Eric at 5-Hole reports that the Rangers, despite a recession and coming off an underwhelming season, have decided to raise ticket prices and includes a letter (along with translation) from Glen Sather who tries his best to fool season ticket owners into thinking the increase is justified...Here's a snippet...
Rangers Subscribers,
Hey Suckers!
Five years ago, we made it our priority to build the New York Rangers team for long-term success by developing a core foundation of young players and adding key veterans as our youngsters matured. Our philosophy remains steadfast, and this past season, six young players whose NHL careers began here in New York played major roles in taking us to the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.
A few years ago, I brought up a few players from the farm system (in this case, six), surrounded them with overpriced, underachieving veterans, and prayed for Henrik Lundqvist to play well. Except for Jagr. That guy was awesome. Especially that one year when he scored 54 goals. Too bad he destroyed his shoulder punching Scott Gomez in the playoffs. Speaking of which, he’s a Ranger! And I signed Chris Drury too! That was awesome.
...its amazing how blinded GMs and owners are by greed. Have the Dolans and Sather seen all the empty seats at the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field? What a joke.
6 comments:
Supply and demand my friend. As someone who works in the sports industry, I can vouch for how much thought and calculation goes into pricing tickets. The Rangers will still sell out, however there will be more suits and companies entertaining clients than real fans like us. The Garden will undoubtedly be even more dead on most nights than it was this year.
In the case of the Yankees and Mets, they didn't increase amounts slowly over a number of years, they greatly increased in all areas over just one year, and ridiculously priced their prime seats, which lead to all the empty seats and eventual mid-season price reduction.
Unfortunately, a professional sports team is a business, and the Rangers are trying to maximize their revenue. They have increased season tickets for a number of consecutive years now, and every year they have had or have been very close to 100% attendance. The Rangers are going to continue to increase season ticket prices every year until they push too far. At that point, they will slightly decrease the following year, and of course will have no problem selling out based on the fact that they can then add the word "discounted" to their sales pitches. People will say, "Oh, the Rangers are selling discounted season ticket packages?! What a great deal!" forgetting that these "discounted" packages are still significantly more expensive than just a few years before.
Sometimes I ask myself if I would be better suited by rooting for another team, say the Florida Panthers, where it wouldn't take much money to have season tickets and I could afford to attend every game. Then I come to my senses wonder why I say stupid things. Sometimes its tough to be a Ranger fan, but in the end, I couldn't imagine myself rooting for any other team. Go Rangers.
I've split season tickets with a friend and some other people over the last three or so years. Not sure I can afford it this year.
any news on JD people!
What I dont understand is that before the lockout the Rangers were spending $100 on the roster and not making the playoff, therefor not generating any additional revenue, yet the ticket prices were less than they are now...
Post lockout, the Rangers are spending half the amount on the Roster due to the cap, making the playoffs every year, thus making additional money, and still they raise the price of tickets every year!!!!
Does that make any sense?
Old jimmy dolan may have finally priced me out of my seats, and I sit in the 2nd to last row in the 400's....
Wait until after they are done fixing up msg, the prices will be tripled!!!
My tickets only went up $4/seat.
I rarely ever see young kids at these games in the Garden. So sad, but true.
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