Penguins ticket sales hit the roof

[jb**]

so vancouver and long island must be considered bandwagon too. they've had some years of attendance that were even worse than the pens '03-04 campaign.

So sensitive, not much sense of humor lately. You Pens fans need to simmer down and take the ribbing with a grain of salt. But I still stand by my statment.

 

[Timmy]

so vancouver and long island must be considered bandwagon too. they've had some years of attendance that were even worse than the pens '03-04 campaign.

Yeah, but there was a time when the home uniforms were giving people in the stands epileptic seizures, and people stayed away for safety reasons.

Also, the Colliseum was located in an unsavoury part of town, and fans grew tired of losing their hubcabs.

Once the unis were fixed and the Garage opened, it's been fairweather friendly...

 

[Jaded-Fan]

It is amazing that there are that many fairweather/bandwagon jumpers in the Burgh. Kick your team when it is down, show no support, then when the team appears to be good, come out of the woodwork, that is amazing.

This was meant as a joke? Sorry JB but I fail to see it as meant that way. You are back tracking.

 

[jb**]

This was meant as a joke? Sorry JB but I fail to see it as meant that way. You are back tracking.

No it wasn't a joke there is a lot of truht to that statement whether you agree or disagree. Just having some fun if it offended you sorry. Just wondering where all the fans were before , you should suport your team good/bad times.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

No it wasn't a joke there is a lot of truht to that statement whether you agree or disagree. Just having some fun if it offended you sorry. Just wondering where all the fans were before , you should suport your team good/bad times.

It wasn't a joke, it was a dig, but it was a joke and I should get a sense of humor.

 

[Jag68Sid87]

Well, that's great news re: the season ticket sales.

I knew there was a reason for the John LeClair signing!

Big John really attracts an audience, doesn't he.

 

[nomorekids]

it's funny...the lockout was supposed to hurt the small markets. bigger markets kept warning, "well, the fans won't come back to these already weak cities..."

But this...from Pittsburgh. I read that Florida was doing well in ticket sales, as well. Craig Leipold said that the Monday after Kariya signed was the single busiest ticket day in Nashville's entire history, and that season ticket sales were on course to shatter even year one, when the the team averaged almost a sell out for every game. It's good to see that the lockout seems to have worked in the way the optimists said it would...made the playing field level enough that fans of EVERY team would have a reason to be excited and interested.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

it's funny...the lockout was supposed to hurt the small markets. bigger markets kept warning, "well, the fans won't come back to these already weak cities..."

But this...from Pittsburgh. I read that Florida was doing well in ticket sales, as well. Craig Leipold said that the Monday after Kariya signed was the single busiest ticket day in Nashville's entire history, and that season ticket sales were on course to shatter even year one, when the the team averaged almost a sell out for every game. It's good to see that the lockout seems to have worked in the way the optimists said it would...made the playing field level enough that fans of EVERY team would have a reason to be excited and interested.

Well said. I always thought that some had it backward. The real growth potential of the league is not in their big markets. But in the 3/4 of their entire audience that are in mid-sized and smaller markets. I do not think that you lose much in the big markets by making every team feel equal as far as being able to sign (or keep) star players. But you potentially can make huge gains in markets that some other sports . . .*cough* . . . baseball . . .*cough* . . . seem to make fans of any market other than NY or Boston (or 2 or 3 other teams) feel like that the sport believes that they should be happy just to be allowed to have a team. I have no clue why that has not caught up with them yet attendence wise in some markets but I think that it is inevitable that it will. Especially if they remain the only league without some cap. But I digress.

I put my money where my mouth was weeks before we got Crosby, buying a full season package when in the past I had only gone to a handful of games. And it was solely to reward the league for getting it right and treating my market as one that mattered to them. Apparently I was not alone.

 

[sk666]

I wonder if the fans will enjoy 7-5 losses.

GFYS

 

[X8oD]

I hope pittsburgh keeps the NYR "sign lots of free agents in the offseason" model of franchise building in mind....

sorry but the rangers built thier team on FA's

If anything, the Pens are Detroit Red Winging thier free agency. Have a great core of players built with in thier system, and tack on good players who add to the team.

there are bad ways to spend money via free agency, and their are good ways. The wigns have proven it can be done the right way.

 

[jb**]

The Penguins are such a hot ticket, they already have sold more seats for the upcoming season than for the entire season when last they played (2003-04).

That translates into nearly half a million tickets purchased amid the exhilaration generated by Sidney Crosby and the New Guys.

And remember: It's only mid-August.

"We're rich, bìtch!"

.

Do you think if they didn't slash their ticket prices by that much they still would have sold as many tickets?

 

[Jacob]

It is amazing that there are that many fairweather/bandwagon jumpers in the Burgh. Kick your team when it is down, show no support, then when the team appears to be good, come out of the woodwork, that is amazing.

This is not a bad problem to have considering Penguins fans have been hearing for the last 2-3 years that the city can't support a hockey team period.

That's false. They'll support a competitive team.

 

[rekrul]

being a huge stiller fan and I liked the pens until the sharks came to town I can say I'm pretty impressed with coverage I see on thier foxsports affiliate. Thier FSPit show i tune in for steeler news allways has a Penguin nugget too. Their broadcast callin show shows fans knowledgeable and excited. Here, probably like a lot of warm weather climate towns doesn't even talk hockey, let along give any pub for the local team until they are in the playoffs. Glad the the town has been excited, they just need a new arena.

 

[usiel]

it's better to sign free agents then lose them to other teams...

and, unlike NYR, the penguins core of players (malone, orpik, koltsov, morozov, kraft, melichar, caron) are young and homegrown. the penguins would have been a hopeless bottom-dweller like washington if they didn't aggressively seek to add talent to the team.

and why not? the past couple years has been absolutely dreadful to watch and follow the team. i'd rather see the occasional 7-5 loss than constant a 3-1 loss with only 15-20 shots for the good-guys.

the penguins needed to upgrade offense talent to be truly competitive and they did so. any less and a fan should be disappointed in his favorite team, not one that attempted to better it's organization.

ok thats just flat out hilarious.....

 

[TruGr1t]

Just wow.

Is this some kind of breakthrough? Did Penguins management finally discover the secret formula to selling tickets? Don't ice a damn AHL team and fans might be more inclined to come out to games. Jeeze, this isn't NEW information, shell out just a bit more on players so that your lineup doesn't look like it was imported from the ECHL and you might (just MAYBE) sell some tickets.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

Just wow.

Is this some kind of breakthrough? Did Penguins management finally discover the secret formula to selling tickets? Don't ice a damn AHL team and fans might be more inclined to come out to games. Jeeze, this isn't NEW information, shell out just a bit more on players so that your lineup doesn't look like it was imported from the ECHL and you might (just MAYBE) sell some tickets.

For how many years of the last twenty did the Pens ice an 'AHL team'? Their history is having a healthy payroll. The last couple of seasons alone did the salary structure spiral to the point that a team that always had a middle of the pack or better payroll, the Pens one example of that, no longer could hold onto their talent and began hemorrhaging quality players. That is what this lockout was about. But to break your arm patting yourself on the back for an $80 million payroll, and implying that if the Pens had done the same they would be in fine shape, no lockout needed, just spend money, is just plain ludicrous.

 

[Spooner]

I've got to imagine lowered ticket prices helped somewhat. I'm remembering a post here where a Pens fan mentioned he got this year's season for tickets for less than $1,000 what they would have cost last year.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

I've got to imagine lowered ticket prices helped somewhat. I'm remembering a post here where a Pens fan mentioned he got this year's season for tickets for less than $1,000 what they would have cost last year.

That would be me I think. By the way, I bought them perhaps a month before we got Crosby if not longer.

2002-3, My F level season package was $1,204:

http://letsgopens.com/pens_info.php

This year, same seats were $645:

http://www.pittsburghpenguins.com/tickets/season.php


So for the pair of tickets I bought it was a $1,118 savings over 2002-3.

That said, it really was not the price that drove my purchase but the direction the league was going. They earned my dollars by getting their act together with where I saw the new CBA (as then yet unsigned) going. I chose those seats because some friends of mine had sat there and liked them better than the lower seats for the view, especially in the front row where these were. But I could have affored other seats, pricing was not my concern barely at all.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

I get annoyed when teams like Toronto, Montreal, Detroit sell-out like this every year and never get reconized yet Pittsburgh does.

 

[nomorekids]

I get annoyed when teams like Toronto, Montreal, Detroit sell-out like this every year and never get reconized yet Pittsburgh does.

i'm sorry. would you like to go start a thread about how toronto's ticketsales are going well?

it's awful when every thread doesn't somehow involve your team, isn't it? Good thing we have you to bring them in, no matter how irrelevent. We're fortunate, aren't we?

Hey, I think there's a thread on the prospects board about young D...and no one is recognizing Colaiacovo as the ultimate future Norris candidate. You'd better go get that!

 

[craig1]

This is not a bad problem to have considering Penguins fans have been hearing for the last 2-3 years that the city can't support a hockey team period.

....And this year, it is conceivable that they may sell out every single home game.

That's an accomplishment for any hockey team regardless of market.

 

[futurcorerock]

Good to see Crosby has been rewarding a well-deserved team.

Hopefully Kessel goes to Buffalo and Frolik goes to Toronto

 

[Injektilo]

I think one factor with AK Bars and the Rag$ always was team chemistry, you could say that it will be a factor with the Pens aswell, but this season it's a problem in the whole NHL... EVERY (well, almost) team has gone through major changes, so I don't think chemistry will hurt the Pens compared to the rest of the teams... In addition I don't think the Pens have really overpayed anyone. I like the way the've built their team and I actually wish they bring it all together.

Exactly, that's my point. If it was a total lack of chemistry that failed the Rangers (i'm not saying it was, but it might have been, though i don't know how they avoided any chemistry for seven years) then the Pens (along with alot of other teams, like the Bruins and the Caps) are in the same boat of adding alot of new players to their team. Just because they happen to be talented players doesn't mean much, as evidenced by the Rangers. It doesn't matter whether or not the Rags overpaid their players, its not like there was a cap that they couldn't spend over. Whether all their players were making $5/hour or $10mil/seasons, they underperformed.

It could happen for the Pens, that's alllll i'm saying.


personally, I'd have done probably the same thing they did, adn I do expect them to improve. I don't expect them to be a powerhouse though.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

....And this year, it is conceivable that they may sell out every single home game.

That's an accomplishment for any hockey team regardless of market.

especially for pitt considering they've never sold out every single home game. they've come close with around 35 a year in the mid 90s.

 

[Mothra]

That would be me I think. By the way, I bought them perhaps a month before we got Crosby if not longer.

2002-3, My F level season package was $1,204:

http://letsgopens.com/pens_info.php

This year, same seats were $645:

http://www.pittsburghpenguins.com/tickets/season.php


So for the pair of tickets I bought it was a $1,118 savings over 2002-3.

That said, it really was not the price that drove my purchase but the direction the league was going. They earned my dollars by getting their act together with where I saw the new CBA (as then yet unsigned) going. I chose those seats because some friends of mine had sat there and liked them better than the lower seats for the view, especially in the front row where these were. But I could have affored other seats, pricing was not my concern barely at all.

A pair of tickets eh? Is this you inviting me up for a game?