Freep - The renewal forms went out Friday to season-ticket holders. But they will get some new incentives: a hockey stick autographed by some of the players, an earpiece radio and the ability to extend the payment plan from six months to eight months. Price configurations have been revamped across the board. "Two-thirds of current season ticket-holder seats are going down, staying the same or going up $2," said Steve Violetta, Wings senior vice president of business affairs. "We held on as long as we could, eight years of no season ticket increases. We held out as long as we could but eventually we have to adjust prices." Of the tickets going up, Violetta said the average increase is 11%. There is a $10 reduction in the corners of the upper bowl, from $25 to $15. There are now nine different pricing levels for season tickets — $15, $24, $35, $46, $56, $80, $85, $90, $125.
I understand that after eight straight years of not raising ticket prices, Illitch had to eventually make a move here, cause Crazy Bread don't pay all the bills and I hear Ceasar has quite the nose candy habit.
It also doesn't seem like it's gonna be all that bad of an increase either. 2/3 of tickets don't go up more than 2 dollars? That's pretty solid, and for all the broke slobs who sit in the corner of the upper bowl next to me, well we're actually getting a $10 decrease in ticket price. It's essentially taxing the haves while giving the have nots a break.
My real concern though is the insane number of empty seats that you can see at any given Wings game over the last few years. And I'm not talking the shitty seats for regular season games. I'm talking playoff tickets on the glass. Like where the hell are these people? Those tickets have to be owned by somebody, right? I don't have more than a few hundred bucks to my name but you better believe I would use all of it to get into those seats.
But game in and game out the Joe looks empty. You watch these games in Phoenix and San Jose and people are climbing over the glass and shit. Why isn't it like that at the Joe anymore? I know for a fact that some of it has to do with the antiquated bathrooms at the Joe that can handle a max of about one shit at a time, which helps explain the lack of fans at the beginning of each period. But a lot of those seats stay empty the whole game.
Maybe it's just hard to stay excited about every regular season game and non elimination game in the playoffs after being there for 19 straight years, but I don't think that's it. People absolutely love hockey in this city. No it's something weird that I can't put my finger on. My guess is those tickets are owned by corporations who feel guilty about sending their CEO's to playoff games while they lay off half the workforce. Nothing else makes sense. If you know what's up please let me know cause I for the life of me can't figure out what the empty seats are about.
PS - Maybe we should just move the Wings to Pontiac and everyone can have their own section of the Silverdome
PSS - How much would you pay for these top row WrestleMania seats?
Are you kidding? I would have paid at least a G to be anywhere withing a mile radius of the dome for III when the irresistible force (hogan) took on the immovable object (dre the giant). One of the best manias ever. Not only that, but you had the I-C title on the line with Ricky Steamboat v. Randy Savage. Shit was epic.
ReplyDelete