Ticket Prices rise again- some up over 20% (over 100% in 4 years)

. The fans are treated with more respect than they are with other organizations ticket departments (like the Nats).

Actually, I’ve had a very good experience with the Nats between last season and this. I had a couple of 5 packs last year, so I got a call from a marketing rep last summer. In November, he contacted me again, and answered my questions about exchanging tickets. As a result, I got together with a friend to get a 21 game package for the two of us. When I called to make to purchase, my rep spent a good 25 minutes with me on the phone to pick out the best seats available to fit our concerns (3rd base side, certain parts of the row, certain distance from the glass and so forth.) Granted, as far as the Nats are concerned, I’m a new season ticket holder, but I feel like they went out of their way work with me.

I still don’t think that chart is accurate and still does not tell the whole picture.

They automatically sign you up for some AHL BS that you have to opt out of, and $12 shipping and handling. I love the push for all airlines to include all applicable fees at booking. I wish that would apply everywhere.

I have the same concerns about foreigners (read: out of town fans) in our seats… Heck, over the last couple years, our section has seen additional headaches from foreigners that we didn’t have to go through since Hanlon. I wish we could get a better show of support from Monumental. The past 2 years, this team seems to have been taking large chunks of the season off, for whatever reason, yet we still have to pay and watch the godawful games from Nov —> Jan/Feb. The quality of product on the ice is diminishing, yet the output from our wallet is increasing.

I proposed to Guest Services/ted’s e-mail the following that I think should be SOP around the country:
Miss Playoffs, Tickets reduce in price
Make Playoffs, tickets stay the same
x% increase for each series win

Unfortunately, something like that is way too fan centric to ever see the light of day anywhere. While I think $70/game just for seats near the top of the arena is way too excessive, I can stomach it if the product on the ice is good. The justification that we’re “middle of the pack” in ticket prices is, imo, ignoring the fact that this is traditionally NOT a middle-of-the-pack Hockey market. So goes Ovie, so goes the Team AND the fans.

Here are my reasons:
1. There is a STH waiting list of folks who will buy these tickets if and when a current Caps STH can’t renew for whatever reason.
2. The Caps are the best franchise in town, over the Redskins, over the Nats (for now), and over the other Monumental Sports teams with the Wizards and Mystics. There is a premium to be paid for teams performing well in an otherwise bad sports city (at least the teams suck).
3. The Washington-Baltimore area is one of the most affluent areas in the country and the two areas combine create the fourth largest metro area in the country. If anything, Ted could argue that the Caps should be charging considerably more for season and gate price tickets. Forget about whether DC is a “hockey market” or not. Right now, it is.
4. Ted has acknowledged the secondary ticket market more openly than a lot of other teams, and he also acknowledges the fact that many STH’s share regardless of where they sit. He’s not an idiot to think that the same guys or gals will use their same tickets for all 41 games. Therefore, he knows that when people split their tickets, it’s “more affordable” because people just go to the games they can go to at the STH rate.

I’m undecided. While I dislike the price increases personally, if there is a waitlist of people ready to buy season tickets, I can’t really blame them for increasing the prices. It’s up to me to decide whether its worth it or not.

Still, it would be nice if he could throw us a bone though. I remember in the first season after the lockout when my tickets were about $17 each. It’s getting harder for me to justify continuing on as the price has more than doubled since then. I seem to remember thinking that Caps fans wouldn’t be gouged so much once Ted got ownership of the Verizon Center and the Wizards. So much for that.

Gotta disagree here. First and foremost, Ted is running a business and if the demand for season tickets exceeds the supply, then prices go up. As interactive as Ted is as an owner, this isn’t a personal relationship. The consumer will ultimately decide how much tickets cost. If the year over year price increases caused a huge drop in renewals, then prices would hold steady or be reduced. So far that hasn’t happened.

Shit. reply fail. this was supposed to be under the above comment.

I agree with your general theme, which is that between the ticket prices, concessions and parking it’s bloody murder. If they really wanted to give the fans something back how about lopping 50% off the top? But I digress.

Will you renew anyway? The only way this will ever change is if people, en masse, say, “enough”. However, the supply of tickets, relative to everything else in the world, is small enough that they never have to worry about that happening.

The season tickets can be your personal Joel Ward.

1) There may or may not be a real “waiting list” for season tix, but if like many of you regulars know, the VC has been anything but sold out this season compared to the past couple of years. (Regardless of that faux-sell out streak)
2) How many games are there literally thousands of empty seats? How many of you who regularly sell your tix are having troble unloading them or getting less than face value for them?
3) Bottom line is DEMAND is waning, and unless the team suddenly and dramaticly rebounds, makes the playoffs and wins a couple of rounds interest will continue to diminish.
4) Probably the decision to raise prices was made before it became a good possibility the team would miss the playoffs. Ted may have to rethink this and I wouldn’t be shocked to hear(not directly from the team) that renewal rates are down. First clue will be when your rep tells you that there are better seats available on the annual “pick a seat” day in the summer. In recent past there were almost none.

The secondary market is slow, but it’s only been that way for the 2nd half of this season. I’ve had no problem moving unused tickets the first half of this season in seats similar to the original poster’s. It’s been about five weeks of less-than-stellar sales versus several years of almost automatic sales.

The lack of secondary sales is not due to team performance per se, but team identity. This team went from “young and rebuilding” to “upstarts” to “winners.” This season, and especially after Bruce was fired, what are they? Without an identity (even “rebuilding” or “reinventing”), no one knows what they’re buying when they buy a ticket. Until this team has an identity, secondary sales will slump regardless of price. Maybe they’ll get in the post season and be "Cinderella."

This isn’t just about ticket prices, but it is becoming a real pain to deal with Metro to get home from games. 7:30 starts seem to coincide with night Metro starts track work at 10. If the game has been reasonably fun to watch, the wait for the train doesn’t seem so long. (especially if we start at 7 and the game is over around 9:30). But after the Winnipeg game (which went south in the last 4 minutes), the wait for the train was 20 minutes instead of 10, and after the let down of the game, it seemed like an hour.

Right now I have a full season package for myself. The combination of increased ticket prices, less reliable Metro service (and no, driving to games at Verizon is not feasible for me) and a frustrating to watch team is making my decision about renewing my package a lot more difficult.

Looking for someone interested in 1/3 of a season in Mezz End (attack). ~$1000 for 2 tickets to 14 games

I agree with it up to a certain point. When the team is getting a lot better and more exciting, yeah raise the prices.

But when the team is underachieving (put nicely) and playing simply boring hockey, don’t raise prices.

If next year is another stinker, with an under-achieving roster, the following year will tell the tale. It will look like pre 2006 with more empty seats than you can imagine.
It’s the on-ice product – not the “game experience”.

One thing that has confused me a little is the timing of the renewal deadline. I’ve only ever had season tickets for the Caps, so I have nothing to compare against – but are all other NHL STH given a mid-March deadline to renew? That has always seemed early to me. Are Nats STH told to renew in September? Skins in December? Wiz in April? I don’t know why they can’t allow STHs to decide during the offseason.

DC Sports Bog article about upper deck ticket pricing from last June.

It gives me no pleasure to think back to what I said then. Unfortunately, neither the economy nor the Caps playoff prospects look much different.

If the economy and/or the Caps playoff prospects don’t look different in March (when full season renewals come up) than they do now, I wonder if demand might drop some. Especially in the upper deck, where long term fans might be feeling some sticker shock, whether or not they make six figures.

My gut feeling is that by March, I’ll know if the team has fixed the power play, gotten past the concentration errors, and given some indication that they don’t intend to be outworked, outhustled and outplayed, which will give me some hope for team’s playoff prospects.

Not to agree or disagree on the subject of fairness, but you may have been reading the chart wrong…?

For Mezzanine corner (your stated section), $35 is the new STH ticket fee. If you renew on time (by March 15) then you’ll pay the renewal fee, which is $32 per ticket.

(Assuming of course that I’m reading all this right).

Fair or Unfair…I’m really undecided, but I think time will tell.

You can talk about operating costs and desire to create the best fan experience and blah, blah, blah, but the bottom line is economics and supply and demand.

1st, the Caps are very smart to put the renewal deadline well before the playoffs actually start every year — that way you can’t base your decision on the outcome of the current season. How many folks would have decided differently in the past few years if they could have decided whether or not to renew after the playoffs? I think quite a few. Those early playoff losses can be emotionally frustrating on fans, and I’d bet many of us would more likely to say “to hell with this!” after losing in 7 games to the 8th seeded Canadiens, than they would when the team was poised to win the Presidents’ trophy just a few weeks prior.

2nd, any team in any sport is going to sell their tickets at a price that (a) is competitive with surrounding markets and (b) one that they feel people will actually purchase. In the case of the Caps, they’ve been a very hot ticket lately. Maybe they haven’t sold out every game this year, but I’m willing to be paid attendance is still over 95% for every game. If you have a product that sells consistently well, you’re certainly not going to LOWER the price…

Having said that, IF the Caps don’t make the playoffs this year or IF the performance of the team hasn’t improved by this time next year, I can almost guarantee that the prices will freeze…but as long as the team is winning and they know people will buy, I can only assume they’ll keep raising the prices each year.

As a STH, do I like rising ticket prices? No. No I do not. Am I surprised by it? Nope, not at all. The Caps front office isn’t gonna care whether or not I think it’s fair either, especially if there’s someone in line behind me to buy my tickets should I choose not to renew. When that’s no longer the case…I’ll expect ticket prices to go down a bit.