TBN: Despite Sabres’ upgrade in talent, attendance levels lagging

[cardiffgiant]

http://sabres.buffalonews.com/2015/12/23/despite-sabres-upgrade-in-talent-attendance-levels-lagging/

Though the Sabres boast an impressive 16,000 season-ticket holders for their 19,070-seat arena, empty seats show hundreds if not thousands are staying home nearly every game....

.....Buffalo’s attendance (which is totaled by tickets distributed rather than tickets used) has dropped through 19 home games. While it’s not a big slip – 18,245 this year compared to 18,324 last year and 18,402 in 2013-14 – it’s still surprising given the rise in competitiveness on the ice.

The shift in attendence is really minor, but it feels like the atmosphere and the resale market have taken a nosedive. You can go onto stubhub and buy tickets to a lot of games for below STH cost (and that includes stubhubs fees).

Is the problem specific to the Sabres coming out of a tank, is it part of an overall problem with the NHL product, are tocket prices too friggin high, or a combination of all?

I'd like to think that winning will fix the issue.

Click to read more...

 

[Yatzhee]

I wanted to take my fiance to the Dec. 28th capitals game, but unfortunately the prices I saw for the lower bowl and 200 level were beyond my pallet given the time of year.

 

[joshjull]

http://sabres.buffalonews.com/2015/12/23/despite-sabres-upgrade-in-talent-attendance-levels-lagging/



The shift in attendence is really minor, but it feels like the atmosphere and the resale market have taken a nosedive. You can go onto stubhub and buy tickets to a lot of games for below STH cost (and that includes stubhubs fees).

Is the problem specific to the Sabres coming out of a tank, is it part of an overall problem with the NHL product, are tocket prices too friggin high, or a combination of all?

I'd like to think that winning will fix the issue.

Its a combo of all of those things but the lack of excitement during Sabres games is largely due to the team itself. Not much offense and not much violence. Those are the two things that usually get fans going.

Winning more will certainly help.

 

[BloFan4Life]

The whole NHL has a problem yet the NHL think otherwise. The NHL is already irrelevant, wait in about 5 more years.

 

[Woodhouse]

The place sounds like a mausoleum outside of those brief moments a goal's scored or when they can ooh-and-aah at something .. "Let's go, Buffalo" chants seem non-existent.

 

[Dingo44]

This is madness to me because I'd be at every game if I still lived in Buffalo. I went to the first and third games this year up there and always get to the Sabres-Hurricanes games down here.

At the same time, I get that not much happens for long stretches of the game. They do need to crack down on obstruction and maybe stop trying to eliminate fights.

But go to the games! With StubHub, there is no excuse.

 

[Afino]

.

But go to the games! With StubHub, there is no excuse.

Except that after $10 parking, $30 worth of concessions for me and my kid, and a trip to the Sabres store that'll cost more than my tickets

 

[Shoey]

y'know, maybe if the sport was exciting to watch more than 30% of the time people would go to the games. To me this is very much an NHL problem versus people being fed up with the Sabres.

 

[hizzoner]

Only speaking for myself but although I bought my usual tickets I do go less frequently. I give mine away as gifts to family and close friends who might otherwise buy tickets themselves I guess. When I went to the Chicago game with 5 friends from Canada the exchange rate was $1.42 Cdn. per US$. Parking, a meal, snacks and drinks can add up pretty quickly. With a face rate of $165 per ticket it maybe should have been no surprise that Black Hawk fans flooded the lower bowl. The declining manufacturing economy in Southern Ontario-the well paying jobs are going to Southern US or to third world countries where employees get minimal wages and little in the way of benefits- cuts into the pool of available attendees also.

 

[yahhockey]

Given the number of tickets on StubHub to many events across all of the major sports leagues people buy season's tickets solely for the purpose of reselling them. In the olden days you had to stand outside the arena with a bunch of tickets and try to talk your way into sales and prices. Now from the comfort of their home they can buy tickets to almost any team in any city, post all of those tickets for sale and hope to turn a profit when the season is over. I'm not sure how many of these people profit annually or if it's a market with high turnover once they realize it can be a difficult task to come out ahead if you buy the wrong team or at the wrong time. Thus unsold tickets wind up being empty seats. There are also STH that buy their tickets knowing they can't or won't attend all of the games and hope to sell some of the games to lesson their cost per ticket or sell some packs to friends and family but still have unsold games that wind up on StubHub.

On a related note since the attendance is tickets distributed which includes all of the season tickets, I would also say that many fans are aware that they can buy tickets from StubHub for below box office price and sometimes even below STH price. You could try to buy one of the 3000 tickets that aren't sold to season ticket holders but that would place you, generally speaking, in the upper 300s and behind the goalies in the 100s. Or you could wait until the week of the game or the day of the game and see what bargains may be had. If you look at the ticket inventory excluding their next game against Washington which only has 250 tickets left, the games between now and March range from 855 to 2400 tickets available and the ones from March to the end of the season range from 1800 to 2600 with only two games below 2000 and one of those was 1937. So roughly 10-13.5% of tickets are available via StubHub and 15.7% (the 3k non-STH) are available at box office price meaning that 25-29% of the tickets are available for sale or roughly 4900-5500 tickets. Once the team is in the playoff hunt or leading the division it shouldn't be too hard to sell that many tickets but after two seasons of tanking and an average start to this season the fans aren't quite ready to return.

Also the Canadian dollar is hurting people that may have attended one or a few games a year, especially if it's a family. It can be painful knowing that everything is 30-40% more expensive. People that may have attended a few games are down to one or two.

 

[tsujimoto74]

I'd guess part of the problem is the weakened Canadian dollar, keeping our northern neighbors from buying as many tickets as they usually do. I'd also guess that the Bills stole away a bit of attention earlier in the season, with all the hype they were getting. Could also be that some fans aren't going to start paying attention again until they start winning more.

 

[5 Minute Major]

Simply put, it is an NHL problem.

Even the best players in the league average a point a game.

Whoopie.

I love hockey and will continue to watch but in my 40 years of being a fan, these last few years have been boring.

 

[CaseyMitts37]

The place sounds like a mausoleum outside of those brief moments a goal's scored or when they can ooh-and-aah at something .. "Let's go, Buffalo" chants seem non-existent.

Definitely, I've been to junior hockey games that were louder

 

[Dreakon13]

You can't be almost the worst team in recorded history two years in a row, after lingering in mediocrity for half a decade, and not take a hit in attendance and atmosphere... even if things are on the upswing. Frankly I'm surprised it isn't worse than it is. Start winning and people will come back, and be louder. FNC will be a madhouse next time we actually make the playoffs.

 

[ohheyimmark]

Definitely, I've been to junior hockey games that were louder

I've posted this before, but the game presentation and feeling at TD Garden in Boston versus FNC is staggering. Now, the 300 level in TD can be a tough place to be for opposing fans -- going beyond the good natured ribbing -- but it's much more exciting there. Music is much louder with a ton more low end.

I went to the Nashville home game in November and at one point I could barely hear the song we were playing during a break. There are way, way too many stupid giveaways with half-interested fans. Not a single person in the arena besides the contestant and their friends give a **** about the giveaways. They simply kill energy before the next faceoff. There are so many things wrong with the presentation, it drives me batty. You can make the arena a raucous, intimidating place to play without it becoming unfriendly towards families. I think the brass wants it to be so un-Bills-like that they don't realize how much they're draining from the game presentation.

Ugh.

Sometimes I wonder whether a group of likeminded fans should draft a letter that everyone could send to whatever the right department is to voice concerns in a somewhat unified voice.

 

[CaseyMitts37]

The music selection at the games is one of the main problems IMO. Besides the goal song, most of the music is stale.

They need more Seven Nation Army and less Drake, Beyonce, etc.

And what ever happened to Sabretooth coming down from the rafters? They need to do that again, that always gets the crowd going.

 

[Chainshot]

Definitely, I've been to junior hockey games that were louder

I've also been to junior games where I was speaking to someone on the other side of the rink (St. Mike's game in their old barn... there were about 200 people there, for an OHL game, but hey, that's Toronto for you).

Most of the time it seems like the crowd is waiting for the team and after two years of being really terrible, they seem very blunted.

The music selection at the games is one of the main problems IMO. Besides the goal song, most of the music is stale.

They need more Seven Nation Army and less Drake, Beyonce, etc.

And what ever happened to Sabretooth coming down from the rafters? They need to do that again, that always gets the crowd going.

The guy who did that is no longer Sabretooth, that's why they don't do that.

 

[Ace]

Just think....if you went to one of the 19 home games you had a good chance to see a late game tying or go ahead goal taken away by challenge or that **** show that happened with the penalties in the Chicago game. That's 4 out of 19 where the end of the game felt like you were screwed.

Where do I pay?

I don't even celebrate goals anymore until they drop the puck. It's already become looking for a flag on any first down (and there usually is one). The NHL sucked the last joy out of a largely joyless presentation.

 

[Meichel Kane]

The music selection at the games is one of the main problems IMO. Besides the goal song, most of the music is stale.

They need more Seven Nation Army and less Drake, Beyonce, etc.

And what ever happened to Sabretooth coming down from the rafters? They need to do that again, that always gets the crowd going.

Hasn't the music been an issue for going on 10 years now? Never forget they once employed that Nicholas Picholas guy as the in-game host (boooooo).

 

[SackTastic]

I've also been to junior games where I was speaking to someone on the other side of the rink (St. Mike's game in their old barn... there were about 200 people there, for an OHL game, but hey, that's Toronto for you).

Most of the time it seems like the crowd is waiting for the team and after two years of being really terrible, they seem very blunted.



The guy who did that is no longer Sabretooth, that's why they don't do that.

That's pretty much the sense I get. It is kind of a chicken/egg scenario ; Should the team get energy from the crowd, or should the crowd get energy from the team? I'm not sure, but there's clearly a sense of 'show me something first' from the stands.

I can't say I blame people. They've been better this year, but inconsistent. Times that they've absolutely carried play for stretches, but didn't get rewarded for it. As frustrating for the players, that's not fun to watch for a lot of people who may be more causal fans. (Not saying that's bad, just that it exists.) They've played some REALLY boring games too, home and away. They're not at the bottom of the league, but much closer to last than a playoff spot.

I don't want to judge much off the people around me (because most of them are serial complainers about everything), but the general sense in the building seems to be "Yeah, this is cool, but I'll get into it when they stop sucking."

It's gonna take time to win people over again. The early burst of Eichel-fueled optimism is clearly gone now, and consistent better play is the answer.

 

[cybresabre]

And what ever happened to Sabretooth coming down from the rafters? They need to do that again, that always gets the crowd going.

The guy who did that is no longer Sabretooth, that's why they don't do that.

SackTastic gets his way and this is the mess we're in...

That's pretty much the sense I get. It is kind of a chicken/egg scenario ; Should the team get energy from the crowd, or should the crowd get energy from the team? I'm not sure, but there's clearly a sense of 'show me something first' from the stands.

Look what you've done! Go to the box; feel shame.

 

[VaporTrail]

prices, the goal song, and no Matt Ellis

 

[SackTastic]

SackTastic gets his way and this is the mess we're in...

I mean yeah, but he was a rumored locker room cancer, so tradeoffs. :p

 

[Gras]

prices, the goal song, and no Matt Ellis

LMCMT is awesome

 

[Cirris]

Also, lets face it Buffalo is an "old" town. Most of the people who come to games are baby boomers and generation X`ers. They lack energy to push the crowd, especially in the higher-priced lower bowl.

Maybe they should go soccer style supporters club seating. Give a bunch of millenials cheaper end zone seating and have them do chants all game. It's hard to get chants going when the younger people are all spread out at the top of the rafters in the 300s.

everyone remember the Mannheim preseason game with Jochen Hecht's old club a few years back? Those guys had the place rocking and their team was getting blasted.