I don't believe at all that the pendulum has swung the other way. Factor
#3 below is the one and only reason for the ticket market this year.
Since all fans for the participants pretty much have to fly to Columbus,
it excludes a significant number of fans especially students. You need a
team (any team) within reasonable driving distance. If Michigan or
Cornell had made the Frozen Four ticket sales would be no problem.
I was able to sell my 4 tickets to our sales office in Columbus who will
use them to entertain a customer from the area.
-----Original Message-----
From: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dave Hatfield
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 12:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: FF Ticket Market --- What does it mean?
As someone who is still trying to sell tickets (along with many others),
it's rather obvious the pendulum as swung the other way & supply far
exceeds demand right now. The questions I have are - Why have the
economics changed this year? And will it continue for the foreseeable
future?
Factors for the pendulum swing include, in the order I think they apply
for this year's event:
1. FF Location - larger metropolitan cities closer to the hockey hot
beds
vs. sites like Anaheim, Cincinnati, & Columbus.
2. Teams involved & their relative "attractability" - 4 teams from same
conference may be good for those fans, but not necessarily for wider
hockey fan base. No offense intended to the teams involved this year, or
to the WCHA in general.
3. Distance of teams from FF site - the closer the better, but who can
predict who will be there or how this will play out, unless the site is
far away for just about everyone (see: Anaheim)? Less of a factor for
the
teams with larger die-hard traveling fan bases.
4. Overall U.S. economy - the roaring late-90's, this is not. I think
the
various figures suggest we're no longer in a full-blown recession, but
we're not completely out of it either.
Factors 1 & 3 are totally under the NC$$'s control. The other 2 are out
of
anyone's control.
I don't consider myself a die-hard fan, nor do I consider myself a
speculator. Mainly due to family obligations, I've attended regular
season
games when I could (not just my own team), as well as HE playoffs, &
FF's
in Boston & Providence. Even if I didn't think I'd be able to attend a
FF,
I applied for tickets each year to maintain my priority status, assuming
that selling the tickets wouldn't be a problem. And it never was, until
this year. If I had to sell my tickets, I was never interested in making
a
profit...I just wanted someone else to use them & enjoy the event.
Unfortunately, I cannot take $600 baths financially every year, & with
the
next few FF's moving farther west (which further reduces the likelihood
of
my attendance), I'm probably going to bow out of the lottery & let
others
have a crack at it. I'll take my chances after that...
-Dave
UML'86
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Dave Hatfield
Advisory Software QE Engineer
Lotus Workplace, IBM Software Group
4 Technology Park Drive (Office 2234C), Westford, MA, USA, 01886
Tel: 978.399.7709 // Tieline: 333.7709 // Fax: 978.399.7532
E-mail: [log in to unmask] // AOL IM: dhatfield64
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