Penguins ticket sales hit the roof

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tom_servo

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The Penguins are such a hot ticket, they already have sold more seats for the upcoming season than for the entire season when last they played (2003-04).

That translates into nearly half a million tickets purchased amid the exhilaration generated by Sidney Crosby and the New Guys.

And remember: It's only mid-August.


"We're rich, bìtch!"

.
 
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Jaded-Fan

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jtuzzi said:
I wonder if the fans will enjoy 7-5 losses. :p:


Answering as a Pens' fan. If it comes to that, yes, very much. I only expect to be entertained this year. Anything else is gravy.
 

Masao

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I think the Pens are going to be the most entertaining team in the league this year of all the key players can stay out of the hospital...
 

Injektilo

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I hope pittsburgh keeps the NYR "sign lots of free agents in the offseason" model of franchise building in mind....
 

Skk82

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Injektilo said:
I hope pittsburgh keeps the NYR "sign lots of free agents in the offseason" model of franchise building in mind....

it's better to sign free agents then lose them to other teams...

and, unlike NYR, the penguins core of players (malone, orpik, koltsov, morozov, kraft, melichar, caron) are young and homegrown. the penguins would have been a hopeless bottom-dweller like washington if they didn't aggressively seek to add talent to the team.

and why not? the past couple years has been absolutely dreadful to watch and follow the team. i'd rather see the occasional 7-5 loss than constant a 3-1 loss with only 15-20 shots for the good-guys.

the penguins needed to upgrade offense talent to be truly competitive and they did so. any less and a fan should be disappointed in his favorite team, not one that attempted to better it's organization.
 

Injektilo

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skk_82 said:
it's better to sign free agents then lose them to other teams...

and, unlike NYR, the penguins core of players (malone, orpik, koltsov, morozov, kraft, melichar, caron) are young and homegrown. the penguins would have been a hopeless bottom-dweller like washington if they didn't aggressively seek to add talent to the team.

and why not? the past couple years has been absolutely dreadful to watch and follow the team. i'd rather see the occasional 7-5 loss than constant a 3-1 loss with only 15-20 shots for the good-guys.

the penguins needed to upgrade offense talent to be truly competitive and they did so. any less and a fan should be disappointed in his favorite team, not one that attempted to better it's organization.


I'm just saying, what I see this summer is the Pens going out and adding all kinds of big name free agents, which reminds me of a certain other team that we all love to laugh at.*


Who knows, maybe it'll work for the Pens, maybe not. If recent history is a guide...










*I'm talking about AK Bars Kazan of course...
 

Jaded-Fan

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I am not sure if the . . . . ummmm . . . AK Bars Kazan . . .example works. The Pens will still only have a payroll of about $31 m. when all of these signings, including another center and defenseman that CP is looking for now, end. By its very nature, a salary cap precludes what NY . . .ummm I mean AK Bars Kazan . . . did. The long and the short of it is that assuming that the players stay healthy the Pens signed some useful players to add to their young core . . .at very good prices. There is your difference.
 

Zen Arcade

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I don't really think the comparison is accurate. The Pens added some big names, yes, but it's not like they paid 4.5 million for Poapst. When the Pens start signing 2nd tier players for outrageous amounts of money, then we can compare them to..eh..Ak Bars.
 

hockeyjunky

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tom_servo said:
The Penguins are such a hot ticket, they already have sold more seats for the upcoming season than for the entire season when last they played (2003-04).

That translates into nearly half a million tickets purchased amid the exhilaration generated by Sidney Crosby and the New Guys.

And remember: It's only mid-August.


"We're rich, bìtch!"

.

Seems like hockey is bigger then ever in Philly too The Flyers had 83,000 inquiries for season tickets already, Plus i saw some where the day they signed Forsberg there website had over 200,000 hits that day.
 

Jaded-Fan

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By the way, if you calculate out what 500,000 tickets sold means, it means 11,628 full season ticket packages (500,000 dvided by 43 home games) sold. That means that there are about 5,000 full packages left or a total of 215,000 seats. The article implies that the arena may be for all purposes pretty much sold out by mid-september when single tickets are supposed to go on sale. That means that the Crosby effect would be 5,000 full season plans or 215,000 tickets.
 

justapantherfan

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I'm not much of a Penguins fan but I have to admit that what Crosby has done and will do and with him getting Mario to play a couple more years, Just thinking what he will learn playing along side of Mario. Can't wait to see him play.
 

Luigi Lemieux

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that's amazing. it's august, individual ticket sales haven't even started, and the pens have sold about 70% of their seating for the ENTIRE YEAR already.
 

Das Rancor

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I think one factor with AK Bars and the Rag$ always was team chemistry, you could say that it will be a factor with the Pens aswell, but this season it's a problem in the whole NHL... EVERY (well, almost) team has gone through major changes, so I don't think chemistry will hurt the Pens compared to the rest of the teams... In addition I don't think the Pens have really overpayed anyone. I like the way the've built their team and I actually wish they bring it all together.
 

Big McLargehuge

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I think it goes without saying, but I can't ****ing wait for the season to start.

I have two full season tickets and I'll be making lots of noise for all 43 games. :D
 

Chili

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jtuzzi said:
I wonder if the fans will enjoy 7-5 losses. :p:

Watching 66 and Paul Coffey in the late '80's on the same powerplay and losing some games like that...absolutely.

The entertainment value of those games blew away any recent NHL hockey played for me.
 

Jaded-Fan

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Chili said:
Watching 66 and Paul Coffey in the late '80's on the same powerplay and losing some games like that...absolutely.

The entertainment value of those games blew away any recent NHL hockey played for me.


What is funny about posts like the one that you were answering is that so many here seem to think that Pens' fans are spoiled, will be happy only if the Pens' win the Cup, etc, etc. The truth, for all but a very very few, is far different. Pens' fans are counting their blessings every moment of every day of this year. It has been like a month of Christmas mornings, and they just do not stop coming. We have been so hungry for a team (outside of the Steelers) from this town just not to embarrass us, for a team that is not the butt of 'small market' jokes that litter commentaries in papers and boards like this one (I call it the Pirates effect - true the Steelers win but try getting a ticket to one of those games) that they will support this team this year even if we fail to make the playoffs, and be pretty happy doing so. The fans here are content if a team at least makes the right smart moves. This team seems to have done that. Anything that comes out of this year I will enjoy and be happy with. If we win more than our share, that is gravy.
 

jb**

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Dark Metamorphosis said:
that's amazing. it's august, individual ticket sales haven't even started, and the pens have sold about 70% of their seating for the ENTIRE YEAR already.
It is amazing that there are that many fairweather/bandwagon jumpers in the Burgh. Kick your team when it is down, show no support, then when the team appears to be good, come out of the woodwork, that is amazing.
 

Jaded-Fan

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jb said:
It is amazing that there are that many fairweather/bandwagon jumpers in the Burgh. Kick your team when it is down, show no support, then when the team appears to be good, come out of the woodwork, that is amazing.


Hockey attendence was down all across the league the pre-strike 2003-4 season. The Pens were hit worst of all because they really fell talent wise the prior two years, but that effect was multiplied by the general league wide down turn to look worse than it was. Tell me the truth though, name me more than 5 hockey markets where the team had two absolutely abysmal hockey years, finishing last and next to last, and would not have a downturn in ticket sales? The hypocracy of some here on this board is breathtaking at times. The extent that the Pens are the whipping boys on this board is even more so. No other team gets the grief that the Pens do on this board, except perhaps Toronto, and even they may not get as much. We are a hopeless franchise that does not spend enough and should be moved. We spend to much (which is especially :biglaugh: because we will have a payroll less than some of the teams whose fans slam us for this). And on and on and on. Give it up already.
 

jb**

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Jaded-Fan said:
Hockey attendence was down all across the league the pre-strike 2003-4 season. The Pens were hit worst of all because they really fell talent wise the prior two years, but that effect was multiplied by the general league wide down turn to look worse than it was. Tell me the truth though, name me more than 5 hockey markets where the team had two absolutely abysmal hockey years, finishing last and next to last, and would not have a downturn in ticket sales? The hypocracy of some here on this board is breathtaking at times. The extent that the Pens are the whipping boys on this board is even more so. No other team gets the grief that the Pens do on this board, except perhaps Toronto, and even they may not get as much. We are a hopeless franchise that does not spend enough and should be moved. We spend to much (which is especially :biglaugh: because we will have a payroll less than some of the teams whose fans slam us for this). And on and on and on. Give it up already.
Relax my brother from another mother, everything is all good. Don't have the time or energy to answer your quesiton. Can speak form experience about the Team I follow: the Flyers had 5 sad years in the early 90's( missed the playoffs)still sold out every night. I love what they are doing spending money adding decent players. I think what most people are wondering is why didn't they spend before when they always seemed to be crying poor, now they are spending money IMO, but like you stated it is still below the cap limit than some teams above others. The comments about comparing them to the Rangers I think is just some people having fun .Let the games begin
 

DJmastamind

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Dark Metamorphosis said:
that's amazing. it's august, individual ticket sales haven't even started, and the pens have sold about 70% of their seating for the ENTIRE YEAR already.


Yes and that is what scares me. I need 7 home opener tickets!!! I'm wondering how many individual tickets will be left.
 

Jaded-Fan

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DJmastamind said:
Yes and that is what scares me. I need 7 home opener tickets!!! I'm wondering how many individual tickets will be left.


For the home opener? None. They spoke in the article of actually having to turn full and 20 game ticket packages away to save some tickets to meet 10 game ticket buyer obligations. I would guess that it would be like the early to mid-90's, when fully 2/3 plus of games are sold out completely and you will have to pick from among the rest for individual tickets here and there.

as a ps to JB:

Your question has been answered in depth in long threads in the past. The Cliff Notes version was that the Pens could have spent more but saw earlier than most others that they could not keep the 2002 team together that went to the finals, so decided to both rebuild and to prepare for the lockout early. It was obvious. and by the way, by spend more I am not talking a lot, but some. They have had $30 m. plus payrolls fairly recently so no reason why they could not again. Then again, with salaries spiriling out of control, $30 m. did not buy what it did only 5 years ago, so perhaps not. You spend and you need some playoff revenue in this league or unless you have a deep pockets owener (we do not) you are in trouble. Long and the short of it, Craig Patrick showed once more why he is among the best in the game. Some luck was involved, but all in all we positioned ourselves very well and turned lemons, a very bad situation, into lemonade. I have no clue why anyone would question what they did, it worked like a charm. If your team was similarly hamstrung, and had the same factors coming up wouldn't you hope that they would play it as well?
 
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ACC1224

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Great news for the Pens. I know I'm looking forward to seeing them when they come to the ACC.
 

Luigi Lemieux

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jb said:
It is amazing that there are that many fairweather/bandwagon jumpers in the Burgh. Kick your team when it is down, show no support, then when the team appears to be good, come out of the woodwork, that is amazing.
so vancouver and long island must be considered bandwagon too. they've had some years of attendance that were even worse than the pens '03-04 campaign.
 
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