makes sense, with the huge flat screen hi def tv's, lounge chairs, food delivery, NHL tv and internet packages etc. Gotta entice somebody to leave all the behind, pay a butt load of cash, drive in traffic, pay huge money for a slice of crappy pizza etc.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.