Ridiculous Ticket Prices: Hockey
Don't know how many people have a twitter and follow @MichiganHockey from Michigan Hockey Net, but he has been lighting up Dave Brandon about these recent ridiculous ticket prices for hockey.
Apparently for tonight against #4 BC, it is $65 for a ticket. $38 for an endzone seat.
Now I can kind of understand a somewhat higher price for a big time opponent like BC who we rarely see here, but a ticket for center ice against Niagra? $42.
I've been one of the biggest Dave Brandon defenders on here, but I've had it. This is absolutely ridiculous. His crusade to price the true fans out of the building in favor of coporations is awful.
What say you?
October 10th, 2013 at 10:37 AM ^
Stubhub!
Endzone tickets from $9 and blue line tickets from $20.
October 10th, 2013 at 10:41 AM ^
There aren't more than about 200 left, but yeah, at least for tonight's game, endline tickets in various sections are going for as low as $8.99 (with a max of around $30 or so), and sideline/midline listings look like they are mostly in the $20-$25 range, so this is definitely the way to go if the information is accurate.
Actually, there seem to be similar deas for a few upcoming games too, so you possibly save about 50% on tickets throughout the month of October anyway.
October 10th, 2013 at 10:37 AM ^
On a similar note, I'm a basketball season ticket holder, so I had access to purchase single game tickets a couple of days ago. I signed in to pick up extra Arizona tickets and the cost of a seat in the last row of the arena was $60.
Unreal.
October 10th, 2013 at 10:45 AM ^
They were selling group tickets at $5 a pop.
October 10th, 2013 at 11:58 AM ^
Corner the market, then drive up the price.
October 10th, 2013 at 3:53 PM ^
R.I.P.
October 10th, 2013 at 10:39 AM ^
Huh? As of yesterday you could get tickets for $25 for BC plus a free ticket for the NDT..
October 10th, 2013 at 11:28 AM ^
Has been more so about WHY they're in this deal making specials to begin with. We are facing BOSTON COLLEGE tonight. You go back to like 2005 when they came to Yost and that was a huge game, fans excited, JMFJ crushing players and taking Cory Schneider's mask off with a shot. Place was packed and loud. 6,982 was the attendance that night.
Fast forward to today and Michigan opens up the regular season against the Eagles and I'm STILL getting "special deals" in my e-mail box from U-M trying to sell out tonight's game. Why are we at this point? Michigan used to have like 2,000 people on a waiting list for season hockey tickets. Now that list is nonexistant (despite a reduced capacity) and they can't sell out the season opener against #4 Boston College.
The special deals they've been sending out (the $25 + ticket to NTDP game) isn't what's my problem. The problem is if you go to MGoBlue.com/tickets and look up the price of one regular price ticket tonight before they started sending out these deals, it would cost you $53 for one center ice ticket and $38 or $48 for one end zone seat at regular price (which includes $13 in fees).
Fans who bought a ticket already or bought season tickets, do they get a refund for the now available special offer? No. As some are starting to realize, why buy season tickets and shell out $40-50/game when you can go on StubHub and find a ticket for $10 (end zone) or $20 (sideline)?
Michigan hockey used to be the hottest ticket in town. But over the past 5+ years of raising prices while offering a crappy non-conference schedule and losing many fans in the process, they're practically begging fans to come back. I'm tired of seeing them ruin what was once so great and pricing fans out.
EDIT: I'll add in one more thing. Two fans who bought season tickets in the end zone paid $815. That's for 18 games and does not include playoffs. Average it out and they're paying $45 per game for end zone seats, which is ridiculously high for hockey. Why isn't the athletic department offering more incentives to buy or renew season tickets? What's the point of buying season tickets when you can just get them on StubHub for $10/game or wait until U-M offers a special ticket deal (like the BC packaged w/ free ticket to NTDP game)? Loyal season ticket holders are paying full price while last minute buyers are getting discounts. Something's not right about that.
October 10th, 2013 at 12:02 PM ^
I think the fact that it is a Thursday night and how bad they were last season is why there are still special deals at this point. I am a season ticket holder and I am not going. We have homework, soccer practice, piano and get to bed at a reasonable time for school.
Did I mention last season was painful?
October 10th, 2013 at 12:18 PM ^
On a side note didn't this happen last year too? Hockey team going up against game five of the alds
October 10th, 2013 at 12:23 PM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 12:03 PM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 8:07 PM ^
Maybe it was $815 each?
October 11th, 2013 at 9:24 AM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 10:41 AM ^
I've said it before and I'll say it again now: How can a family of four afford to go to a revenue sport contest at Michigan with these prices, between parking, food, and ticket prices? God forbid your kid wants a t-shirt, too.
Beyond being the kid of two alums, my love for Michigan came from going to basketball, football, and hockey games when I was a kid at the relatively affordable early 90s prices. I don't think most families would be able to afford the same kinds of opportunities I had with 2013 prices.
And to think hockey used to be just about the most affordable, family-oriented (other than the cheers) of the bunch.
October 10th, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^
I think the point he is trying to make is being a season ticket holder and/or purchasing your tickets through an "official" source. Anybody can scalp cheap tickets to a game the day before but if you want to take your family to see X opponet, you kind of want tickets in hand before you tell them they get to go to a game.
I mean hell, until I came along and told my Dad that we could use StubHub/eBay to our advantage he would have blindly continued paying $85/game to watch M beat up on a tomato can at the Big House.
October 10th, 2013 at 11:11 AM ^
U-M even links you to it if the game is sold out.
And the price range on "official" tickets starts at $35 for Boston College, and as low as $25 for other games. You can't go see an evening movie for under $10 anymore, and they can run that 4 times a night, or double or triple that if they use more screens.
Just saying people can get into stuff, but nothing is cheap anymore. But then a whole lot of us never went to a game before we were a student and still became fans.
October 10th, 2013 at 10:25 PM ^
...that they are chumps, for paying prices that are so much in excess of what the market will bear.
StubHub isn't so much a convenience as it is a broadcaster of where the market really is.
And where the market is, is an embarassment to people buying season tickets. Increasingly, the season ticket buyers (and as Bando says, we are talking about some of the most loyal Wolverine sports fans) have reason to feel like chumps.
And don't simply focus on ticket prices; remember that PSD's in many cases come close to doubling the price of the tickets.
October 10th, 2013 at 10:52 AM ^
Paraphrased.....
Me: "You are pricing out the back bone of the Michigan fan base."
DB: "You are not a true fan if you don't want to keep up with OSU."
October 10th, 2013 at 12:19 PM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 10:49 AM ^
And I'll say this as well: I HATE the suites at Michigan Stadium. Suites are not for true fans.
Very few true fans go to suites. That ruins the whole atmosphere and point of going to a football game.
They should have just put upper decks on the East and West sides instead of those boxes.
October 10th, 2013 at 11:21 AM ^
you may wish money grew on trees but it doesn't.
October 10th, 2013 at 1:11 PM ^
But at least there's the Ticket Oak.
October 10th, 2013 at 1:09 PM ^
I know I may not representative of the average person in a suite- but your blanket statements are offensive and inaccurate.
October 10th, 2013 at 2:20 PM ^
But "have the windows open for every game, regardless of weather" isn't exactly making it sound like you're toughing it out...
"Sometimes I even have to put on a pull over! And we only have our food delivered to us on TV timeouts...." It's not exactly roughing it.
October 10th, 2013 at 3:00 PM ^
It's nothing personal. I never said ALL fans who are in suites aren't true fans.
But a good, good amount aren't. I've been a suite at a college football game before. And the whole scene was bullshit.
I don't believe that fancy couches, a heated box, a wait staff, HD TVs where there are other games on that you aren't even at.
October 10th, 2013 at 8:02 PM ^
Ha! This made me giggle. Even though you and I have diametrically opposite opinions, I find your rants highly entertaining!
I envision you sitting behind a judge's bench, casting judgement on fans as they walk through the Big House. To the suites' ticket holders: "I realize you pay an obscene amount of money for those seats, and your money helps support myriad sports-related costs that the University bears responsibility for; however, because you have a nice couch and your scene is 'bullshit,' I promounce you an UNTRUE FAN. But please continue to pay for the suites; otherwise, the price of my seats may increase to the level of Ohio State or Notre Dame...Thx - - - but you suck!"
October 10th, 2013 at 10:31 PM ^
Upper decks would be an abomination at Michigan Stadium.
The suite patrons are actually quite an insignificant number of the total crowd at Michigan Stadium.
But the sutie patrons are a wholly different level of donor to the Athletic Department. For what they give to Michigan's general fund and the Athletic Department, they should get whatever they want.
Architectually, the suites are the physical and financial underpinning to all of the infrastructure that the Stadium needed, and need terribly.
You should stop worrying about the activities in the suites and just be glad that a lot of people who are smarter and wiser and much more visionary than you, are in charge.
October 10th, 2013 at 3:20 PM ^
Do you know how much money those suites bring in? Also is has allowed some of the blue hairs to move their old asses up there and not dragging us down in the bowl.
October 10th, 2013 at 10:53 AM ^
I live in Chicago so it is already a large cost for me to go to Ann Arbor to see the Wolverines play in any sport, with the cost of tix so high now I've only gone to one game in A2 since I graduated (a decade ago). It's far easier and cheaper for me to catch them vs UW, Northwestern, or U of I on the road, which I do regularly. I doubt I'll see them play in A2 for at least 5 more years, until my son is old enough to appreciate the trip.
October 10th, 2013 at 10:49 AM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 11:12 AM ^
I have a feeling the words "insane" and "annoying" are in your description.
October 10th, 2013 at 11:18 AM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 9:15 PM ^
You want to eat Wolverine Devotee? Nasty.
October 10th, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 11:07 AM ^
Yeah, I don't know where you are seeing those ticket prices, but I just went on to mgoblue and could get tickets below the red line for $25....$35 for tickets behind the benches at the faceoff circle and $43 for mid ice.....
October 10th, 2013 at 11:14 AM ^
Surprised to see this, since I don't believe season ticket costs have increased over the past couple of seasons at Yost.
With the Tigers game on at 8, I'd be surprised if there weren't a bunch of empty seats tonight at Yost (perhaps no more than the usual 1/4 empty arena we see in October).
Is the Athletic Department using "dynamic pricing" for single-game hockey tickets too? I was under the impression that was limited to football.
Go Blue.
October 10th, 2013 at 11:16 AM ^
Less and less sellouts every season.
October 10th, 2013 at 11:19 AM ^
"Surprised to see this, since I don't believe season ticket costs have increased over the past couple of seasons at Yost."
Incorrect.
October 10th, 2013 at 5:07 PM ^
Dynamic pricing now exists for basketball, too.
October 10th, 2013 at 12:00 PM ^
and the ADs insistence on changing things, they are going to murder home attendance at Yost. Its not like we havent already been struggling to fill the arena as is. Its high school economics, when demand is down you do not jack prices to get back to where supply and demand cross. You lower them.
ECONOMIIIIIICS
On top of that, why are we gouging fans? We're on national TV more than ever before this season and will presumably be making more TV revenue than ever so why make this change?
Give it 5 years and the hockey team will be playing to a half empty arena with Sweet Caroline blasting over the PA (this may or may not be happening already). Yost was awesome because it was so organic. There were chants the student section came up with, there was a band, and it was packed. That was basically it. Dave Brandon is sucking the life out of Yost and I'm pissed about it too
October 10th, 2013 at 1:27 PM ^
I'm a grad student at UofM after going there for four years as an undergrad. This is my fourth year in the student section. After the renovations last year yost lost something. I dont know what it is, disinterested students, decline in on ice performance, or the aura of "Yost" was just gone. Word on the street is that Student hockey ticket sales are way below normal and could see a large decrease in attendance. One factor I know is contributing is the rise in basketball popularity. Students can only devote time and money into one winter sport and right now the "cool" sport is basketball.
October 10th, 2013 at 1:56 PM ^
I don't think it's just Brandon...The Yost atmosphere has declined for going on 10 years now since they tried to clean up the student section to make it more "family friendly". Yost was different, but it wasn't Dave Brandon that started making changes. There were sides arguing on MGoBlog 4-5 years ago about the See Ya chant, one side saying it was too dirty and the other saying those people were being too PC. That's just the most obvious example to me.
It would also help if we won a national title or two so we could get some of the excitement back that we had in the late 90s and early 2000s. No offense, Red, but I also think we'll kind of hover below elite as you continue to get older and stay behind the bench.
October 10th, 2013 at 12:20 PM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 12:35 PM ^
If you want our sports teams to be good, they need money for things like facilities and uniforms that, in addition to the coaches' recruiting, attract high school kids. A lot of said money comes from ticket sales.
October 10th, 2013 at 12:48 PM ^
The point is, they're now making less money, not more. They have increased the ticket prices, and so fewer people are buying those tickets. Also, sold out arenas are better for recruiting than half-full arenas.
October 10th, 2013 at 12:49 PM ^
Well if that is the case, the athletic department needs to do something else.
October 10th, 2013 at 10:45 PM ^
I don't think money is a big issue for Michigan hockey. Compared to the AD budgets of a lot of our D1 peers, we're basically Richie Rich. Michigan has had a huge advantage in the 90's and 2000's with home ice advantage/atmosphere and the AD is squeezing the life out of it (basketball getting better certainly isn't helping either). We need Yost full, not Dave Brandon's pockets
October 10th, 2013 at 12:47 PM ^