TOUGH SELL
Team trims some prices and offers incentives on season ticket renewals to entice fans
The Canucks’ March 7 home game against the Canadiens was packed with enough Habs fans that it might have been hard to tell that the game was taking place at Rogers Arena.
That is telling, according to sports-marketing expert Tom Mayenknecht, about the challenge the Canucks face marketing the team as they head into season-ticket renewals.
So many season-ticket holders had given up their seats for what would usually be a prime game to attend, Mayenknecht said, that “two-thirds of the arena that night was cheering for the Habs.”
The team is trying to rally with a revamped pricing structure that lowers some prices on season tickets, along with gifts and credits for food-and-beverage services, but the team is probably still going to be a tough sell.
The Canucks are in the difficult position of the business cycle for an NHL franchise, Mayenknecht said, somewhere between falling out of Stanley Cup contention and rebuilding. But they aren’t quite at the point of re-sparking the excitement needed to spur an increase in sales.
“The marketing of hope that is so important when you’re marketing in these transitions hasn’t really kicked in yet,” Mayenknecht said.
In the halcyon days, when they finished first in the NHL regular season two years in a row and went to the Cup final in 2011, the team had to cap season tickets at about 17,000, with a waiting list that stretched to 6,000.
It was an enviable position, Mayenknecht said, with season-ticket-renewal rates running about 98 per cent, with the 150 or so lost sales easily replaceable from the waiting list.
That season-ticket base has fallen. Renewals were down about 15 per cent last year, said team executive Jeff Stipec, though he wouldn’t be specific about the number of how much lower.
However, Stipec argued the team is starting to see some “new energy” in Rogers Arena through a renewed effort at marketing group sales for single-game tickets, which were up double digits, which is bringing fans to the arena who might not have been to games for a long time.
“There were nights this year when there were empty places, but overall, it was a very encouraging year,” Stipec said.
As for season tickets, Stipec said the team is keeping prices “flat” on average for the fifth straight season. But the team has reconfigured its pricing structure to add 12 new price categories that brought the entry point for lower-bowl tickets down to an average of $74 per game, versus $85 last season.
Ticket packages will include a $200 credit for food-and-beverage services and a new Adidas authentic jersey per account for full-season purchases, a $100 credit and limited-edition hat for half-season purchases, plus options for prizes and other special offers.
“We’re trying to build these deeper relationships with fans,” Stipec said. “We’re trying to give them a reason to come a little bit earlier and stay a little later.”
Season-ticket renewals opened last week with an April 6 deadline before new season-ticket sales are offered, and a week in, Stipec said the team is optimistic about an increase in sales over the same period last year.
Many fans are likely looking for better deals on the tickets, however, especially while the team is rebuilding.
Nick Hosseinzadeh and a group of friends jumped at the chance to buy into a group of four half-season tickets in 2014-15 when the waiting list opened up to realize a lifelong dream. This season, 25-yearold Hosseinzadeh shifted back to an 11-game, quarter-season share, which he renewed as much to serve as a placeholder to stay in line when the Canucks are a winning team again.
“Going to Canucks games, it’s almost like work, especially with how bad they’ve played,” Hosseinzadeh said.
There have been some good games, Hosseinzadeh said, and he enjoys watching the new prospects develop. But he hasn’t been able to sell any tickets for games he can’t go to and finds it hard to even give them away.
Hosseinzadeh is also a Whitecaps season-ticket holder and said he finds the atmosphere at a bad soccer match more fun than a Canucks game.
“They’ve got to do something different than give you cash and a jersey (for a full-season renewal),” he said. “It really comes down to the product on the ice.”
It isn’t that fans don’t see hope coming, said Kingsley Bailey, a broker with the Vancouver Ticket and Tour Service, but the secondary market remains a tough business in the meantime.
“I’ve talked to a lot of season-ticket holders who are not renewing,” Bailey said.
“Going to Canucks games, it’s almost like work, especially with how bad they’ve played.” — Nick Hosseinzadeh