Breaking Down The Numbers: Ticket Increases

(Bear with me guys, this is one of my long grumpy, too much time on my hands, posts)

On Tuesday, the Blades released this seasons ticket packages and rates. I was a little confused to see the team claim that purchasing the packages equaled savings. How can you save when the season tickets cost the same as regular day-of prices?

It's simple. You raise the prices on the tickets one to two dollars.

Let me break this down for you. My favorite seats are in the the club rows (second to fourth row) and cost $24 last season. I attended about 25 regular season games (stupid work schedule). That amounts to around $600 in tickets alone (I did get a free seat or two and bought a few nosebleeds on busy nights so I actually paid less). Of course, that's not counting parking or concessions. That also doesn't count the post-season games when there's always an increase in ticket price. Either way, that's a lot of money.

For me, the price increase only means a $50 increase in costs this season if I go to the same amount of games and buy the same seats.

So what if I opt for a ticket passage to save money this season? A full season ticket passage is out of the question because I won't be able to go to all those games and I'm pretty sure I'd have trouble finding someone willing to buy just one seat for the face value of the ticket.

So, maybe I go with the 20 game flex pack options. First, (as usual) the team isn't really clear on what that is. I'm assuming it's like last season when you got vouchers for your section and you took whatever in that range they had. Well, that's $480 for 20. The same price I paid last season for 20 tickets.

Honestly, there really is no savings for me. There is no visible benefit to buying the flex package for me. I'm lucky, I can afford the extra $50 over the course of the season and I know a couple of free seats will come my way through friends and work. With no real perks to the package that would make sense for me it's easier not to go through the hassle.

Obviously, not everyone is like me. What if you can make a majority of the games? What if you decide to be a season ticket holder? What if you, oh I don't know, like the club row too?

Lucky for me, one of my favorite readers, Matt, a season ticket holder, broke down not only his costs, but what his seats and season tickets would cost in the other arenas throughout the ECHL. It really is a thing of beauty and Google was kind enough to convert it so I could embed it right here for you. It really is worth the scroll through guys.



The big takeaway is, in my opinion, this: there are savings to be had in certain sections, just not all of them and not all the ticket packages. It's really up to you.

Me? I'm just going to suck it up. I can't get awesome pictures from the nosebleeds.