STEP RIGHT UP
Ticket deals offered as fan demand hits ‘all-time low’
Demand for resale Vancouver Canucks tickets this season is at an “all-time low,” the lowest it’s been since the late 1990s, according to a local ticket broker.
“I didn’t think it would get any lower than the Mike Keenan years — that’s when they moved Trevor (Linden) out and brought in (Mark) Messier,” said Vancouver Ticket manager Kingsley Bailey, referencing the 1997-98 season in which Keenan, then coach and acting general manager, traded away fan favourite Linden to the New York Islanders
“I didn’t think it would get any lower than that, but it has.”
The Canucks have had a challenging few seasons in recent history and by most accounts it will be some time before the team’s young roster has the same pull and box office attraction as some of the big names that have since left the team. As a result, tickets are cheaper and more accessible than fans have historically come to expect, starting at about $35 a seat from third-party sellers. That’s about the price of three beers at a Rogers Arena concession stand.
And while the Canucks aren’t posting a banner year and tickets seem more affordable than before, that doesn’t mean season ticket members are necessarily giving up their season-long investments entirely or that no one is attending the games.
Bailey has been in the business of brokering sports and entertainment tickets since 1995. He typically partners with season ticket members to purchase half their share of tickets as many people aren’t able to attend all 41 home games in a season.
“It’s got to the point where some ticket holders — they don’t even want to go, but they don’t want to lose their priority number,” said Bailey. “So some of my season-ticket holders who were selling partial seasons are now selling me full seasons.”
As a result, Bailey has seen re-sale ticket prices marked down about 150 to 200 per cent, allowing more parents to bring their kids to games and more casual fans to get inside the arena. Not to mention, the lull in Canucks tickets has been a welcome boost for other sports tickets around town, said Bailey, citing the many sold-out Vancouver Canadians games this past summer.
Jeff Stipec, chief operating officer with Canucks Sports and Entertainment, acknowledged there’s been some ebb and flow in membership numbers, noting the renewal rate for the current season was just over 80 per cent, whereas 2011’s rate was just over 97 per cent.
“But with that, we’ve been able to do some pretty neat things. We’ve been able to bring some people to the games that historically haven’t been able to come here,” he said of the small share of season tickets that haven’t been renewed and single-game tickets that don’t sell as hotly as they used to. As well, the organization has introduced smaller season ticket memberships that start at five games a season and holiday and family packs that start at about $250.
Stipec cited a student ticket program at the University of B.C. that brought in some 2,000 students, as well as minor hockey teams that can now afford to bring groups. Many of the guests at Rogers Arena this year are also fans seeing their first live hockey game; in just 13 games, the organization handed out more “first-time” badges to young guests than they do during a full season and have already ordered more.
Chris Foreman’s family has had season ticket memberships since 1992 and it has become something of a family tradition he’s not going to give up anytime soon.
“It’s worth it for me to come because it’s still a good experience, but at the same time you know they’re not going to make the playoffs, so it’s not really rewarding in that sense,” said Foreman, 20, before heading in to see the Canucks take on the Anaheim Ducks Thursday in an eventual 3-1 loss. At that game, scalpers outside Rogers Arena were touting upper-bowl tickets beginning at $40 a pop.
Langley resident Jeff Hynes and his family are also among those happy to see the Canucks for the live game experience, regardless of ticket prices or if the team will make a playoff push. He always opts to buy tickets through official channels.
“It doesn’t matter to me how the team was doing. They’re obviously still playing, they’re still out there giving their effort and everything else — but we’re here for the fun and entertainment of the game itself, not how the team is doing,” said Hynes, whose daughter Harlow, 5, was about to see her first live Canucks game Thursday when he spoke to Postmedia. “We don’t care if the team is first or last place, we’d still be here.”
Hynes said he’d consider becoming a season ticket member if he thought his schedule would allow him to attend consistently. As it stands, the former Ontario resident — who admits he’s actually more of a Leafs fan — sees a few games a year and always tries to bring one of his two daughters as a bonding activity.
Stipec is happy to welcome new fans like young Harlow to the Canuck’s fan base and maintains season ticket holders are “the lifeblood” of what the team is about. But he also acknowledges it may be some time before the team will see another sellout streak like the one snapped two years ago. That 474game streak began in 2002 and ended in 2014 with a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning that was just 223 tickets short of a sellout.
“We’d love to start that streak again,” said Stipec. “But we’ve got a little bit of work to do.”