Marketing genius

The St. Louis Blues hockey organization has developed what I think is an amazing idea to get people in the seats. They have dubbed it the 'Every Game Counts' package. Here's the deal: you buy season tickets and pay half the cost. If the team makes the playoffs, you pay the other half of the cost. The cheap seats, if you only have to end up paying for half the games, is four hundred and fifty dollars. There are forty one home games throughout the season, so that would end up being about eleven dollars a game, which ain't all that bad. However, that doesn't count concessions. On the other hand, if they make the playoffs (and they missed the playoffs by five points [which isn't much for you non-hockey people out there]) you will end up paying about twenty two dollars per game. And for cheap seats, that could be stretching it. For the more expensive seats, if they made the playoffs, you could end up paying just under nineteen hundred dollars. Yeah, that's nineteen with two zeroes behind it.

One reason why I think this is a great idea is because it'll get people invested in the team. By the way, they have already sold about two hundred of the six hundred tickets they are making available for this promotion. So there are some people out there who think that this is a great idea. You could have a group of people who enjoy hockey but have never wanted to buy season tickets. With this deal now, you can gather a couple of friends, pool the money, and split the cost. It's cheaper that way, even if they do end up in the playoffs, as opposed to buying the tickets by yourself. So the casual fans are sitting around the bar one night getting drunk, like you do, and they hear about this. Before you know it, they are seriously considering it. It's cost efficient, and it's a group of people, with some cash flow, that wouldn't have done it in the first place.

The bigger concern with markets like St. Louis is making ends meet. With all the contracts for the players, the cost for upkeep of the building, the cost for the coaching staff, private jet, all of that goes through the organization and the owners of the Blues. Now, if you get people to invest in this crazy idea, you could be making more money than you usually would. If you make more money, you'll have a higher interest. The St. Louis Blues have had a faithful following (from what I can gather), but they haven't always been able to trade for talent because they haven't had the money. Because they haven't been able to go after the big name players, or the most talented players, they haven't been able to compete for Lord Stanley's Cup. It's a simple formula. More money equals better players plus happy fan base.

The obvious risk here (for the organization) is the team not making the playoffs. They'll be losing half of their sales from these tickets for the 'Every Game Counts' packages. Granted, they are still making money from the single game ticket sales and the smaller package sales that they have, but this is still a ballsy move. From the fan base, if it were me and I bought into this idea, I would be kind of pissed that the team made the playoffs because that'll mean ponying up the second half of the cost. So you would have to keep that in mind and start stashing the money away. However, I would be happy that the team would make the playoffs. I would also want first crack at home playoff tickets being a season ticket holder.





Bu then again, I'm selfish like that.