Sabres to Sellout the Season?

Ticket sales are brisk for the Buffalo Sabres this year, and they suspect they will have to cap the number of season tickets available at 14,000 to 14,500. With 12,498 season ticket packages already sold, and another 500-600 in minipacks, the Sabres are at the equivalent of 13,000 season ticketholders. One interesting fact I learned from the article is that because of complimentary tickets for the players and the suite tickets, there are only 17,000 seats available in the Arena for the general public. Not wanting to shut people out who can’t afford seasons, the Sabres will cap the seasons so they can have around 2,500 seats available per game.

While this is good news for the financial health of the team, it changes the dynamics of the Sabres in so many ways. First, the fairly low expectations we had for this team no longer exist. But not only do the expectations change, but the investment by the fanbase changes things as well. Whereas before you had a relatively low number of people shelling out their hard-earned dollars to watch the Sabres, now you have a much higher number. And if the Sabres don’t perform, those fans will get cranky. Three years ago, we were happy just to have a team, but now the fanbase will demand a winning team. And with a sold-out building every night, they will demand a team that spends up to the cap to put the best possible team on the ice, regardless of if the Sabres tell us they are profitable or not.

Also, ticket prices will inevitably rise. When you can buy the cheapseats for $615 a year, or $15 a game, it seems to me those tickets may be underpriced. Shoot, back in the Aud our seasons in the Oranges in the corner were $13 a seat during the last season. Seems to me that just to keep up with inflation those prices will head north. And since those sections are sold-out, it would seem demand is outpacing supply, a sure sign of inflation. When you have people paying even more, judging the value of Sabres tickets versus something they are likely giving up, like dinners out as a family, the pressure they will put on management will increase greatly.

Inevitably, I fear our bandwagon fans will abandon the Sabres rather quickly. If they fail to recreate the magic of last years season, people will drop their tickets. And really, they may equal their performance of last season but I’m not so sure it could possibly “feel” the same. Last year we felt like we were in it together; the players, the fans, and the city. They were kids, and low paid kids at that. Now they’re almost all millionaires, and we are going to be demanding, not imploring, or even hoping.

This isn’t meant to be a downer of a post. The Sabres are going to sell out every game this year, so how can anyone complain? I pointed out three negative issues but there are hundreds of good things coming out of the Sabres success. The Sabres created a new legion of hockey fans this past season that should serve them well through the coming years. I always look back nostalgically on the days in Buffalo when a Sabres ticket was a rare treat. People got them because they “knew somebody,” or they were lining up at 6 a.m. at The Aud to get the tickets being released for the upcoming games. I would love for those days to exist again, when the Sabres ruled the winter in Buffalo. It would mean increased TV and radio revenue plus increased in-house advertising revenue. I imagine those dasherboard ads are easier sells when you’re talking about 18,695 pairs of eyeballs (ed note: Holy Shit! That’s 37,390 total eyeballs!) seeing them every game, plus countless more on TV.

And Buffalo fans have earned their reputation as rabid. Sabres games comprised the majority of OLN’s highest rated games last season, because of obscene ratings in the Buffalo market (which explains their seven appearances on OLN this season, the second-most of any team). Imagine if we still had a regional sports network to sell our TV games to?

What I really want is for the Sabres to become more ingrained into this towns psyche. I always thought we were missing out on a generation of fans who really never got into hockey. I think the period from 2001 until last year was the darkest period in the history of the franchise, and who knows how many kids, how many teenagers, never had the Sabres appear on their radar. Now is the time to capture that audience and introduce them to the absolute thrill that is hockey. Because once you get that in your blood it’s there for good.