Winnipeg | NHL Jets

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

The older crowd who were season ticket holders since 2011 have dropped off. Because they're getting old and just can't be bothered to leave their couch.

My perception, from social media posts over the years, is the initial season ticket holders were a mix of established business owners and single people in the 25-35 age range.

The business group has moved on as they have found clients aren't as interested in attending Jets games with them anymore. And the single people demographic is now heavily into life with a young family making it a lot more difficult to frequently be at Jets games.

There was also a smaller demo that was a slightly older 40+ age that was excited to have pro hockey back and attended every game for the first few years. Between time at the games and money spent on things like parking, beers and Jet Dogs it just wasn't going to be sustainable if those folks didn't want to get divorced or if they did the constraints on their finances wouldn't support that continued behavior.

Originally Posted by bomberjet

The younger people who are interested in tickets can easily get them now. I was at the game on Friday vs Columbus. It's mostly the upper bowl cheap seats that are empty. What was attendance. Probably still 14k. The premier was there schmoozing lol

The younger people in a lot of cases have really struggled to move into career fields so they lack funds to attend a lot of Jets games.

As for the Friday game v Columbus I was there too. It was notable a low row near center ice opposite the benches was completely empty. It also isn't the first game this season with lots of empty seats in the upper deck. I cannot recall the exact attendance numbers but know it was the second lowest of Jets 2.0 and the other game was also this season. That said the facility is definitely better able to handle about that level of attendance than a full house.

[esquire]

^ Good read on the situation. I guess places like Toronto and Vancouver are so big that you can make it work with loads of people going to one game a year as a special night out. In Winnipeg you need repeat business.

And let's face it, you have to have a huge appetite for hockey to want to go to even a half a season year after year and spend thousands of dollars doing it. I'm sure that after 5 or 6 years even the most supportive and well-intentioned fan must wonder if there isn't something else they can try doing with all that time and money. In Toronto someone else steps up to fill that void, but in Winnipeg, the pool of potential season ticket holders is only so big.

That being said, I find it amazing that a place like Edmonton, which is arguably more like Winnipeg than Toronto in terms of overall size, wealth, etc., has seemingly never had a problem selling out. I guess they did last year with covid rules in place, but so did everyone else. Now they're back on track, though.

[bomberjet]

What I meant by easily get them. Is they can easily find cheap tickets for sale. Instead of committing to thousands of dollars for season tickets.

We're in that 10 years on window now. With still decent attendance. Averaging 14k per game, with mostly the cheapest seats going unsold is still good for the team. The good seats seem to be priced to account for this. They're EXPENSIVE. My upper deck seats are actually cheaper this year than last.

I don't think anyone can expect them to sell out every single game forever. That's unreasonable. I actually think they've done very well with ticket sales.

[zalf]

Originally Posted by esquire

That being said, I find it amazing that a place like Edmonton, which is arguably more like Winnipeg than Toronto in terms of overall size, wealth, etc., has seemingly never had a problem selling out. I guess they did last year with covid rules in place, but so did everyone else. Now they're back on track, though.

Just using numbers from wikipedia:

Metro Edmonton: ~1.4 million
Rogers Place hockey capacity: 18,500

Metro Winnipeg: 778,000
Canada Life Centre: 15,300

1,400,000 / 18,500 = 75
778,000 / 15,300 = 50

They have 50% more people per NHL seat.

[esquire]

^ They have more people per seat but that doesn't necessarily translate to more ticket sales... the Oilers had a dry spell in the 90s when there were a lot of empty seats. And fates can turn, for instance the Elks used to draw close to 40,000 fans a game for football but officially it was something like half that this past season (and realistically the actual number was much lower).

The Oilers, as of right now at least, sell tickets in numbers and cost at a level way beyond what their population would suggest is realistic.

[harls]

Originally Posted by zalf

Just using numbers from wikipedia:

Metro Edmonton: ~1.4 million
Rogers Place hockey capacity: 18,500

Metro Winnipeg: 778,000
Canada Life Centre: 15,300

1,400,000 / 18,500 = 75
778,000 / 15,300 = 50

They have 50% more people per NHL seat.

You're off on the Winnipeg CMA number by about 56K or more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_census_metropolitan_areas_and_agglomerations_in_Canada

[thebasketballgeek]

I wonder how much of that is due to the McDavid effect? Of course it’s a very strong hockey market, but having the best player in the world paired with another top 5 player in Draisaitl must have a noticeable effect on ticket sales.

As good as Hellebuyck and KFC are, they aren’t superstars to the casual audience (even though they should be).

[GreyGarden]

I don’t think we can blame the on ice product for poor attendance this year. Edmonton is doing worse compared to the Jets. I think it’s a combination of what Zalf and Esquire are saying. Edmonton while similar in vibe to Winnipeg is meaningfully larger in terms of population. Winnipeg relies on a fairly small segment of the population that can afford NHL hockey for repeat business. Edmonton does as well, but the pool of people that can afford it is larger.

Winnipeg has a small professional class and I think the working-class population that may have been able to afford a handful of jets games pre-COVID are probably feeling inflation and the cost of living right now. I keep seeing people say “families are struggling to put food on the table, why would they go to the Jets”. In most cities, the team can take comfort that those people aren’t really the market. But given Winnipeg’s size, the Jets don’t have that luxury.

[optimusREIM]

I think it has a lot to do with the hype associated with players like McDavid. Very good no doubt, but also receives a huge amount of press to the point of having a high profile and widespread brand recognition. There is no doubt that the brand alone of players like McDavid drive a lot of ticket sales. I doubt a guy like Draisaitl is anywhere near the actual draw of McDavid. The same goes for Crosby and Ovechkin for most of their careers. Not many other players have the same pull, maybe Matthews.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by optimusREIM

I think it has a lot to do with the hype associated with players like McDavid. Very good no doubt, but also receives a huge amount of press to the point of having a high profile and widespread brand recognition. There is no doubt that the brand alone of players like McDavid drive a lot of ticket sales. I doubt a guy like Draisaitl is anywhere near the actual draw of McDavid. The same goes for Crosby and Ovechkin for most of their careers. Not many other players have the same pull, maybe Matthews.

The funny thing is that if you compare the Jets and Oilers records over the last 5 years, the Jets are actually a bit better. The Oilers missed the playoffs once more than the Jets in that timeframe, and both teams have the conference finals as their high point in that period, where they both got drilled. But whereas the Jets don't have a huge big name star, the Oilers have 1.5 guys that people get really excited about and it sells a lot of tickets. I guess the Oilers also benefitted from getting a big new arena, which is something that the Jets have never really had... both buildings they played in here pre-existed the team so there was never really a new arena bump in terms of ticket sales.

All that said, I don't mind the Jets' approach, hockey is not the NBA where one guy makes all the difference. You can win without having the big A-list stars. Otherwise the Leafs and Oilers would have won the cup within the last decade.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by esquire

The funny thing is that if you compare the Jets and Oilers records over the last 5 years, the Jets are actually a bit better. The Oilers missed the playoffs once more than the Jets in that timeframe, and both teams have the conference finals as their high point in that period, where they both got drilled. But whereas the Jets don't have a huge big name star, the Oilers have 1.5 guys that people get really excited about and it sells a lot of tickets. I guess the Oilers also benefitted from getting a big new arena, which is something that the Jets have never really had... both buildings they played in here pre-existed the team so there was never really a new arena bump in terms of ticket sales.

All that said, I don't mind the Jets' approach, hockey is not the NBA where one guy makes all the difference. You can win without having the big A-list stars. Otherwise the Leafs and Oilers would have won the cup within the last decade.

I know that Laine had his issues while here, but we were that close to having a guy who can be labelled a bona fide superstar. Injury issues aside, he was super entertaining to watch, and had the personality to boot. Certainly does not have the same pedigree as McDavid or Crosby, but he certainly sold tickets. I know that I went to a handful of games simply to see him score live, it was a treat to watch him shoot the puck.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by optimusREIM

I know that Laine had his issues while here, but we were that close to having a guy who can be labelled a bona fide superstar. Injury issues aside, he was super entertaining to watch, and had the personality to boot. Certainly does not have the same pedigree as McDavid or Crosby, but he certainly sold tickets. I know that I went to a handful of games simply to see him score live, it was a treat to watch him shoot the puck.

Yeah, Laine was really the closest thing we had to a 🞵🞵🞵🞵, big name superstar. The funny thing though is that his replacement, Pierre Luc Dubois, helps the team win more than Laine did. But there's no question that Laine got the fans more excited and sold more tickets.

[drew]

^ meh. From the looks of it since, we got the best seasons out of Laine's NHL career - despite his short stay here.

He was not the same player after he got blown up in that centre ice hit in his rookie year.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by optimusREIM

Okay so what I’m hearing is Winnipeg will never be ready for prime time again, because that’s the cost of doing business. It would be embarrassing if we lost our team again because of peoples 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 attitudes.

Sorry bud, it’s all about economics not attitudes, TNSE really pushed the envelope with their greedy yearly price increases on season ticket holders and lack of benefits that came with that so called privilege.

You alienate your bread and butter and this is the result, they are finally trying to fix it but maybe too little too late?

[Sheepish]

Laine could (can) score, but was not a particularly dynamic player. Often more of a liability. Maybe he is stronger and more responsible now (with maturity and good coaching). IMH...Ehlers and Connor are far more exciting to watch...you know anything can happen when they have the puck on their stick. And the TEAM is far better with PLD. But truly Buff was the most exciting and dynamic in 2.0. A player you could not take your eyes off of, because you would miss something remarkable. He was the true superstar. I hope the team takes the opportunity to give him proper recognition.

[bomberjet]

I've been a STH for 8 or 9 years now. I keep my seasons because of the large discount on playoff tickets. We have 3 seat and have sold every game this year except for 3. Which really only one of the games didn't sell as we chose to go to the other 2. We have no issue selling tickets at our price, and get a premium for the popular teams (MON, TOR, etc). I would prefer to go to more games but anyways..

The discounts on beer prices now are good. Still $8 or whatever, but not $12. Also get discount on food.

Re: The in game experience thing. They could have some more on ice promotions during intermissions. They have zero. Basically they throw out t-shirts to the crowd, play a couple games with fans. Beyond that's it's the guy yelling into the microphone inaudibly.

[wags_in_the_peg]

was the 4th goal last night not a thing of beauty! wow, just wow

[bomberjet]

twas a beaut.

They're still not quite firing on all cylinders. Some fanned shots and such. If tehy really come together after injuries are sorted out, could be in a for a run this year!

[bomberjet]

And of course if Vezina candidate keeps up his play!

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I've been a STH for 8 or 9 years now. I keep my seasons because of the large discount on playoff tickets. We have 3 seat and have sold every game this year except for 3. Which really only one of the games didn't sell as we chose to go to the other 2. We have no issue selling tickets at our price, and get a premium for the popular teams (MON, TOR, etc). I would prefer to go to more games but anyways..

The discounts on beer prices now are good. Still $8 or whatever, but not $12. Also get discount on food.

Re: The in game experience thing. They could have some more on ice promotions during intermissions. They have zero. Basically they throw out t-shirts to the crowd, play a couple games with fans. Beyond that's it's the guy yelling into the microphone inaudibly.

They've taken a huge step backward this year in-game with that. The fans make noise at the right times. We don't need the 6th rated FM morning show hosts in Winnipeg constantly yelling at the crowd every whistle.

Also this crew going around with a drum, popping into the seating bowl and just hammering a drum with no rhythm, no cadence and no relation to the game going on is just brutal. Especially so on the 300 side under the press box because the sound just bounces right back into the crowd. I've complained twice this season about this issue.