Sonic Youth and the Feelies vs. A Giant Hole of Suck
Photo of the Day, November 23, 2009: Stark
Where Should You Eat? A Fast Food Flowchart
Sports Redux: One Goal, And One Goal Only
Sunday Happenings
Image of an injured Patrice Bergeron (he's better now) labeled "Bostonist" by Flickr user Lorianne DiSabato. The views expressed in this post are not necessarily hers.
When Dennis Wideman wasn't busy chipping the puck from the corner into a four-square box of Phoenix power play attackers, he was standing completely still on the ice. His linemate Zdeno Chara, usually a six-foot-eleven hulk of defensive prowess, played like a petulant bully, throwing punches when he should have been making stick checks. Marc Savard looked like a stoned Kewpie doll. Andrew Ference couldn't keep the puck onside, even during a power play. The team lost, 2-1, to the Phoenix Coyotes.
That's right. The Phoenix Coyotes. A team in 14th place in the Western Conference. A team on the brink of financial collapse. A team whose coach, Wayne Gretzy, might be the only man on the roster that any hockey fan would recognize on the street.
And this was the game where we learned that the 12-game package, which we bought this year, will be no more. The Bruins will only be offering season and single-game tickets next year, joining the ranks of other New England sports teams whose tickets are out of the reach of the average fan: the Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics—you know, the teams that have won championships since 1972.
According to Bruins representatives, the change comes due to a supply problem. Too many fans, or, just as likely, StubHub scalpers prospectors, have been snatching up the season tickets, eager to see the Bruins in postseason action this year, the first in recent memory when they have been good. Six months of good hockey, and the front-runners have priced out the fans. Good luck with that.
The Bruins we saw last night were a team on the brink of collapse, a team that has no business on the ice. A pathetic waste of cash. And between the guileless Bruins ticket representatives, who were touting the increased ticket prices and package cut-backs as a sign of success—mid-recession, mind you—and the usual phalanx of homophobic and racist slurs that await anybody leaving a Bruins game, we decided enough is enough. There's not enough respect in the building—from the team, from the front office, from the fans—to keep our loyalty. (For this week, anyway.)
A single act of courtesy is all we wanted, and we'll admit that we finally got one. A man pissing on the northbound Orange Line platform in North Station managed to keep his urine within a single plastic bottle, which he thoughtfully threw in the trash. Good looking out there.
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I feel as if the Bs are missing out on a brilliant marketing opportunity. Rather than making it harder to get tickets and potentially alienating those who want to see them play, why not make it easier? Keep those packages, be reasonable with prices and make Bruins hockey the place where Boston fans can (relatively) easily go to see live pro sports in town.
Right now, demand is so high for the other sports that people are lucky if they can go to a game or two each year. So make hockey the people's sport, the one you can actually get to and follow live over the course of a season. Not only with hockey fans get on board, but people who might only have passing interest in the game will feel more inclined to check things out and perhaps fall in love with the sport themselves.
If only they had Commuter Rail service, the Revolution could totally be the people's team!
While I agree that they looked like girls last night, you're being a bit harsh on the ticket stuff.
They didn't raise the prices for any seats besides those on the glass. (In fact, my seats went down a tiny bit).
They started a 10-month season ticket payment plan as opposed to the six month plan they had before.
So, sure, they're looking terrible the last couple weeks... but they're offing ticket holders a little more than in past years. They'll bounce back soon and be the killer B's once again.
(hopefully)
While season ticket prices are staying the same, if you renew, single-game tickets are all going up an average of $3 a pop. Buying season tickets for the first time is going to be more expensive than it was this year.
That's fine. It's not the ticket cost increase that burns me. It's that they're doing away with the smaller packages that allow poorly paid bloggers to attend a bunch of games. I can't afford much more than a 12-game package (although, if I went down the dark road of ticket scalping, I imagine I could subsidize a season ticket a bit), and there is little chance that next year I'll get to catch the Red Wings, Flyers, Caps, Habs, Devils, and Sharks. Those tickets are going to be on StubHub for a steep mark-up.
I'm just saying: I ponied up for Bruins tickets even though I thought the team was going to suck (again) because I like hockey and I like rooting for the home team. Next season, I'll be lucky to catch a few games against the dregs of the league.
My boyfriend & I also bought a 12-game package this year, which is how I took the pic illustrating this post. I live in New Hampshire during the week & can't make it down to Boston for midweek games, so a weekend plan is the only way we can go to multiple games.
Last year, we bought single-game tickets & went to "only" a handful of games, so the Bs definitely made more money from us this year by "up-selling" us to a 12-game package. If we had bought individual tickets this year, we wouldn't have chosen to go to so many games. So if the Bs are trying to get actual fans (rather than scalpers) to go to fewer games next year, they're succeeding.
Last year, we went to a handful of Celtics games before those tickets became impossible to get, and sure enough, we've been watching the Cs on TV this year. We've already established a yearly ritual of traveling to see the Red Sox on the road (last year, Oakland; this year, Atlanta) since tickets to Fenway are such a hot commodity. We started following the Revolution last year because we knew that would be the only way we could afford to set foot into Gillette Stadium, and this year we upped our multi-game package to season tickets because Revs tickets are still affordable & the sales staff treats fans well.
In other words, we love the Bruins, but we're primarily sports fans, and we vote with our feet. If we can't afford baseball tickets, we'll spend the summer watching soccer. If we can't afford Celtics tickets, we'll go to Boston College basketball games. If we can't afford Bruins tickets, we'll go watch BC men's hockey. We love going to Bruins games, but we don't love getting squeezed out of our seats by scalpers and price-gouging sales tactics. If we can't afford to see the Bs in person, take our business elsewhere.
They could suck again next year. JJ could reward a great year with a yard sale. It happened before.
It would be a nice gift to the scalpers--a clutch of season tickets they can't sell.