Duly noted for the next time we talk about Atlanta's support for the Thrashers
Watching the game last night there were a LOT of empty seats in the lower bowl. Obviously they were sold, as it was an announced sellout. It boggles the mind that hundreds (thousands?) of people sat on a playoff ticket rather than go to the game.
The lower bowl thing is pretty easily explained, loads of those tickets are corporate and quite often go unused. It's actually fairly rare to see a Wings game with all the lower bowl seats filled.
At the end of the day I guess it's money in the bank for the team though so it's not an issue for them.
Again though, that means hundreds/thousands of corporate ticket holders are either failing to distribute playoff tickets, or giving them to people who don't think it's worth their time to go see a playoff game for free.
Either way, it's a fail by whoever has those tickets. You've got 3rd-row seats at center ice for a playoff game? Come on, at least scalp 'em!
I know several companies with tickets. They don't try very hard. They'll call a couple of their customers, and if people can't make it due to travel, family, etc., they just don't worry about them. By the time they check with contacts, it's probably game day. Since it is a corporate crowd, people travel frequently too-- we are talking the sales and management side of companies, the people most likely to be tied up or traveling.
Why worry? They expense the tickets to company entertainment budget, it's a sunk cost.
If it's happening on a regular basis like you say, they're losing quite a bit of revenue on all the ancillary income that goes along with filling a seat. Those people aren't paying for parking, buying concessions, picking up souveniers, etc. Half the income they should expect from selling the ticket disappears when the ticketholder doesn't show.
Like I said above, seeing that the Wings are in top ten for HRR, the ancillary stuff you mention is peanuts in the grand scheme of things. They mostly sell out the bldg at $55-ish avg regular season price; they have $30MM in TV money; their suites are sold; they have sponsors and so on.
In fact, I've suggested before that they might be better off sliding into position 11 on the HRR chart. Once you're in the top ten, you get taxed by the league for revenue transfer. There's probably a sweet spot where the incremental revenue they make ends up in the NHL's revenue transfer pocket. They're working
for the recipient teams.
(And yes, I realize that if everyone in the top ten let revenues slide, the cap would be lower and yada yada..... There is a built in problem with the cap range system.)
