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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