Ticket sales show NHL's back after lost season

[Jaded-Fan]

Ticket sales show NHL's back after lost season

Forget the exit polls and speculation, fans are expressing their fondness for the new National Hockey League with their wallets — sending the most powerful of messages.

Halfway into the 2005-06 season, the NHL is enjoying unprecedented success at the gate. Expected to struggle with attendance after shutting the game down for a year with a contentious and ugly lockout, most NHL owners instead are enjoying strong showings at the turnstile.

The league enjoyed its best November in the 88-year history of the league, drawing an average of 16,818 fans per game for the 199 contests that month. That figure marks 91.2 percent of capacity and is two percent better than the previous November high of 16,490, set in 2001.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/5221394

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[Weary]

If fans truly are voting with their wallets, why aren't they predicting revenues to be higher than in 2003-04?

 

[kdb209]

If fans truly are voting with their wallets, why aren't they predicting revenues to be higher than in 2003-04?

Because many teams cut ticket prices to lure fans back in - for example the Sharks cut ticket prices an average of 10%, so even with the same attendence, gate revenue would be down 10% from '03-'04.

And tickets aren't the only revenue source. Some revenue sources (in arena advertising and luxury boxes) have to be budgeted in advance and even if attendance in the seats has recovered, it doesn't mean that the corpotate dollars have recovered yet.

Again, an example from the Sharks - they still have a number of unsold Luxury Boxes and they had to significantly reduce in house advertising rates to attract/retain sponsors.

 

[Squiddy*]

If fans truly are voting with their wallets, why aren't they predicting revenues to be higher than in 2003-04?

I thought they were predicting revenue higher than 2003-04.

 

[Weary]

Because many teams cut ticket prices to lure fans back in - for example the Sharks cut ticket prices an average of 10%, so even with the same attendence, gate revenue would be down 10% from '03-'04.

I realize that. But fans should then attend more games or buy more trinkets to compensate. If they are truly voting with their wallets, the direct revenue from fans this season should exceed the same measure from 2003-04. I'm not saying it won't happen. It's just the accurate way to measure the fans' support in dollars.

I thought they were predicting revenue higher than 2003-04.

I think the NHL has been implying that. But I was actually referring to the article. It contains the following tepid statement:

"Many believe that the league will surpass its forecast of $1.8 billion in revenue this year, which means that the $39 million salary cap per team will stay the same or climb a little bit."​

That just seemed inconsistent with Roarke's theme.