Craig Cooper thought about it, at least for a minute or two: renew his two season tickets with the New England Patriots or forgo them? Business has slowed for Cooper, a general contractor from Cape Elizabeth. Plus, he has a daughter who’s a freshman at Syracuse University. And at about $1,200 a seat, plus game-day expenses, the Patriots tickets aren’t cheap. Something has to give, right? Well “Every year for the last 12 years it’s been a no-brainer, renew them,” said Cooper, 56. “It was not even a thought until this year. But, yeah, I still did it. These are hard to come by.” The recession is forcing everyone to think twice before making any major purchases. But fans who love their teams are finding ways to get their tickets. And Portland’s three professional franchises — the American Hockey League’s Portland Pirates, baseball’s Double-A Portland Sea Dogs, and the yet-to-be named NBA Development League basketball franchise — can attest to that. Fearful they would suffer under this economy, the minor league teams have found that their fan base and corporate partners are still strong. “You’d have to be crazy not to be concerned about the economy,” said Jon Jennings, president and general manager of the D-League team. “But I feel really good about where we are right now.” And he should. The D-League team has already sold about 400 season tickets, including all of the high-end — and high-priced — Hollywood court-side seats ($70 each), as well as all the eight court-side suites, which include six seats ($45 each), a parking pass, the chance to shoot around on the parquet floor before pregame warm-ups, and in-seat food service. Hollywood seating also includes similar amenities. “That’s the exact opposite of what I thought would happen,” said Jennings. “I was concerned, in this economy, whether the high-priced suites would go. But people are excited about them.” The addition of a basketball team worried some that it would force fans to chose between Portland’s three teams and cut into attendance. Godfrey Wood, CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber, doesn’t see it as an issue. “To have three (teams) is a true blessing for Portland,” said Wood. “And there is plenty of room for (three teams) in this economy. None compete for the same fan base. Their only competition really is for families with young children, and people can chose to go to all three, or pick their favorite.” ATTENDANCE STILL OK Attendance for the Pirates (4,719 per game) is down by an average of about 150 fans this year, but that’s in line with the AHL’s overall attendance, which is off by a little over 100 fans per game. In addition, season-ticket sales for 2009-10 have already generated between $30,000 and $40,000, a nod to the team’s lower ticket prices and installment payment plans. “We wanted to make sure price did not enter into the decision (to buy season tickets),” said Brian Petrovek, the managing owner and CEO of the Pirates. “The combination of our new prices and more options to pay has helped.” Ticket sales for the Sea Dogs are steady, if a little slower than last year. For example, the Sea Dogs offer packages that include five home games at Hadlock Field and one at Fenway Park to see the Red Sox. In years past, the Sea Dogs offered two such packages (of 50-75 tickets each). This year they offered three, of between 75 and 100 tickets each. Normally the packages sell out in two weeks. This year, it took over a month. Chris Cameron, the Sea Dogs’ assistant general manager of media relations, attributed that “partly to the economy, partly because we have more to offer.” Charlie Eshbach, the Sea Dogs president, said the team may not sell as many advance tickets as in the past, “but when all is said and done, we’ll probably sell as many tickets as we usually do. We’re a good low-cost alternative.” Petrovek calls…
tickets “the lifeblood” of the franchise. While corporate sponsorships bring in much needed cash for the team’s bank account, the team will suffer if attendance lags.
That’s why Petrovek is in the process of hiring two people for his sales staff.
The decision to reduce ticket prices and offer new payment plans was an easy one, he said. The Pirates reduced their most expensive tickets from $20 to $15. Other seats have been reduced from $17 to $15 and from $13 to $12.
“There’s always a risk when you lower prices that you’re not going to pick up volume,” he said. “But we feel we’re going to do that. We’re out (selling next year’s season tickets) earlier than we ever have before.”
Even with their small drop in attendance, Petrovek believes the Pirates will come out of this season all right. “At the end of the season I believe we’ll be close to last year, which I’ll be pleased with considering the economy,” he said. “We’re doing far better than some teams in our league.”
The Manchester Monarchs and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are both down about 900 fans per game.
“We’re keeping an eye on the economy,” said Jason Chaimovitch, vice president of communications for the AHL. “Our teams are aware of it and doing their part to help, alleviating costs in any way — ticket promotions, cutting season tickets (prices).”
KEEPING TICKETS AFFORDABLE
Minor league baseball, meanwhile, is coming off a season in which it set an attendance record for the fifth consecutive year. The Sea Dogs haven’t averaged fewer than 6,210 fans per game since 2003 — the year they became affiliated with the Boston Red Sox.
Capacity at Hadlock Field over that time has increased to 7,368. In 2003, the Sea Dogs had 36 sellouts; last season, they still had 27. Eshbach doesn’t think that’s by accident.
“First off, we’re affordable,” he said. “Second, minor league baseball has gotten better. The quality of presentation, the quality of facilities and the quality of management has improved. And it’s good family entertainment. In this day and age, that’s a pretty good combination.”
And, Eshbach emphasized, “We sell summer. That’s easy to sell.”
Especially in Maine, where long winters and cool springs tend to leave fans restless for nights out. “I think that’s one of the reasons we do so well in April and May,” said Eshbach. “We don’t draw as much as we do in the summer, but compared to the rest of the league, we do really well. After being cooped up for so long, if we have a halfway decent day, going out to the ballpark sounds like a pretty good idea.”
Sea Dogs’ ticket prices range from $7 to $9 for adults, and from $4 to $8 for senior citizens and children 16 and under.
The basketball franchise is offering similarly-priced seats, with tickets starting at $5. Fans can purchase a season ticket plan for $240, or $10 a seat. Jennings hopes the team will be able to fill the 3,100 seats at the Portland Expo.
“Not that we’re immune to the economy, but people tend to look to stay close to home and they look for more affordable ways to spend their entertainment money,” he said.
Part of that entertainment is promotions. Each team offers several during the season, from bobbleheads and fireworks to jerseys and team card sets. But neither the Sea Dogs nor the Pirates see a reason to offer more than the usual promotions.
In fact, said Petrovek, the Pirates have actually pared their promotions down a bit. “But we’ve kept the better ones,” he said. “That’s our plan moving forward.”
Geoff Iacuessa, the Sea Dogs’ assistant general manager of sales and promotions, said the team will tweak some of its promotions but not add any. “It’s more of the presentation than anything else,” he said.
FANS STICKING WITH PATS, SOX
Fans are reluctant to give up things they enjoy. Steve Cabana, the vice president of Town Square Realty Group in Sanford, has a season ticket…
package to 28 Red Sox games (four tickets to all Saturday and Sunday games at Fenway Park, as well as Opening Day and Patriots Day). It costs about $5,000 — not including gas, food, etc. — but he’s reluctant to give it up.
“The past couple of years, given the industry I’m in, it’s hard to justify the cost of the package,” he said. “But I love the sport and just couldn’t come up with enough reasons to part with (the tickets), And I could always come up with the one reason to keep them: my love of baseball, my love of the Red Sox.”
Cabana, 45, will sell tickets to games he can’t make to family and friends. So will Cooper, the contractor from Cape Elizabeth. “I’ll probably go to less games than I have in the past, and sell my tickets to friends at face value,’ ” said Cooper.
Jim Walsh, a Saco resident and assistant principal at Old Orchard Beach High School, renewed his three Patriots season tickets without much thought about it. But he doesn’t attend every game either and said, “We’ll sell the tickets we don’t plan to use to help defray the costs.”
Walsh is fully cognizant of the economy, but he called his season tickets to Patriots games “my fall and winter ritual.”
“If things got really tough for us, these things would be the first to go,” he said. “I mean, we’re just Joe and Jane middle class America.
“But I don’t hunt, I don’t fish. Sports is my passion. And I really enjoy following the Pats.”
Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at:
mlowe@pressherald.com
Tags: nba maine, patriots, portland press herald
2009/03/31 at 6:29 pm |
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