Before True North’s press conference devolved into a lengthy sales pitch for season tickets, there was an air of justice and patriotism in the crowd. I really sensed that a wrong was being righted, similar to the way a wrongly convicted man was getting his release. Of course, it’s borderline ludicrous to compare the two, but that’s the passion in Winnipeg right now. They’re getting NHL hockey back in town. Whether it remains there depends on how they sell out. And by selling out, I mean season tickets. 13,000 to be exact in a 15,000-seat arena. If True North can feed on this passion, MTS Centre will be the toughest ticket in Canada for years to come.
Notice how there's no team name? They haven't picked one yet. Um, Jets?
True North kicked off the sales campaign by launching a website, Driveto13.com. It describes the pricing plans, sales dates, and terms. There’s even a toteboard for fans and media to keep track of progress, and True North will be sending out a press release every afternoon with an update.
Winnipeg is a tiny market, with only 700,000 within its metro. It’s actually smaller than San Mateo County. Despite the passion for hockey in Winnipeg and throughout Manitoba, the NHL is most concerned with whether that passion can properly counterbalance that size problem. To assuage Gary Bettman’s concerns, True North is putting a few terms on ticket purchasers which should, if successful, address the franchise’s long-term viability in Winnipeg.
Prices are reasonable, we swear
These prices are consistent with those of other Canadian teams. However there is a catch.
A three-day presale will be afforded to season ticket holders for the Manitoba Moose AHL team, who were brought in when the Jets left for Phoenix. These ticket holders should be prepared for some sticker shock, as the highest priced seat package for the NHL team will be 3.5x the price of the same seats for the Moose. After the presale period ends the general sale begins, and that’s when it’ll get interesting. The NHL Board of Governors has to approve the move. Rest assured that they and Bettman will be looking at the toteboard with a critical eye.
Locking the fans in
To head off concerns about viability, True North is attempting to lock in season ticket buyers for up to 5 years.
An interesting tack being taken by True North is a mandate of multiyear commitments for season tickets. This is where the rubber meets the road, as it will demonstrate how far Winnipeggers’ passion will stretch. A median-priced seat in the lower bowl end or corner will require an outlay of over $14,000 over four years. The best seats will cost twice as much over five years. Only the worst season ticket pricing levels will have the option for half-season plans. To make the price easier to swallow, True North is also advertising monthly payment plans, which for the purposes of comparison amounts to the cost of a car payment (depending on how luxurious the car). Nominal deposts will also be required. One thing not part of the conversation is the dreaded personal seat license, which is a good move given the stigma associated with PSLs.
These are aggressive moves and goals for True North and Winnipeg. We’ll see soon see if the fan response translates into chopping away into the 13,000 goal over the summer. As for the team name, I hope the Jets are available. If not, I have a suggestion.
(BTW, I don’t really care for the name “Polar Bears”. I needed an excuse to insert the clip.)
There are also some potentially good takeaways for the A’s, and especially ballpark supporters in Oakland, a city that has limitations like Winnipeg (though not as severe). If a goal can be set, perhaps 15,000 season tickets, with 3-5 year commitments, that would go a long way towards convincing Bud Selig and the owners that Oakland is viable. The same could also go for San Jose, in that it would prove that the T-rights battle is worth it. In any case, though it’s tough to see hockey leave Atlanta a second (and final) time, it’s nice to see that hockey is back in Winnipeg, where it belongs. Good luck, Manitobans.
newballpark.org 
Too bad for Atlanta but nobody wanted to own a team there. But the Winnipeg building, built about 5 years ago, will seat fewer than 15,000 for the NHL. The Sharks building, already one of the league’s smallest, seats 17,562. Give it a half-season before the NHL demands a new building “up to NHL standards.” Meanwhile, The Hockey News reports that players don’t want to go to Winnipeg: ice cold weather, fish bowl existence. Compare that to San Jose: great weather, Bay Area attractions, rock star status at game time and anonymity at the Safeway.
I’m sure there would be no problem selling 13K+ season tickets in San Jose.
OT: Looks like 95.7 shook up the schedule a little:
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6a-10a: The Monty Show
10a-1p: Scott Jackson
1p-3p:Rob, Arnie & Sports
3p-6p:Chris Townsend
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The difference is the swapping of CT and RA&S. On days with night games, CT used to have to go from 1p-4p and then come back to do a 1/2 hour pregame show around 6p, followed by another hour or two of the post-game show. That made for a really long day. With the new schedule, he gets to start at 3p and go directly into the pregame show at or before 6p, and then finish with the post-game show afterward. He gets about two hours of his life back, which is huge considering the amount of time he puts into the radio over the span of 162 games.
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On day games, it looks like he’d do his pregame show around 11:30a or so and then do the post-game show, which would could end before 6p. An earlier start, but he ends at about the same time.
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I like the fact that CT is now on during a big chunk of the evening commute. That should help with the ratings, since it’ll be a non-Giants-centric station during the time of the day that most radios are on. RA&S are more shock-jockey, but I think it’s easier to find that on the radio than it is to find more of an East-Bay friendly host.
@ML
The long term commitment strategy is interesting. However, I would point out that the Raiders PSL contracts gave fans, not only the right, but also the obligation to buy season tickets for all ten years of the PSL term. Yet to my knowledge the Raiders, not exactly shy about litigating, made no effort to have this provision enforced when fans began turning in their season tickets only a year or two later. I assume this was due to practical problems with trying to enforce this type of provision against regular fans (as opposed to corporate seat buyers) and also the negative effect such action would have had on future PSL sales. Still, the Raiders experience suggests this approach might be a shaky foundation to build an NHL future in Winnipeg on.
@A’s fan–if VC gets the thumbs up and can be done, I believe they can sell 13k season tix easy too. It would also help if LW/JF would be out of the picture and sold. When Finley sold to Haas, attendance spiked over night.
Hey, JK: Will you buy games in San Jose, too? I’ll buy for either Oakland or SJ. How about you? (Of course, there’s this little matter of no funding available for a VC ballpark from either the public or private sectors. Never mind moving out the 16 businesses and building the infrastructure first.)
bb66-I was a PSL holder for the last couple years of the time that they were in effect (bought them off someone else which wound up saving me money in the cost of season tickets). The PSL’s did not “force” anyone to buy tickets. They were a license that allowed fans to purchase tickets, not a mechanism for a multi-year contract where they were obligated to purchase them. If you stopped paying up, you forfeited the license and that was that.
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The Redskins, for one, have been notorious for getting upper deck seat-holders to sign 10-year contracts for overpriced club seats, and then suing them once they can’t pay. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/02/AR2009090203887.html
@pjk-I think we discussed this before, but unless Cisco wants to jump on the VC site, I will not be attending games at Cisco Field be it San Jose or Fremont. I’ll be done with the team. SJ A’s will NEVER be the same. I’ll cherish the great times I had at the Coliseum the last 40 years, 1200+ attended games, 15 playoff years, 4 out of 6 WS wins, the Mustache Gang, the Bash Brothers, Celebrate, Krazy George and the Wave, Banjo Guy, Colossal Dogs, great tail-gating with other A’s fans, the Haas Family, Rickey, Eck,20 game win streak, Bill King, even the homers Monte Moore and Ray Fosse. You may try to take my team away but won’t take my memories!
Well, I guess jk-usa has shown his true colors.
so… 13k represents about 86% of capacity. For something equivalent in the A’s case it would be over 30,000 season ticket holders. 13k wouldn’t be the target for a privately financed stadium in Oakland or San Jose, it would be much higher (while probably not 30k either).
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To put some context around it… Charter Seats represented 20% of the funding at AT&T Park.
@Brian Certainly the PSL Agreement gave season ticket holders the right to buy tickets for the term. However, as one of the original PSL holders in ’95, my recollection is that my PSL contract had language buried in the boilerplate specifically obligating me to keep buying tickets for the entire term.
I suspect I was unusual in actually reading the entire Agreement all the way through (including the microtype boilerplate), and most fans probably thought the Agreement read exactly as you describe. After all, that would be the fair and reasonable thing, and that’s how most season ticket arrangements work. And in the end, from a practical standpoint, that’s how the Raiders/OFMA actually administered it. But I remember coming across that provision and it giving me pause as to whether I actually wanted to go forward with the purchase or not.
I’m at work right now, but when I get home I’ll look and see if I still have a copy of the original agreement to confirm my recollection. If so, I’ll report back.
@jeffro–i recall the A’s having 15k season tix holders back in the good times(89-91). Averaged 33-36k per. Very few crowds under 20k. I can see that at VC for the first 3-5 years for a so-so team. We’re around 5k this year. In the brutal late 70’s (my HS years), it was under 700 season tix I believe. It will be interesting to see the drop off in Minn next year if this dreadful year continues. They’ll sell the out most of this year I hear. Season tix capped at 25k. G’s are at 28k, and will sell out all probably.
Not only are Giants season tickets essentially sold at but they also have variable rate prices for each game. There is so much demand that they can make additional money on it that adds to their bottom line. In the A’s case, they have to essentially give away the tickets and then rake in the charity from MLB teams.
@brian OK, I found my old Raider PSL contract. Here’s what it says in Section 1.1:
“Subject to all of the provisions of this Agreement, each PSL entitles AND OBLIGATES Licensee to purchase, for the seat(s) assigned to the PSL(s)(the “Seat(s)”), general admission football tickets on a season-by-season basis (the “Season Tickets”) to ALL (AND NOT LESS THAN ALL) pre-season, regular season and post-season home games of Raiders at the Stadium (collectively, the “Games”) AFTER THE DATE OF THIS AGREEMENT AND THROUGH THE END OF THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE (“NFL”) SEASON SPECIFIED ON THE SIGNATURE PAGE (THE “TERM”).”
(emphasis added; apologies for the all caps but I don’t know how to do bold or italics)
For reference, the “NFL season specified on the signature page” was 2005. Thus, the “Term” was 1995 through 2005, and PSL-holders were contractually obligated to buy tickets to all (and not less than all) Raider home games played at the Coliseum during the Term.
Now, as stated before, when it came down to it nobody actually tried to enforce this provision, and season ticket holders were allowed to relinquish their PSLs. But I always wondered why the Raiders/OFMA bothered to write this provision into the contract in the first place, if they weren’t going to enforce it. So far as I can tell, our local media, doing their usual bang-up job of reporting on legal issues, never noticed or reported on this.
So again, it does raise the question of just how much the “long term commitments” being sought for Winnipeg are really worth.
In 2011 it does not matter the sheer # of season ticket holders anymore. Its about getting the most $$ out of the expensive seats via sales of corporate suites/premium seating, club seat sales, and naming rights.
The A’s could average 35,000 fans a game in Oakland but still be making less $$ with 25,000 fans in San Jose because Silicon Valley is in its backyard.
The A’s need big dollars to build the ballpark privately like the Giants did in 2000. In Oakland that is not happening because if it was it would happened already….Oakland next year will be the LAST dual purpose stadium in MLB…that is flat out sad.
Crazy idea….Why don’t the Giants move to San Jose and build in the Downtown and the A’s take over ATT Park?? I say as a Giants fan Bill Neukom makes me want to throw up….
I am sorry, I meant to say “The A’s could average 35,000 fans in Oakland but still be making MORE $$ with 25,000 fans in San Jose because Silicon Valley is in htis backyard”.
BTW…Good for Winnipeg, in Atlanta the Rodeo and NASCAR are sold out all day but the Hawks, Thrashers, and Braves get so few fans despite the Hawks/Braves being good.
Winniped will support them because Hockey is King in Canada and its Winnipeg’s only team and they will not let another team leave.
Finally the NHL gets out of a loser market that they should have never been in. Phoenix and Nashville are coming soon….
@Sid–Atlanta has never been a good sports town. The Olympics kind of sucked out there too.
@ML – OT – Your attendance figures appear to disagree with what I have. Not that it’s a huge deal at this point but I just figured I’d point it out to you.
You currently have 27 home games when, in fact, they have played 28. I thought at first that you just didn’t update the last Yankee game but that 22k figure was yesterday’s. If we base the figures on 28 home games I have the following:
2011 – 519,522 for an average of 18,554. (Hm 14-14 – Rd 13-15 – Rec 27-29)
2010 – 517,501 for an average of 18,482. (Hm 18-10 – Rd 11-17 – Rec 29-27)
2009 – 489,143 for an average of 17,469. (Hm 15-13 – Rd 11-17 – Rec 26-30)
2011 would be +72 over 2010 and +1,085 over 2009.
Similarly, if we base the results on 27 home games I have the following:
2011 – 496,941 for an average of 18,405. (Hm 14-13 – Rd 13-15 – Rec 27-28)
2010 – 495,798 for an average of 18,363. (Hm 18-9 – Rd 11-17 – Rec 29-26)
2009 – 478,962 for an average of 17,739. (Hm 14-13 – Rd 11-17 – Rec 25-30)
2011 would be +42 over 2010 and +666 over 2009.
Just an FYI so that you can check your numbers.
@Columbo – Thanks for catching that. I had for some reason left out Saturday night’s attendance. Added back in it all lines up properly. If anyone’s interested, I often use this link at The Sports Network to double-check on occasion. Data usually comes straight off the boxscores when I have time to view them.
@ML – No problem. I’d be happy to keep track of this for you as it is something that I do anyway in my limited spare time. I usually get my info from 2 sources — ESPN and Baseball Reference just to make sure they are accurate.
Either way its still 28th out of 30 teams—nothing to write home about…again
@jk-usa- Atlanta is not a bad sports town it is just a over saturated one where people have different priorities.
People there would rather watch the Rodeo and NASCAR over the NBA, NHL, and MLB. NFL is the one exception but that is because there are so few games.
In California no way the Rodeo and NASCAR get any flack at all….That would be a cold day in hell in the Bay Area or LA for that matter.
San Jose does not have that problem with saturation. People want to watch games and right now Oakland and SF for that matter are too far away to consistently go.
The “Jets” Logo. The reason there is no logo on any of their graphics is because the Phoenix Coyotes still own the trademarks for Winnipeg Jets and the logo as well. Should be interesting to see if the Yotes sell that back or just decide to keep it.
Coyotes are owned by the NHL at the moment
ML, this is off-topic but I thought you’d find it interesting:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/athletics/ci_18187972?source=rss
In that article, Poole asserts in a throwaway line at the end of the piece that, according to Forbes, the A’s ownership group is the fourth-wealthiest in baseball, ahead of even John Henry of the Red Sox. That didn’t seem to pass the sniff test to me…is it true? I can’t remember reading about Fisher’s wealth on here. Do you find that “4th-wealthiest” figure significant? Thank you for your thoughts.