Sens reduce capacity at Canadian Tire Centre

[RedWhiteBlackGold]

 

[The Lewler]

This is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard in relation to the Senators.

What could they possibly hope to achieve by fake removing seats??

I agree with a previous poster, and based on the quotes in the article, it's a naked attempt to create of scarcity! LOL

You aren't fooling anyone, everyone knows you aren't really selling out your building, AND you then deployed the cheapest , silliest way to try and say you are.. wow. Just wow.

It's highly probable this will actually drive MORE people away, accelerating your attendance problem.. not fixing it.

GOAT quote from that article, aside from the admission of what they were trying to do, is the response to the question if you had sufficient demand , would you then reopen those seats ? The proper response if you are sticking to your economics argument is "of course yes, if ticket sales rebound, we will take the tarps off", instead he says " no , maybe". ROFLCOPTER. Of course you would open them if it meant more money! lolololololololololol

Is this real life?

 

[Tuna99]

Well, this season is starting off with a bang.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

That's a mistake-when the arena is downtown it will attract a lot more people,15000 is Winnipeg territory .The new arena should be 17500-18000..

Ticket prices are going to go up with the new arena.

 

[Fandlauer]

This is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard in relation to the Senators.

What could they possibly hope to achieve by fake removing seats??

I agree with a previous poster, and based on the quotes in the article, it's a naked attempt to create of scarcity! LOL

You aren't fooling anyone, everyone knows you aren't really selling out your building, AND you then deployed the cheapest , silliest way to try and say you are.. wow. Just wow.

It's highly probable this will actually drive MORE people away, accelerating your attendance problem.. not fixing it.

GOAT quote from that article, aside from the admission of what they were trying to do, is the response to the question if you had sufficient demand , would you then reopen those seats ? The proper response if you are sticking to your economics argument is "of course yes, if ticket sales rebound, we will take the tarps off", instead he says " no , maybe". ROFLCOPTER. Of course you would open them if it meant more money! lolololololololololol

Is this real life?

Exactly. Just makes this franchise look more bush league than it already did.

 

[rocket2man]

My gawd... this will give fans a warm and fuzzy won't it?

 

[Knave]

I don't really care too much about this - but it sounds like they're trying to make the LeBreton arena exclusive with a smaller capacity? That's not very nice to some of the loyal fans who might not be making a ton of money.

As for the logic - money is increasingly in licensing, merchandising, streaming and TV even for a traditional 'gate-driven' league like the NHL.

Now that LeBreton has been mentioned - anyone know of any progress? I thought they were suppose to have deals in place by the end of 2017 according to their timelines (and not the aggressive timeline)?

 

[RedWhiteBlackGold]

When is the new arena expected to get going anyways? 3-4 years from now? Haven't really heard much on it.

 

[CanadianHockey]

Agreed with others - this is about artificial scarcity. I feel like this is one of the few teams in the league that has blamed its fanbase for its inability to sell out consistently. You're a business. If your customers aren't buying, maybe you should try to change your product or marketing to suit expectations and draw in people.

We didn't hear complaints during the early 00s, when we were selling out this exact same building. I feel financial issues are more a product of cap inflation (which is tied to leaguewide revenues) than the Ottawa market, per se.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Lol this organization has such a defeatist attitude about these things.

 

[david999]

This should have been an easy year to sell tickets considering they were close to playing in the finals 3 months ago. People can try to make excuses all they want about the current arena, pricing, etc. The bottom line is Ottawa is not a good sports town. The only other NHL team that has to resort to tarping seats to "fool the fans" is another hockey hotbed, Phoenix.

 

[otown]

I still predict attendance issues even without these seats.

Ottawa is a fickle crowd and there is a tipping point when the total game experience get too expensive.

Combine a ticket purchase with half price parking a week before each game and you might see a jump in sales.

Fans are tired of getting gouged.

 

[Knave]

This should have been an easy year to sell tickets considering they were close to playing in the finals 3 months ago. People can try to make excuses all they want about the current arena, pricing, etc. The bottom line is Ottawa is not a good sports town. The only other NHL team that has to resort to tarping seats to "fool the fans" is another hockey hotbed, Phoenix.

I mean... another way to look at is our fans won't put up with garbage year in and year out like a certain other Ontario team. We have standards.

 

[Fandlauer]

I mean... another way to look at is our fans won't put up with garbage year in and year out like a certain other Ontario team. We have standards.

Pretty much.

Also, we're maybe starting the year without the entire 1st pairing that we had last year, and last year we made the playoffs by 4 points.

I think we're due for our typical crap year after a good one. I don't think people have been fooled into thinking we are a contender.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

This should have been an easy year to sell tickets considering they were close to playing in the finals 3 months ago. People can try to make excuses all they want about the current arena, pricing, etc. The bottom line is Ottawa is not a good sports town. The only other NHL team that has to resort to tarping seats to "fool the fans" is another hockey hotbed, Phoenix.

Yeah Ottawa is a **** sports town, they've only supported 3 major hockey teams within their vicinity (Sens in Kanata, 67s downtown, Olympiques over the bridge in Gatineau) and a CFL team.

 

[Fandlauer]

Yeah Ottawa is a **** sports town, they've only supported 3 major hockey teams within their vicinity (Sens in Kanata, 67s downtown, Olympiques over the bridge in Gatineau) and a CFL team.

Agreed. Ottawa is a great sports town when teams are run with at least semblance of competence.

Look at the CFL disasters here. Over and over again we would hear that Ottawa isn't a football town. The minute a team stepped in that wasn't run by Horn Chen or a Gliberman, the Ottawa football team instantly became the jewel of the league.

Ottawa fans aren't unreasonable, we just expect stability, half decent management and a team that's truly competitive every now and then.

Melnyk saved the team and I'll always be grateful for that, but he's quickly running this ship into the ground. He's turning this franchise into a joke. I don't blame people for staying away.

I also think city council shares some of the blame though, kneecapping him at every corner, whether it be a casino or an MLS team. I'm sure that's in the back of his mind at every step.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

I mean... another way to look at is our fans won't put up with garbage year in and year out like a certain other Ontario team. We have standards.

It's nothing complicated like that. It's really simple but if you state the facts people start getting on you as if you're an apologist or you're not man enough to admit the Sens shoulda sold out or something.

-Sens don't have adequate corporate support due to Ottawa being a government town and the government not being allowed to buy tickets the same way private businesses that are the major employers in other Canadian cities do.

-Arena is/was much bigger than most NHL arenas making it harder to sell out.

-The Senators have a unique handicap being squashed between two 100 year old franchises that occupied the territory prior to the Sens coming back. No other Canadian NHL team has to deal with this. Leafs/Canadiens fans don't pay for tickets to Sens games when their teams aren't in town/try to get their children to cheer for their own team making it harder for the Sens to build a fan base. This hits the Sens already low population they have to draw from.

-The Sens no longer paper games. People have what might be a false impression that attendance and interest in the team has dropped because they look at past seasons where there was more papering done.

But if you point this stuff out, you're apparently an apologist and the Sens should do just as well as MTL and TOR at the box office because they are all "Canadian" teams which means they all have equal market places...right? Surely, there couldn't be unique aspects to each Canadian team's market....

This isn't to say the Senators have done a good job marketing the team, and this isn't absolving them of any negative moves they've made but it's incredibly frustrating seeing people who are completely ignorant of the marketplace call a city that's supported multiple major sports teams at once a bad sports city because Ottawa only happened to sell more tickets than any other team in the conference final but didn't sell out.

 

[MarkStone]

Hot take- This is the right move and will lead to a more engaging atmosphere, and more attractive product. CFL and MLS learned this long ago, and it's worked for Winnipeg in the NHL.

I know this opinion probably won't jive well with the general outrage culture on this board but meh....

 

[scallionjj11]

Here's Tom Anselemi on CTC changes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5gSWyS-5Kw

 

[Fandlauer]

Hot take- This is the right move and will lead to a more engaging atmosphere, and more attractive product. CFL and MLS learned this long ago, and it's worked for Winnipeg in the NHL.

I know this opinion probably won't jive well with the general outrage culture on this board but meh....

I would agree with you if it was done professionally. Ie actually removing the seats and adding concessions, maybe a bar, whatever. But just tossing a black tarp over 1,500 seats is asinine.

 

[mcnorth]

Sens need more premium seating. The expensive seats are the ones selling out. All the new seating sold out before it was even finished - they could have put in a lot more and used the whole building. Missed opportunity there. Too bad.

 

[2CHAINZ]

I heard they have also removed 1500 seats from the outdoor game.

 

[The Lewler]

Hot take- This is the right move and will lead to a more engaging atmosphere, and more attractive product. CFL and MLS learned this long ago, and it's worked for Winnipeg in the NHL.

I know this opinion probably won't jive well with the general outrage culture on this board but meh....

Ice cold take.

No evidence to support the claim that losing your top 3 rows will make the product more attractive.

Winnipeg was planned. They knew what their market could support and got seating that would be shy of that to have scarcity from day one.

It was a good plan because the demand has fallen off as the Jets middle along, but even that decline keeps them over capacity still.

I predict a year of minor improvement where Anselmi is allowed to make decisions (branding etc) and Eugene Melnyk occasionally lighting tire fires as he is wont to do.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Whether it works or not or if its the right thing to do, id rather see (or probably not see on TV lol) tarped off areas over fans being scattered between empty seats. The idea does make some sense considering it sounds like it is the cheapest and least popular spots being closed off.

This is something you see a ton of in MLB no? I feel like there's quite often huge areas shut down and people packed in to other areas rather than spreading them out.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Hot take- This is the right move and will lead to a more engaging atmosphere, and more attractive product. CFL and MLS learned this long ago, and it's worked for Winnipeg in the NHL.

I know this opinion probably won't jive well with the general outrage culture on this board but meh....

One good downturn in the economy, and Winnipeg will no longer be viable as an NHL city. The folks in the 'Peg pay an absurdly high price for tickets because of that small arena.

If we want Ottawa to be on solid footing in the Flats, they really need to have a good 17,000-seat capacity. Anything less and you outprice too many fans.

This isn't Toronto. We don't have the corporate base and salaries for folks to shell out a small mortgage for season ticket packages.