Commissioner Bettman and the powers that be may be trying to paint a la-dee-dah picture of the league’s financial situation, but evidence of the effects of the current worldwide recession around the NHL is veering its ugly head.
The Panthers vs. Flyers broadcast was interrupted several times Tuesday night with advertisements for a new “Total Ticket Pack.” For $17 the club pays for your dinner, parking, and even your gas to get to the game. If that doesn’t scream desperation, I don’t know what does. Even before economic times became tight, the whispers of financial difficulties amongst the southern teams were already part of breakfast conversations at kitchen tables across, well, Canada at least…and parts of Minnesota!
I knew something was amiss with Florida in the off season when the club phoned me – repeatedly – to get me to invest in season tickets. I had been to a Bruins game in Sunrise, Fl last February – a game that I spent the entirety of passed out on the floor of the BankAtlantic platinum lounge longing for death. A game…as in ONE. You’d think they’d have better sense than to call a 416 area code, one-time buyer, but I guess they must have had a new wave of young, naïve, go-getter account executives with aspirations to turn the team around *sigh* – memories! Given their financial situation, you’d think they’d ease up on the international calls. In fact, I’m surprised they didn’t call me 1-800-COLLECT.
While predicting financial skids is easy in the Florida market, I was thrown off when the Detroit Red Wings also began contacting me in the off season for the same reason. Last time I was in Detroit for a game was in November 2006. At that time, Detroit was in the same predicament as many of the league’s other overly successful, overly popular clubs with overly lengthy season ticket waiting lists. The fans couldn’t get tickets – the only reason I managed to was because I only needed one. Somehow in the course of two years, not only did the defending Stanley Cup Champions lose their season ticket holders, but they also managed to blow through their entire waiting list to the point of begging for new investors. Of course, Motor City would be deeply affected by the recent pitfalls in the automotive industry, but who knew it was this bad. The Red Wings are now offering a $9 ticket price point, which is a few dollars cheaper than your average student admission to an Ontario Hockey League game.
Unfortunately for the live action starved Canadian hockey fans, the recession hasn’t made an impact north of the border on NHL heavy weights like Montreal, Calgary, and Toronto. The Maple Leafs still boast a fat waiting list which can only be measured in units of years, and one of the highest, if not the highest, price points in the league. Even in Detroit’s prosperous period, their tickets were still hundreds of dollars cheaper than the Leafs. The Platinum seats at the Air Canada Centre are $211. In Ottawa: $186, Buffalo: $153 (on gold nights), Boston: $121, Detroit (was): $95, Columbus: $75, Nashville: $71.
Of course, you can’t actually get tickets directly from the rink in T.O. My ticket to the Flyers game in Toronto in November put me out of pocket $650! Six HUNDRED and FIFTY dollars!!! For that money I could have paid for tuition plus books for a half course at U of T, a designer purse, or an all inclusive trip to the Caribbean – I could use that vacation right about now too.
Perhaps, it is now becoming clear as to why I have referred to myself as Psycho Lady. I must be out of my mind to do what I do without funding. Maybe along the way a billionaire business tycoon will make me an indecent proposal, like in that movie, Indecent Proposal. If some chump in Nashville will (which by the way was not the last time – I must give off that hooker, Jerry Springer “That’s right I’ll have sex for muuuh-nee! Bitch, you don’t know me!” *snap* vibe) then a girl has a reason to hope.
