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Empty seats in Hockeytown


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That's the thing with Little Caeser's Arena. It's not just an arena. There's a large amount of Red Wings' and Pistons historical artifacts and mementos making the concourse basically a big museum.  Also looks like there's a ton of in arena bars and concessions (no clue if these are sit down or more grab n go). If these are more sit down restaurants, maybe Detroit's going for the Edmonton model of "Let's sell tickets to people so they can stand on the concourse during the game!" (Cause we all know that went real well. But maybe they're on to something). There's also around 2000 T.V.'s in the stadium so you can watch the game from...well everywhere. Apparently people were told to show up an hour before the game to tour around, so maybe people just don't listen (huge surprise).

 

All in all I think it's people checking out the new shiny things. Fans will fill the seats when they are not visiting for the first time.  

 

Sorry for the long rambling.

https://detroit.curbed.com/2017/9/7/16266114/little-ceasars-arena-detroit-photos

LCA%20street%20level%20map.jpg

Edited by clarry85
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I agree with aesthetics playing a role with seat occupancy, however, they're definitely having issues filling the place for Wings games this inaugural season. 

 

Having lived through the recent golden Bowman-era of the Wings, there's been a decreasing lack of buzz around the franchise with each passing season since Scotty left the Wings front office to begin advising his son in Chicago and his adopted son down in TBay.  

 

My guess is that tickets (which have gone up on average between 50-100% over last year at the JLA) aren't helping their case as well.   As with the past 5 or 6 years at Joe Louis, you can purchase standard tickets for virtually every game this season and resale tickets are always available under face value on game days.

 

Devoted fans that are non-season ticket holders and casual fans who are curious about the new building can spend considerably less to get in by seeing the Pistons or picking up resale tickets for concerts or circus acts.

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People who can afford inflated ticket prices are the ones who can spend on concessions. I believe today's model for the best return of a team's arena is not generated by the number of seats occupied but how much revenue a seat can generate while occupied. All Sports continue the trend towards becoming elite institutions that only the wealthy can afford to view personally while most fans use a screen to enjoy the event. Sports is a cash game and as the percentage of the wealthy shrinks, the arena/stadium will focus on servicing the ones who have the cash to spend making it very difficult for the middle-class fan to afford viewing their sport in-person.

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Whatever the explanation may be, it's a shame. I was being generous with my 75% assessment. Some rows had only a 3-4 people in them.

 

As for the people staying on the concourse area explanation, I guess I'm just an old crank, but I can't believe people pay that kind of money to hang out in a glorified shopping mall instead of watching the game.

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Yeah. Last time I was at a Habs game, I was in the section with free food. People who know me IRL know that's a big f*ing deal for me. But you better believe that even in those circumstances, I gave up on my third round of hot dogs when I saw that the puck had dropped and the intermission was over...

 

That concourse does look cool, though.

 

Anyway, I think Salros hit the nail on the head. Sports in general are just not affordable. And you'd think the NHL would capitalize on this by undercutting the other North American leagues... but of course, that assumes that the people managing the league are competent.

Edited by RegDunlop
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I hasn't been surprising but rather predictable I think, immediately after the last cup the organization went from being world class to milk playoff revenue as long as we can mode.  Rather than rebuild the team properly with some fresh young tallent Holland added veteran mediocrity on top of veteran mediocrity for the purposes of making the playoffs bet never really competing again.  So the wings were good enough to make a playoff appearance with moves like the last year of Alfredson's career, or wasting a second rounder on 16 games of David Legwand to cover injuries.  Just to back into the first round and get completely DESTROYED by a competitive team.  The consequences of making the playoffs just to make them and then get destroyed led to late pick position after late pick position.  That is if Hiolland actually saved picks instead of blew them on moves like Legwand or Cole, again just to make the first round not actually compete.

 

Holland's downward spiral lead to a team completely divoid of elite talent that can no longer play a puck possession game which makes for entertaining hockey.  The last elite talent actually bailed with a year left on his contract because he no longer wanted to play on a team that put Dan Cleary and Justin Abdelkater on your wing.  When a team throws a franchise contract at Justin Abdelkater you know you have hit rock bottom.  I can't tell you the last time I watched a readwings game let alone went to the arena to see Holland's dumpster fire.

 

If they start out with some new management like they should have when Yzerman was available we would have a different story.  But the organization wasterd about 7 years of a rebuild window so any actual rebuild they do has to start from scratch when they are ready.  When the team can't manage to stay out of the bottom five and actually stands a shot of landing elite players then the team and arena might become relevant again.

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16 hours ago, fukufuji said:

The last elite talent actually bailed with a year left on his contract because he no longer wanted to play on a team that put Dan Cleary and Justin Abdelkater on your wing.

 

I thought I read he wanted to play in front of his friends and family in Russia before his body gave out.

 

I know it's easy to hate now, but winning was the status quo for the past 26 years in Detroit. Sure, maybe not a Stanley Cup every year, but we got to see the Wings play in April VERY consistently.

 

It's looking pretty bleak right now, I'll admit. But, I wouldn't trade that previous success for anything.

 

 

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A night watching  the habs at bell center should NEVER cost more than the price it  cost to spend  a weekend   at Valcartier  or tremblant ( all inclusive) for me my wife and my 2 daugthers , its just doesnt make sense.

I would assume im  in "middle class" having   a  well l over 125k gross family revenu and spending   around    800$ worth of tickets for  4 + food  so  roughly 1k makes absolutly no sense. And watching from the bleechers  just doesnt cut it might aswell watch it in a sports bar..

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Our current "leaders" here in the US are out of touch: "House Republicans issued a fact sheet about their new tax cut plan that referred to Americans earning $450,000 a year as “low- and middle-income” — even though that income level would put those taxpayers in the top 0.5 percent of all individual Americans. The median household income in the United States is $59,039, after all."

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3 hours ago, Bagwell said:

 

I thought I read he wanted to play in front of his friends and family in Russia before his body gave out.

 

I know it's easy to hate now, but winning was the status quo for the past 26 years in Detroit. Sure, maybe not a Stanley Cup every year, but we got to see the Wings play in April VERY consistently.

 

It's looking pretty bleak right now, I'll admit. But, I wouldn't trade that previous success for anything.

 

 

 

I am not really trying to place myself in the fair weather fan category.  I just can't support an organization that drops its commitment to exellence and dedicates itself to sustained mediocrity just to make the first round as many consecutive years as we can.  That decision set this organization back a decade at the least and completely squandered 6-7 years that could have been used to stock legit talent instead of other team's discarded veterans just to back into the playoffs and say yeay we made it again.

 

I am all for making key trades when you have a legit "cup window" but to me there is no such thing as a "first round window".  Its push for the cup and improve the team or nothing to me.  The post cup post lidstrom team was not going to push for another cup but you would never know it with the trades and signings Holland made.  When you are trading away your first and second rounders and trading down when you have people like Justin Abdelkater playing first line minutes there is a huge disconnect somewhere.  And that disconnect lead this team straight to the bottom where it belongs the way Holland has managed the team.

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