Why is attendance so bad this year?

[Goldenshark]

Tonight's attendance: 15,491. Lame.

I was at the game tonight and it looked more like 13,000. It was the emptiest I've ever seen it at a Sharks game.

 

[Led Zappa]

The people next to us had won tickets. Another I talked to had been given them by a friend who was given them by the Sharks and another was given tickets to 2 games. I've only received a pair to the Islanders.

Those tickets, even if people don't who up much be being counted because it wasn't near the reported number as GS mentioned above.

Will be interesting to see what the crowd looks like Saturday against the Ducks.

 

[bbison]

Hasso needs to set a precedent and be the first owner to lower ticket prices in NHL history.

Sharks did lower prices across the board after the first lockout. But two seasons later they were back where they were.

What they did with ticketing is weird this year. Last year, they had four tiers of pricing on the season tickets--games like last night and preseason games would have had a "face" value of well below average per ticket price we paid. But Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit,etc. had a much higher face. It correlated to some degree with the single-game dynamic pricing, and it made perfect sense when re-selling them.

This year, there's no prices at all on season tickets.

 

[casubieowner]

Here's an article from the Mercury News regarding the attendance woes at the Tank:

http://www.mercurynews.com/sharks/ci_29082559/sharks-fans-explain-why-their-tickets-have-gone

 

[Led Zappa]

The part about not being able to sell some of your season tickets is a big reason many didn't renew I'm sure. The tickets have gotten a lot more expensive over the last 5 years and each year it seems they've been harder to get rid of. I've eaten some tickets.

In 5 years my seats have gone up $11 or $968 for the pair. Or to look at it a different way, tickets that used to cost me $5,850 if I sold 5 games now cost me $7568 for a difference $1718 in five years or a 30% increase because I can't sell those tickets.

 

[Timos Death Stare]

Just adding that the way the front office keeps pushing up the renewal date is a turn off too. It's so early that most people don't want to hear about renewals given the lackluster finish and they drop

 

[stator]

The people next to us had won tickets. Another I talked to had been given them by a friend who was given them by the Sharks and another was given tickets to 2 games.

I turned down the pair on last Wednesday's game that the Sharks offered. I think they maybe realizing their mistake of increasing STH ticket prices, and are using these free tickets to STH so they may recapture some of their expenses like seasons past.

Two leading indicators of success for major league sports teams are: winning and scarcity of tickets. MLB knows this well and is why they have been building smaller capacity ballparks for quite some time now. They say it's for better fan experience, and they are right, but it's to create a demand.

People want what they cannot get, and a losing team plus a surplus of tickets is bad juju.