Has anyone else basically stopped paying their STH payments for 20/21 season? I turned my card off last month figuring why should I pay for something that most likely
1-Won't happen
2-if it does happen will be a terrible experience
3-if it does happen can you even resell your ticket for face value given the high prices?
I'm surprised they didn't just do an immediate pause until they know what's going to happen.
You might try telling/asking your account rep as you do this. I don't know exactly what "turned my card off" means - did you dispute charges, or did you go into Account Manager and delete card info? Either way, I don't think it's unreasonable.
They could respond in one of three ways (after giving you a "hey, buddy, pay up" type notice):
1) Ignore it until they announce what happens for the 2020-21 season. Probably what you want, and probably the most humane way to deal with things. Of course, they don't get their money - they still have to pay rent and the salaries of the folks in the box office. That's why they didn't do an "immediate pause", which I agree is a more humane action. But I'm frankly not that sympathetic to the Boston Bruins Professional Hockey Association with respect to paying their bills - they have the money.
2) At some point, they could cancel your seats. They give you back all the money you already put in, and you no longer have season tickets because of lack of payment according to their agreement. Not just this season - forever. They may put back at the end of the STH "waitlist" line (if that even exists anymore), or they could put you on the "persona non grata" list and not offer you tickets because of a history of nonpayment. But that seems unnecessarily punitive, and a PR nightmare.
3) They might not cancel your money, but they theoretically could send it into some kind of collections deal where you're forced to pay and take the tickets, because you did order the tickets back in March, and they haven't cancelled the games (yet). Again, unlikely - if a STH can't pay for their future tickets, I imagine their usual remedy is to say "no more tickets". This is an absolute nuclear option.
I 100% agree with you on 2020-21. It's either not going to happen, or we're going to get hosed as STHs in terms of pricing. I know the plans for next season haven't been announced, but they need to communicate better with STHs what they're planning to do. The best way to handle this, IMO, is the Patriots model: any STH can pause their account. Keep, say, $100 down per seat (that's what waitlist folks have to put in), and you can skip attending the 2020-21 season, and come back in 2021-22. The Bruins have the right to sell your seat just for the 2020-21 season, or to use it to reduce capacity. If the season happens, it won't include fans at the Garden at 100% capacity for 44 games.