ticket thread but honestly, the more I am reading between the lines of articles on this policy, the thing that strikes me most is that the superseding intent of this policy is to restrict well-organized ticket brokers (aka scalpers) from controlling the ticket market for sporting events AND concerts. For many popular events, the ticket brokers snap up seats from various sources before the public has a real chance to get them and then re-sells them at 'market' rates. So in that case, a scalper basically controls access to the events in your building and has the ability to gouge consumers b/c they have the market but are not part of, nor really care about the welfare of the community. The obvious case-in-point was the Foo Fighters concert and their ticket policy of swiping the credit card used to actually buy the ticket. I do not think they have a real issue with other fan bases coming but would rather the access come from them and have the ability to offer locals tickets before offering elsewhere so that the building isn't dominated by Hawks or Blues or Red Wings or 'Flavor-of-the-Month fan base. The Bridgestone Arena is also about bringing visitors to the area as well and not doing so would run against that mission. It has to be balanced...

The idea is a bit of a slippery-slope IMO; but we will see how they proceed too. I honestly expect the end result of this will be dynamic pricing of events by the teams (like the Baseball Cardinals do) that implement this sort of restriction policy that will hit their revenue targets. How they would add benefit to having a season ticket package with dynamic pricing would also be interesting too.

 

[Pred303]

I fine with keeping annoying Hawk and Blues fans out......



Anyway, just looking at the stats, particularly Wilson's. What's going on with him, he's been a beast since the Toronto game.

Prior to the Toronto game he had 4 points in 15 games. Since that he's had 22 points in 24 games. In the last 10 games he's had 13 points.

personally i feel the biggest difference for wilson has been moving him back to forward so he can play more to his strength, working the boards and possessing the puck. never like him as a centerman, thought it limited his strengths and helped contribute to his lack of shots. he's always had a great shot and shooting percentage, just couldn't get more than a shot per game. now this year all of a sudden he's up over 2 a game as a forward.

 

[FossilFndr]

Would refusing to sell tickets to certain cites/states invoke the Commerce Clause?
or INTERSTATE COMMERCE
in U.S. constitutional law, any commercial transactions or traffic that cross state boundaries or that involve more than one state. The traditional concept that the free flow of commerce between states should not be impeded

 

[Paranoid Android]

I'm trying to contain my excitement for Wilson because he's had similar streaks in the past. But he really looks like a changed player under Lavi. It doesn't look like he's thinking out there (in a good way), just playing off instinct. Lavi's system is very forgiving, unlike with Trotz where he played so tentatively.

However, the effort level seems higher, which bothers me a little bit because that isn't determined by Trotz. So we'll see how long he keeps it up.

 

[SavageSteve]

Would refusing to sell tickets to certain cites/states invoke the Commerce Clause?
or INTERSTATE COMMERCE
in U.S. constitutional law, any commercial transactions or traffic that cross state boundaries or that involve more than one state. The traditional concept that the free flow of commerce between states should not be impeded

You should ask Sean Henry (@PREDSident) that on Tweeter...

 

[Drake744]

Would refusing to sell tickets to certain cites/states invoke the Commerce Clause?
or INTERSTATE COMMERCE
in U.S. constitutional law, any commercial transactions or traffic that cross state boundaries or that involve more than one state. The traditional concept that the free flow of commerce between states should not be impeded

Last year before the NFC Championship Game against the 49ers, the Seahawks restricted ticket sales to people living in certain areas. This is mainly aimed at California residents.

According to the notice posted on the Seahawks' official web site, tickets for the NFC Championship Game can be purchased only by buyers with credit card billing addresses in the states of Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Alaska, and Hawaii, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.

 

[predfan98]

Utter Hogwash. Get the Red out was a failure the hostility of Blues and Hawks fans at these games have been the determining factor to many of us just refusing to go and eating our tickets or just selling them. All about $$$$$$ and it is difficult to believe that the front office is willing to pay a 10% premium to buyback tickets to try and ensure these games will not be full of opposing fans.

If the marketing dept can't sell the public in the Nashville area to fill the majority of the arena with Pred fans then there are issues. Additionally the sales of alcohol to these fans has its part in the problem, in fact that is really where the problem starts. We all like to have a beer or two at the game but the problem causers have far more than that any in many many cases there could be arrests for PI. Which would be a much better option dealing with this than attempting a policy that makes the whole organization and city look childish.

Until the situation is resolved there will continue to be a large number of people that will just not attend these games including season ticket holders like myself.

Totally agree..........

 

[predfan98]

I posted the majority of this text in the ticket thread but honestly, the more I am reading between the lines of articles on this policy, the thing that strikes me most is that the superseding intent of this policy is to restrict well-organized ticket brokers (aka scalpers) from controlling the ticket market for sporting events AND concerts. For many popular events, the ticket brokers snap up seats from various sources before the public has a real chance to get them and then re-sells them at 'market' rates. So in that case, a scalper basically controls access to the events in your building and has the ability to gouge consumers b/c they have the market but are not part of, nor really care about the welfare of the community. The obvious case-in-point was the Foo Fighters concert and their ticket policy of swiping the credit card used to actually buy the ticket. I do not think they have a real issue with other fan bases coming but would rather the access come from them and have the ability to offer locals tickets before offering elsewhere so that the building isn't dominated by Hawks or Blues or Red Wings or 'Flavor-of-the-Month fan base. The Bridgestone Arena is also about bringing visitors to the area as well and not doing so would run against that mission. It has to be balanced...

The idea is a bit of a slippery-slope IMO; but we will see how they proceed too. I honestly expect the end result of this will be dynamic pricing of events by the teams (like the Baseball Cardinals do) that implement this sort of restriction policy that will hit their revenue targets. How they would add benefit to having a season ticket package with dynamic pricing would also be interesting too.

Preds games are not concerts, there are really not "ticket bots" buying up all the tickets in the first 5 minutes of a sale for preds games like concerts.

The Preds do use dynamic price for single game tickets already