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Post by mikecubs on Oct 16, 2018 12:47:47 GMT -6
If box scores are right Montreal's sellout streak ended last night. Bell Centre seats 21,302 for hockey attendance last night was 20,323 Jan 8, 2004 was the last time they didn't sell out. www.foxsports.com/nhl/boxscore?id=33060This has been building for some time montrealgazette.com/sports/hockey/nhl/hockey-inside-out/canadiens-bell-centre-sellout-streak-in-jeopardy-after-dismal-season |
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Post by mikecubs on Oct 16, 2018 12:51:20 GMT -6
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Post by iceland2018 on Oct 17, 2018 17:59:51 GMT -6
Ottawa is averaging much less than that. They are papering the house. Real attendance is probably under 11,000.
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Post by mikecubs on Oct 18, 2018 6:46:41 GMT -6
Canadiens' miserable performance last year hurting ticket sales
"We're not in panic mode," says Habs senior VP of communications Paul Wilson after game Monday night was first in 14 years not to sell out.
A 14-year Montreal Canadiens winning streak is over. You’re right. There was no winning streak on the ice. It was in the stands of the Bell Centre. The Habs’ rink has been officially sold out for every Montreal game since Jan. 8, 2004. But that ended Monday night, when the Canadiens announced the Canadiens-Detroit Red Wings contest was not a sellout. Thus ended a 583-game streak, the longest in the National Hockey League. According to the Canadiens, there were 20,323 people in attendance when the Canadiens trounced the Wings 7-3 Monday night. With the building’s capacity for hockey set at 21,302, that was 979 tickets short of a sellout. This is the latest sign that the team’s lacklustre performance over the past few years is throwing a damper on fan enthusiasm. T V ratings are down for Canadiens games, with TVA Sports recently saying that the subpar performance of the Canadiens was hurting its bottom line. TVA Sports airs the Canadiens’ Saturday night games and has the rights to all NHL playoff games. There is no denying there were a lot of empty seats during games at the Bell Centre last season. The team was still announcing that every game was a sellout, but clearly some season-ticket holders were not bothering to show up and were unable to even give away the tickets. Canadiens management is not panicking, but Paul Wilson — senior vice-president of communications for the Canadiens — admitted the lack of a sellout is a wake-up call. “We’re not in panic mode, absolutely not,” Wilson said. “But it’s a sign of things. Last year was not a good year, so I think people were a bit down on the team. But it’s not something we don’t think we’ll be able to build back up. There’s a lot of people working really hard on that. We have to be à l’écoute of our fans. It’s good that we see the right numbers. It brings us back down to Earth. We’re going to work toward getting people back in the stands. … We still have the best fans in the world, but we’re looking at this and we’re taking it seriously.” When Wilson mentions “the right numbers,” he is referring to the fact that before his arrival this summer, the Canadiens counted the numbers in a different way. There were numerous reports that for some games last season, tickets were still available online midway through the game, but the Habs would still call it a sellout. That’s because they used a complex formula that factored in extra seats in luxury boxes to make the games an official sellout, even though there were single tickets still available.B ut when Wilson started in August, one of the first things he said to team president Geoff Molson was that as part of their much-discussed transparency plan, they should also be transparent about how many tickets they actually sell. Molson agreed and the result is that three home games into the season, they’ve admitted that one game was not a sellout.But it’s all relative, Wilson stresses. He says they have more seats than any other arena in the NHL. The Chicago Blackhawks’ home arena, the United Centre, has a slightly higher capacity, but that’s because they have standing room, which the Bell Centre does not have. “We heard what was going on last year,” Wilson said. “People sometimes say — ‘Oh you guys in Habs management are far from reality. You don’t listen to your fans.’ No. We do listen. We do everything possible to make things better. Yes, the year was bad. Yes, there’s a secondary (re-sale) market. But still the positive thing is we sell 20,000-plus tickets 41 times a year. We sold 17,000 tickets on average for the pre-season games. Florida sold 600 tickets one game. So we’re lucky to have this market that’s very attentive. But we cannot take anything for granted and we never take anything for granted. We’ve got a big building to fill and we need to have a great product on the ice and off the ice and we’re working toward this.” Wilson said season-ticket sales are almost at the same level as last season, down less than one per cent. He said season-ticket holders account for roughly 15,000 tickets. montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/canadiens-miserable-performance-last-year-hurting-ticket-sales
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Post by mikecubs on Oct 18, 2018 6:50:58 GMT -6
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Post by mikecubs on Oct 21, 2018 18:27:42 GMT -6
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wolf357
Alternate Captain "A"
Posts: 557
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Post by wolf357 on Oct 23, 2018 9:02:01 GMT -6
“Sellouts” are a bit of a sham..artificial attendance numbers.Minnesota faked their yearly season sellouts for years. I would have more into the stat “Sellout” if they used “Sell” into the equation not giveaways or just plain lying about the numbers.
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Post by mikecubs on Oct 23, 2018 23:28:58 GMT -6
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