FANS WRIGGLE OUT OF CASH GRAB
$100 a ticket? IIHF president agrees: ‘That’s a lot of money’ to watch hockey
When Rene Fasel takes a stroll around the expansive concourses of Montreal’s Bell Centre, he can almost feel the money being sucked out of his wallet — just like you do.
With hockey fans around this country angered and disappointed at the lofty cost of seats — not to mention food and parking — for 2017 world junior championship games at the Bell Centre and Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, the image of Hockey Canada has taken a thorough beating, and deservedly so.
But you’re not the only one who feels that way. Fasel, the president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, said Thursday that he, too, feels ticket prices were too high in Montreal and Toronto. One look at the chunks of empty seats at pretty much every game — even those involving the host Canadians — is evidence of that.
“You have to call a cat a cat,” Fasel said. “If tickets are expensive, the weather is bad, we may prefer to stay at home to watch the game on television.
“I walk a bit at the ice rink here, I pay a small popcorn past $7. In addition, I pay my ticket past $100. I come with my family — I think it’s between $500 and $800 if you’re four. “That’s a lot of money.” That’s ridiculous money. That’s money many fans understandably don’t want to shell out, and that message has been relayed to organizers via empty seats.
Consider these numbers: Only 10,215 people were on hand for Canada’s quarter-final victory on Monday against the Czech Republic. When that mediocre turnout caused officials to slash prices in half from $80 to $40 for some upper-level sections for the semifinal tilt between the Canadians and Swedes on Wednesday, the ensuing crowd of 13,181 still meant the building was 40 per cent empty. Obviously, it was too little, too late.
Capacity at the Bell Centre is 21,273. The total attendance for Canada’s first two elimination games was 23,396. Translation: It took two full world junior playoff contests to draw about as many people as the Montreal Canadiens get for one.
The public backlash against Hockey Canada has been dominated by claims from fans and media alike that the world juniors has turned into a giant cash grab, empty seats be damned. In stating their defence during a news conference at the Bell Centre on Thursday, you almost expected Hockey Canada chief operating officer Scott Smith and outgoing president Tom Renney to turn their pockets inside out in front of all the reporters on hand.
Where we take issue with Hockey Canada’s defence is when Renney and Smith — two highly respected figures within the hockey industry — claim they did research after the 2015 world juniors in Montreal and Toronto to find out why attendance had at times waned in that particular event.
Obviously, the conclusions were inaccurate. Even after cutting prices by 30 per cent from the 2015 tournament, consumers were reluctant to buy what Hockey Canada has been selling.
Smith said Hockey Canada used data from the 2012 tournament in Calgary and Edmonton — the highest-ever attended world junior championship — as a gauge for determining ticket prices for the Toronto-Montreal 2015 and 2017 twin bid.
“That year, 175,000 people signed up for a lottery to win the right to buy tickets. And although I do not have all the details, I know that ticket prices were comparable to those set by the NHL teams in these two markets,’’ Smith said.
Once again, Hockey Canada did not properly read the market. A Canada-Czech Republic game simply does not draw the same interest as a Montreal Canadiens-Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday night tilt. Nor will it elicit the same price — not in this environment.
We get it when Renney says funds accrued from these events are funnelled back into the sport at the grassroots level. Those of us who love the sport want as many kids to have the chance to play as possible, and that costs money.
But failing to understand the willingness — or lack thereof — of the ticket-buying public in both Toronto and Montreal to spend top-end prices for your product for the second time in 24 months — well, that’s inexcusable.
And it will now be up to Smith and Renney to fix it by the time the 2019 tournament arrives in Vancouver and Victoria.
Only time will tell. The one thing we do know: repairing Hockey Canada’s image will be a much more difficult task.