Little Caesar’s Arena Changes Seat Colors,Due to Empty Seats

[Whalers Fan]

From my experience the leg room is roughly the same, but the seats feel WAY thinner, meaning you are basically having to lean forward to keep from rubbing your elbows against the person sitting next to you.

I sat in the upper bowl for one preseason game last year, and there was absolutely no leg room -- I could not move my legs or feet at all. My legs actually began to cramp up after about 15-20 minutes, and I'm only 5'9" tall. At least in JLA I could move my legs. It's inexcusable for a brand new arena. I'm not a Wings fan (go Habs), so I usually only go to games when Montreal comes to town. Therefore, it's not a big deal to me -- I'll just watch the games at home on my 70-inch display, sitting in my nice comfortable recliner, drinking a quality micro brew for a fraction of Crappy Pizza Arena prices, and with a great free parking spot in my garage. That beats spending $200+ for two seats in the sardine can upper bowl with parking and a couple of beers for my wife and me.

I have a friend, though, who's a diehard Wings fan and had been a season ticket holder for about 25 years in the upper bowl in JLA -- he's on a budget, so tried to do things as inexpensively as possible. He was so disgusted by the new seats that he sold his tickets to any game he could last season and did not renew this year -- something that I never would have expected to see from him. He said he wasn't going to spend that much money to be that uncomfortable.

The more expensive lower bowl seats and concourse areas were very nice, but whoever designed the upper bowl seating should be sued.

 

[izlez]

Do you have illegal cable or something? You still pay for a tv, cable, internet, snacks to watch the game. In a years time you will have spent more money on those things that would equal about maybe 3 or 4 hockey games, possibly more. Sorry to be nitpicky lol.

I didn't think I'd need to clarify.

Watch it on cable that I would have, and would be paying for if there was no hockey.
Eating standard price food that I'd be eating if there was no hockey.
Drinking standard price beer that I'd be drinking if there was no hockey.

I can watch every hockey game for no added expenses.
3 or 4 regular seasonhockey games per year is almost $1000 in added expenses per person

I chose 0 added expenses every time

 

[Whalers Fan]

Do you have illegal cable or something? You still pay for a tv, cable, internet, snacks to watch the game. In a years time you will have spent more money on those things that would equal about maybe 3 or 4 hockey games, possibly more. Sorry to be nitpicky lol.

We are going to pay for cable TV and Internet regardless of whether we attend any hockey games in person or not, so that's really irrelevant.

 

[Bender66]

*Gasp* But I thought only shitty sunbelt expansion teams have poor attendance when the team sucks ass? It would never happen in Hockey Town because everyone knows Redwing fans are such a bunch of dedicated die hard hockey fans right!

Time to relocate the team.

 

[Hatter of the Beach]

Are the seats normally empty or has attendance dropped significantly since moving arenas?

Wings attendence problems have existed for awhile now. Heck even as far back as their last cup they didnt sell out a few of their playoff games.

99% of Wings fans dont live in Detroit and it’s kind of a bitch just to go to the game. Coupled that with a bad product and tons of new forms of entertainment (netflix, internet streams), and it’s a recipie for disaster. With that being said, there is SOME truth to people walking around the arena. I don’t get it since these people are paying $100+ a ticket to sit in a restauraunt 100 yards away from the live action, but its not as bad as it looks.

Granted it’s still far from the supposed “sellouts”.

Considering the average gate rushing fan is a 22-30 year old millenial, aka perptually broke people, charging $150 bucks for an upperbowl ticket to watch a dog shit product is asinine

 

[Stephen]

Don't do it Detroit, the red looks so sharp and will make sense when you're good again.

 

[Bonzo111]

I've never understood why NHL teams don't just give away all remaining tickets. An empty seat can't spend anything at team stores or at the concession.

nobody would buy tickets and those who do will not be pleased that they paid big money for a game and the guy next to them is freeloading.

 

[tony d]

Bit surprised to see this with Detroit. I know the city has had its issues the past little while but I always thought hockey was doing good there.

 

[Whalers Fan]

nobody would buy tickets and those who do will not be pleased that they paid big money for a game and the guy next to them is freeloading.

The funny thing is, this is already happening to a lesser extent with the advent of StubHub. A quick look at Red Wings ticket prices there finds seats as cheap as $15 for the less popular teams.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Bit surprised to see this with Detroit. I know the city has had its issues the past little while but I always thought hockey was doing good there.

It's a combination of a few things:

1. Tickets are expensive because the arena is new.
2. The Red Wings suck now and the product has been getting worse since 2013, making people less likely to spend the ridiculous prices.
3. The middle section of the lower bowl has free food and drinks in a lounge area below, meaning a lot of people are probably pigging out on food and not watching at their seats because the product, like I said, is not good.
4. The Red Wings are not a Canadian team and the market isn't THAT die-hard for the team.

 

[Bonzo111]

The funny thing is, this is already happening to a lesser extent with the advent of StubHub. A quick look at Red Wings ticket prices there finds seats as cheap as $15 for the less popular teams.

the other issue is once fans get freebees they don't feel like they should ever pay for tickets again. They just wait for free ones.

Double edged sword.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Detroit and Michigan are just fine.


As far as disposable income, I could afford sporting events. But there's much better things I'd spend several hundreds of dollars on when I can watch at home for free... and I don't even have 2-3 kids to pay for...and that has nothing to do with the quality of the team

Meeeeh that are tons of issues that still need fixing. Guess what your definition of fine is.

Starting with the cost of auto insurance would be a nice start. Oh and Flint still doesn’t have respectable clean water.

 

[Cellee]

Oh and Flint still doesn’t have clean water.

Yeah...that's a pretty serious issue.

 

[izlez]

And something nobody seems to want to consider: Perhaps the seats really do make a difference....REALLY.

Last year when this first became a thing, I decided to watch highlights of a red wings game and another random team, I went with the Penguins. Pausing on a shot of each arena in the corner, the Red Wings looked WAAAYYYYYYYYY worse. But when you took the time to play Where's Waldo and count it all out, it was virtually identical.

Random mix of dark grey and beige:

Neon Red

2017–18 attendance statistics

Team

Arena

Home Games

Average Attendance

Total Attendance

Capacity Percentage

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Detroit Red Wings

Little Caesars Arena

41

19,515

800,115

100.0%

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[izlez]

Meeeeh that are tons of issues that still need fixing. Guess what your definition of fine is.

Starting with the cost of auto insurance would be a nice start. Oh and Flint still doesn’t have respectable clean water.

In the context of the conversation of there being people with some disposable income to attend a hockey game.
And in relation to Detroit/Michigan of the last 30 years where attendance was never questioned, Detroit and Michigan are perfectly fine

 

[sandysan]

*Gasp* But I thought only ****ty sunbelt expansion teams have poor attendance when the team sucks ass? It would never happen in Hockey Town because everyone knows Redwing fans are such a bunch of dedicated die hard hockey fans right!

Time to relocate the team.

unlike the ***tty sunbelt teams, those tickets are sold. The problem is NEVER attendance, its revenues. If toronto can charge an arm an a leg for the three piecers to do their business deals and never sit in their seats, more power to them.

if when no one PAYS for the seat that's the problem, irrespective is someone's backside is keeping it warm.

 

[Puckhead44]

Don't do it Detroit, the red looks so sharp and will make sense when you're good again.

They can change it back in 10 yrs when they might be good again.

 

[DaveG]

The Boston Bruins have played at:

Boston Arena (Northeastern University’s “Matthews Arena”)

Boston Garden.

TD Garden.

Shit I think the Hurricanes/Whalers franchise is on its 6th:
Matthews Arena
Boston Garden
Springfield Civic Center
Hartford Civic Center
Greensboro Coliseum
PNC Arena

 

[rfournier103]

**** I think the Hurricanes/Whalers franchise is on its 6th:
Matthews Arena
Boston Garden
Springfield Civic Center
Hartford Civic Center
Greensboro Coliseum
PNC Arena

Yikes.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

In the context of the conversation of there being people with some disposable income to attend a hockey game.
And in relation to Detroit/Michigan of the last 30 years where attendance was never questioned, Detroit and Michigan are perfectly fine

Yeah I won’t argue that but I do think we may be in the verge of a sports bubble bursting anyway, Detroit is just a microcosm of that bubble. It’s more of a thought based on some observances more than actual research on my part though.

 

[tarheelhockey]

unlike the ***tty sunbelt teams, those tickets are sold. The problem is NEVER attendance, its revenues. If toronto can charge an arm an a leg for the three piecers to do their business deals and never sit in their seats, more power to them.

if when no one PAYS for the seat that's the problem, irrespective is someone's backside is keeping it warm.

It's pretty obvious looking at Ticketmaster that there are a bunch of tickets going unsold.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Yeah I won’t argue that but I do think we may be in the verge of a sports bubble bursting anyway, Detroit is just a microcosm of that bubble. It’s more of a thought based on some observances more than actual research on my part though.

You're right on. The model of pro sport attendance has moved very sharply away from the "pack 'em in" model of the past, and toward a "luxury experience" model where they'd rather let tickets go unsold than mark them down. The target audiences are the STH-scalper who buys an entire row at a time hoping to make bank on the secondary market, the corporation who buys a suite or block of seats to give away, and the wealthy patron who will shovel money into the organization without a blink.

The idea of an ordinary middle class person walking up to the gate and buying lower-bowl seats for the family is quickly becoming obsolete. Hell, in some markets it's already dead in the upper bowl as well. We are in a world where the packed house is no longer the goal.

 

[sandysan]

It's pretty obvious looking at Ticketmaster that there are a bunch of tickets going unsold.

Still doesn't change the fact that what matters is revenues.

And lots of "empty" seats in lots of arenas have been payed for, whether they are occupied or not.

In Florida, a lot of the club red seats have been paid for despite few people sitting in them.

Empty unpurchased seats a problem
Empty purchased seats not so much even if the optics are less than ideal.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Still doesn't change the fact that what matters is revenues.

And lots of "empty" seats in lots of arenas have been payed for, whether they are occupied or not.

In Florida, a lot of the club red seats have been paid for despite few people sitting in them.

Empty unpurchased seats a problem
Empty purchased seats not so much even if the optics are less than ideal.

Again -- it's very obvious from looking at the available ticket inventory that there ARE empty unpurchased seats.

This is the ticket map for their upcoming game on the 22nd. Granted, some of these tickets will be sold before then, but they will likely be the pink "resale" (scalped) seats which will soon be discounted below face value in order to sell. Who is going to rush to buy those blue seats at face value? Those are the ones which are going to end up as unsold, empty seats.

 

[Tak7]

Again -- it's very obvious from looking at the available ticket inventory that there ARE empty unpurchased seats.

This is the ticket map for their upcoming game on the 22nd. Granted, some of these tickets will be sold before then, but they will likely be the pink "resale" (scalped) seats which will soon be discounted below face value in order to sell. Who is going to rush to buy those blue seats at face value? Those are the ones which are going to end up as unsold, empty seats.

Was just going to post something like this - it appears as though the issue in Detroit, is lots & lots of unsold tickets.

Not the no-shows, like people are suggesting above.

I think the quality of the team has to be a factor here too - the Wings have been mediocre, or worse, for several seasons now.

I would hope that for a city labelled "hockeytown", that you'll see a bit of a revival in attendance once the team trends upwards again.