Rob The Hockey Guy

I don’t know it for sure, but I believe the Canucks sellout streak is over at Rogers Arena. Now, the Canucks aren’t admitting this, and the game notes on Canucks.com for tonight’s game claim that they have 322 consecutive sellouts. But over the last little while I’ve noticed a few things that make me doubt the current sellout streak.

Let me tell you about them…

“Tickets just released!”

This screen capture is a familiar image on Canucks.com lately. “Tickets just released”! Were they “just” released? Were they always just hanging around? It’s unsure to me, but it seems odd that they manage to release extra tickets for about 80% of their home games.

The screen capture was taken at noon today, a mere seven hours before game time. There are still tickets available, although not many. What about against Nashville next month? There are hundreds. Right now you can buy tickets for $66.

Advertising

If the Canucks are indeed sellout out Rogers Arena, why are they advertising heavily? Listeners of Team 1040 have heard it, whether it be through official advertising or unofficial advertising through the mouth of Dave Pratt. It’s the first time in a while the Canucks have advertised mid-season.

PA Announcement at Rogers Arena

Or should I say lack of an announcement at Rogers Arena? In the last handful of games at Rogers Arena I’ve noticed no mention of their sellout streak. This isn’t something that I’d expect Canucks Sports and Entertainment to stop mentioning, unless perhaps because they have nothing to announce anymore.

Ticket Prices

If the sellout streak is indeed over, it should not be an indictment of the Vancouver hockey fans. Canucks Sports and Entertainment is squeezing all they can out of the hockey fans in this city and they’ve gone too far (a little known fact is that playoff ticket prices were so high last year that they had to do some tap dancing to fill all the seats). Fans in this city pay through the nose for tickets. Fans in this city have to pay some of the highest ticket prices in the league. It would be totally understandable if there is a lack of a market to pay $131 for the last row of the lower bowl to see Columbus on a Wednesday night.

The End Result

The end result is that Francesco Aquilini is a very rich man and he’s getting richer. He has every right to do it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be pissed about it. By no means are there many empty seats at games nowadays, but they certainly don’t sellout in an hour like they used to. If they haven’t priced the average guy out of the building, they’ve certainly priced him out of the lower bowl.