Eleven Posted May 3, 2015 Report Share Posted May 3, 2015 They (the league & NHLPA) definitely don't want a team to have outsiders running it. Except for a team being in bankruptcy, can't think of an example of outsiders running an NHL squad. But there is no way any team owner nor management group wants to have anyone looking over their shoulder if they can help it. And I'd agree w/ X & TW that the Sabres have the players as partners. As to your last statement, my reading of 49.3.d is that the league & committee can withhold revenue sharing after it determines a team isn't following the plan. It isn't limited to just reducing the revenue sharing by a % age. So, it's true, but TB is seriously playing politician. Battista. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueBlueGED Posted May 3, 2015 Report Share Posted May 3, 2015 Battista. El-oh-freakin'-el :worthy: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGR4GM Posted May 4, 2015 Report Share Posted May 4, 2015 Season ticket prices are below the league average from what I understand. Buffalo is experience a resurgence economically. Season ticket holders are willing to pay more to see the product even if it isn't that good. I am not sure what we are debating. Ted Black is a business guy and that is the reason he runs the Hockey business. I don't trust anything he says and I think he thinks he is clever, of course I also live 800 miles away so doesn't even impact me slightly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LastPommerFan Posted May 4, 2015 Report Share Posted May 4, 2015 (edited) The price for my Season Tickets did not increase this year, am I supposed to thank somebody? EDIT: Turns out they have gone up, from $27 to $28. Now I have to figure out why my Brother collected $28/ticket from me for last year... Edited May 4, 2015 by Whiskey Bottle of Emotion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nfreeman Posted May 4, 2015 Report Share Posted May 4, 2015 Here's my take on it. If the Sabres' gate receipts fall below 75% of leaguewide average gate receipts, they do fall under supervision of the league & the RSOC. That supervision will require a business plan be submitted and approved. Once an approved plan is submitted, how well it was followed gets reviewed in 1 year and if the team didn't follow it then the operation will be turned over to a 3rd party. The word "may" means that the league and RSOC can do this. If they can, they most definitely will. As the teams know what everybody else is doing, & they have a HUGE incentive to keep above 75% of the average (never met a businessman (or businesswoman, for that matter) that wanted control of any portion of THEIR business turned over to someone else); I'd be very surprised to see any small market club not make adjustments designed to keep pace w/ what they expect the leaguewide average increase to be. W/ a team w/ a waiting list for tix, the only way to do that is by increasing prices by what they expect leaguewide average prices to go up. It's interesting that this is based off gate receipts. My guess as to why that 1 measure was chosen is that not all teams will have control over other items such as concessions and there are league guidelines for how teams handle their media rights, so they don't necessarily have full control over those as well. Good post. Has any team suffered the fate of being turned over to a third party? I'm not saying it wouldn't happen, but it's hard to believe that anyone at the league or NHLPA would want this scenario to play out except as a last resort. The issue here is whether it would happen to the Sabres if they fell short of the 75% target one time under extenuating circumstances (The Make Believes Scenario). I just find it dishonest the way Ted talks about this. Even under the old CBA, the penalty for the Sabres not raising ticket prices after 2010-2011 and seeing their hockey related revenue lag behind the league average would have been only a 25% reduction in their revenue sharing check. That's assuming it would have been the first year they lagged. Yet he still framed it as having to raise prices in order to qualify for revenue sharing. No, but they would need to submit the plan, which opens the door to (i) the NHL and the NHLPA evaluating their plan, i.e. their business -- which itself is something that no team would want and (ii) the NHL and the NHLPA determining that they haven't executed the plan well enough and having an outsider take over. Bottom line is that the disincentives to falling below the 75% threshold are huge. Having said all that, I agree that the TB spin is off-putting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IKnowPhysics Posted May 4, 2015 Report Share Posted May 4, 2015 Battista. Jessie Pegula. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spndnchz Posted September 2, 2015 Report Share Posted September 2, 2015 Looks like we're getting ticket cards this year. hmmm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X. Benedict Posted September 2, 2015 Report Share Posted September 2, 2015 Looks like we're getting ticket cards this year. hmmm How does that work if I share Season tickets? I wonder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
That Aud Smell Posted September 2, 2015 Report Share Posted September 2, 2015 Good question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 How does that work if I share Season tickets? I wonder. a) You fight the other guy for possession b) Loser prints out the tickets they use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X. Benedict Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 a) You fight the other guy for possession b) Loser prints out the tickets they use. This is going to break up a lot of good friendships. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrader Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 How does that work if I share Season tickets? I wonder. They probably give you the option of emailing tickets to someone. Once you email a ticket for a specific game, the card won't work for that game anymore. I'm sure they can put that sort of system together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted September 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2015 Looks like we're getting ticket cards this year. hmmm That will be annoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerme1 Posted September 4, 2015 Report Share Posted September 4, 2015 No mention of this in the e mail sent today to season ticket holders. I'm sure there will be multiple options regardless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PASabreFan Posted September 6, 2015 Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 This seems like a real whopper from Russ Brandon on sabres.com: "The fact that we had such a high rate of renewal from our season ticket holders is really a testament to the direction our organization is headed,” Sabres president Russ Brandon said. “There’s a tremendous amount of excitement surrounding our team and we can’t wait to get on the ice.” The Sabres had 96 percent of season ticket holders renew their tickets for the 2015-16 season, marking the 10th consecutive season featuring a renewal rate higher than 90 percent. The team still has more than 2,000 people on the Blue & Gold Club season ticket waiting list. Has excitement about the direction of the franchise been the driving force behind high renewal rates since 2005? Or has something else been at play? This year, is the Eichel Factor real? Do fans actually want tickets for the hockey? Would renewal rates have finally slumped had the Sabres made one of their heroic runs to ninth place? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spndnchz Posted October 16, 2015 Report Share Posted October 16, 2015 I just notice that the tickets for the March 16th game shows the green jersey (Day before St Pat's). Kinda cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 This seems like a real whopper from Russ Brandon on sabres.com: Has excitement about the direction of the franchise been the driving force behind high renewal rates since 2005? Or has something else been at play? This year, is the Eichel Factor real? Do fans actually want tickets for the hockey? Would renewal rates have finally slumped had the Sabres made one of their heroic runs to ninth place? One thing is for sure, secondary market prices are still in the tank. Some games the parking passes are more expensive than game tickets! :doh: Even Leafs fans stopped caring. You can get a ticket to that game this week for $20 on StubHub. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woods-racer Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 One thing is for sure, secondary market prices are still in the tank. Some games the parking passes are more expensive than game tickets! :doh: Even Leafs fans stopped caring. You can get a ticket to that game this week for $20 on StubHub. That's surprising. Could be more of the Canadian dollar driving that than interest of the on ice product. Well Promo, I'll do my part and buy a few and see if I can drive the market price higher. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 (edited) That's surprising. Could be more of the Canadian dollar driving that than interest of the on ice product. Well Promo, I'll do my part and buy a few and see if I can drive the market price higher. ;) Even prices at Air Canada Centre have cratered. $52 CDN to see the Coyotes? Edited October 19, 2015 by PromoTheRobot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X. Benedict Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 Even prices at Air Canada Centre have cratered. $52 CDN to see Coyotes? that's a pretty good deal in Canadian Peso. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woods-racer Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 Even prices at Air Canada Centre have cratered. $52 CDN to see Coyotes? That's fifty and a tooney worth of a Desert Dog fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted October 23, 2015 Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 I suffered through the tank, taking big losses on my season tickets because I figured the excitement would return once Eichel was here. But I am still losing $10+ a ticket because there is little demand on the secondary market. A Saturday night game for $15?? It hasn't been this bad since the Rigas era. Things better pick up of I'm going to have to give up my seats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nfreeman Posted October 23, 2015 Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 I suffered through the tank, taking big losses on my season tickets because I figured the excitement would return once Eichel was here. But I am still losing $10+ a ticket because there is little demand on the secondary market. A Saturday night game for $15?? It hasn't been this bad since the Rigas era. Things better pick up of I'm going to have to give up my seats. I think the market in Buffalo is too small to think you'll ever do better than break even. I've been a Bills STH for quite a few years, and even though the prices are relatively low, there are only 10 games per year to buy and more people like football than hockey, I've lost some money (not a large amount, but certainly not a profit) every year. There are just too many games that no one is interested in paying face value for. Bottom line: IMHO, if you're buying the tickets based on the assumption that you'll go to half the games and sell the other half for what you paid for them, you either need to resign yourself to losing money or find a partner to take the games you don't want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted October 23, 2015 Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 (edited) I think the market in Buffalo is too small to think you'll ever do better than break even. I've been a Bills STH for quite a few years, and even though the prices are relatively low, there are only 10 games per year to buy and more people like football than hockey, I've lost some money (not a large amount, but certainly not a profit) every year. There are just too many games that no one is interested in paying face value for. Bottom line: IMHO, if you're buying the tickets based on the assumption that you'll go to half the games and sell the other half for what you paid for them, you either need to resign yourself to losing money or find a partner to take the games you don't want. Mind you there is a huge gap between box office face value and STH face value. People can go to StubHub and pay $10 less than at the box office and I still cover my cost that game. But even weekend games against marquee teams (like MTL tonight/NJ tomorrow) are going for $15-20. That's unheard of. I live in NH so I only get to 3-4 games a season, so my break-even is much lower than you're envisioning. I've had my seats since 2008 and always made enough to renew until the tank. Year 1 was a small loss. Year 2 was over a thousand in the red. So far this season is looking just as bad. I don't get it. People bought tickets when it was Ville Leino and we were falling short of the 8th seed. Now we have a couple of franchise players and fans are like "meh." Edited October 23, 2015 by PromoTheRobot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drunkard Posted October 23, 2015 Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 A ton of people seem to buy tickets just so they can sell them in the after market. I can understand if you've owned seasoned tickets for years, move away temporarily for school or work, and plan to return to the area but that doesn't seem to be the case for the majority. Maybe if the people who fancy themselves amateur scalpers would simply not renew their season tickets all the people who sit on the waiting list for years would actually be able to get season tickets and the arena wouldn't sounds like a library or half filled with fans of the opposing team. It's like a Neo wet dream (no offense intended Neo), everyone is like a tiny venture capitalist trying to take advantage of the emerging market that is the Buffalo Sabres post tank. If that's how you want to play it, that's fine, it's perfectly legal (I assume) and all that but just like in the stock market, sometimes you are going to bust that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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