1)Why is Pittsburgh Afraid of Wings Fans? We read with amusement this morning the fact that apparently the Pittsburgh Penguins have instituted a policy of restricting the sale of tickets to their home playoff games for this Finals series. This, taken directly from the web site: Pittsburgh Penguins 2008 Playoffs - Round 4, Home Game 1 Tickets....... Sales to this event will be restricted to residents of PA, OH, WV, MD, NY, NJ, DE, VA and the District of Columbia. Residency will be based on credit card billing address. Orders by residents outside of PA, OH, WV, MD, NY, NJ, DE, VA and the District of Columbia will be canceled without notice and refunds given.
2) Are they kidding? Come on Pittsburgh! Are you telling folks that you guys are afraid that a huge contingent of people from Michigan might invade your house? For the record, the Pens sold out every home game this past season. They have excellent season ticket sales. We would assume that those season ticket holders bought playoff tickets, meaning their are probably a very limited supply of seats anyway. How many people from Michigan do the Pens think would try to get in? Detroit had their own attendance issues so the Pens think those same apathetic fans would be motivated to drive to Steel town when they didn't even support their team at home?
3) We find it ironic that they are employing this tactic since they themselves bemoaned it when it was done to them in 2001 by the Washington Capitals. We highly doubt that enough Wings fans would have been in attendance anyway for the aforementioned reasons, but we find it ironic/ hypocritical and disappointing to see Pittsburgh to institute this policy. Bush league!
4 comments:
Thats not fair faux. We're not the first team to do this. Remember it happened with the superbowl? A lot of teams do this to help the local fans get a chance to buy tickets first. Your right that they have very few available. I think i read that only about 1000 are avaialable to the public for each game and they are sold out in minutes.
Although if the JOE was as small as the Mellon area the whole supposed apathetic fan issue would likely be moot.
In passing it also worth considering simple ticket prices first - at the JOE Illitch expects you to pay 75$ more for a standing room ticket. You don't have to be an apathetic fan to be priced out of the market...
I didn't spent a lot of time at Ticket Master but the by way of comparison the Pistons seem to offer a wide range of ticket prices (down to $25 I don't know if those are just an artifact of the system - but certainly the Red Wings ticket page has nothing comparable)
1)Ron: If there are so few tix available then it would seem to be unnecessary to have this policy. At most the odds would be against a huge number of Wings fans would be in attendance regardless
2) Paul: Good points about Wing ticket price policies. They may want to alter this if their attendance issues continue. Its no longer the 'old days' when they had an astronomical payroll and Ilitch could use that as an excuse to raise prices. With the cap, they should be now making money hand over fist. Especially with the Michigan economy, it makes no sense to price out many previously loyal fans. At least they aren't Chicago where they'd likely black out the home games if they didn't sell out.
I think what Ron said hits the mark. The intention of the Pens management in using their restrictive policy doesn't appear to be motivated by a fear/avoidance of Wings fans (indeed, the constant high decible level during last night's game gave ample proof that a thousand or so Wings fans would've been irrelevant). I believe they're simply honoring what has been a very loyal fan base that is somewhat widespread over a number of states in the northeast corridor. Rather than 'bush league', I think it shows class.
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