Check out what the Devils front office just sent me along with my play

[DevsMan84]

One of my friends was telling me that now your STH rewards will be based off of how much spend as opposed to how many years you have had season tickets. He sits up in the 200s and has been a STH for a long time so he's obviously pissed that he gets rewarded less than the companies that get the club/box seats but rarely go to the games.

 

I can understand why people who bought 200's for years would be pissed but this is where the other way around has probably pissed people off who dropped $15k on 2 seats in one year getting less rewards than someone who spent $10k over 5 years on 2 seats gets more rewards.

 

Im not sure doing either way will appease all fans.

[Mitico12]

Well, maybe the Devils should roll out an innovative solution - kind of a "loyalty program" for season ticket holders.

 

For example, give points or credit to STH who actually use their tickets to enter a game.  This could be done by issuing unique STH cards, or encrypting lisences or credit cards.  These points can be used for a variety of things, including upgrades to better seats for select games, etc.  The possibilities are endless.

 

Or, perhaps give STH the opportunity to use unused tickets towards a partial credit for the following season (not sure if they do this already).

 

I don't agree that they would consider a season ticket holder a "broker" if they don't attend at least 50 percent of the games themselves.  There should be a much more complicated formula to identify abusers, which should include trends that include reviews of ticket usage every two years.

 

Or, set the market.  Maybe buy back tickets from the STH and set the market price themselves (although 3rd party sites would hamper this possibility a great deal).

 

I can see the business case the Devils are making here, but penalizing fans with a "one size fits all" rule doesn't make sense.  It has to be more elaborate than this.

[Devilsfan118]

One of my friends was telling me that now your STH rewards will be based off of how much spend as opposed to how many years you have had season tickets. He sits up in the 200s and has been a STH for a long time so he's obviously pissed that he gets rewarded less than the companies that get the club/box seats but rarely go to the games.

 

Also very common in college sports.  Not sure about MLB or the NBA, but this isn't unusual.

 

As Mitico alluded to, if I were the Devils I would implement a rewards system of sorts.  "Priority points" or something.  You get X points for each seat you own (depends on the location/price of the seat), then some bonus points or something for however long you've owned the seats.  Use points to award season ticket rewards - those with the most points get priority to the best events/upgrades/etc.

 

You could expand such a system to incorporate using the tickets as well.  Anything to get butts in the seats - these 'points' might entice someone to attend a game who would've otherwise sold the tickets for nothing on StubHub.  

Edited March 14, 2014 by Devilsfan118

[NJDevs4978]

I thought their new rewards system wasn't even finalized yet?  They alluded to perks being based on a combination of tenure, how much you pay for your tickets and when you send in the invoice but it's one of those 'stay tuned for details this offseason' type things.  They're no longer incentivizing renewing in five minutes with a suite though

[StormJosh]

What's all this I hear about no more food in the club seats?

[DevsMan84]

What's all this I hear about no more food in the club seats?

 

Yeah apparently they are getting rid of the all you can eat food in the club seats.  In exchange the seats are now going to be listed at $150-180 instead of $250-280.

 

The other rumors I hear is that there will be 2 tiers:

1) $150 ticket gets you into the club and that's it.  You must pay for everything else

2) $180 ticket gets you into the club and a $30 food and beverage card.

 

Not only that, but from what I hear the Devils are getting rid of the fancy food options at the clubs and are instead only going to serve "stadium" food.  Apparently the new owners were horrified to see how much of the food was thrown away after each game.  So basically they had to do this instead of just, you know, making less of the fancy food lol.

 

Edit: Also apparently they are doing this for 2 reasons.

1) To get more bodies into the clubs and to not have people spend the entire game floating around the buffets.  The thought is that if they have to pay for the food people will go up, get the food and come down back to the seats.  From what I heard the new owners have also been very embarassed by how the club seats look on TV.

2) They want to direct people to the restaurant which most nights is a ghost town.  There the all you can eat buffet will still be there this coming season.  They want to make those seats to have more "value" to the ticket buyers.

Edited March 14, 2014 by DevsMan84

[2ELIAS6]

ehh i dont like the sound of all these changes.. how can they just do away with the all you can eat and fancy food of the clubs i mean i completely understand why they would want to do so for filling the seats and from a business stand but from a fans stand that kinda blows those club seats i dont think will be that special anymore .. im content with spending a lot less money to sit right next to the clubs on the side.

[Neb00rs]

Yeah apparently they are getting rid of the all you can eat food in the club seats.  In exchange the seats are now going to be listed at $150-180 instead of $250-280.

 

Sorry, but they have needed to do this for years. Make those seats accessible, no more 'half the lower section is empty because Panasonic couldn't give their tickets away' type of deal.

[DevsMan84]

Sorry, but they have needed to do this for years. Make those seats accessible, no more 'half the lower section is empty because Panasonic couldn't give their tickets away' type of deal.

 

Devils shot themselves in their foot from day 1 by having 6 sections of club seats when the arena was built.  Devils have historically had trouble selling out non-premium seats forever and for whatever reason they decided to have the largest number of club seats in the league (from what I remember hearing we do have the most club seats of any team).  I know these seats have the potential to make a ton of revenue but whats the point when they are mostly empty?  They should have had just the 3 fire lounge sections as club seating with all you can eat food so you wouldn't see empty seats on TV.

 

Now the way the club seats will be next year, they will just be slightly more expensive versions of the goal bar which basically has the same thing but from a different angle.

[Neb00rs]

 

So your "guarantee" (your word) that just about every sports franchise that has a rule similar to what the Devils are doing consists of a "list" of one team that neb00rs posted a link for.  

 

Yea, I mean to guarantee that every team in the league has the same or similar policy as the Devils and/or handles the carrying out of the policy in the same way just cannot be substantiated and for all we know is incorrect. The point I was trying to make is that there seems to be a rising tactic among teams to thwart the ticket arbitrage and that the Devils' are not unique in this regard. However, clearly the Devils did not handle this the right way. Some of the teams from the articles I have read have also not handled the situation so delicately but A. I hardly posted a link from "every other team in the league," on the contrary I posted links from a few teams in each league across a few sports, and B. we don't even really know what the Devils' policy is and I will wait for SatansHockey to elaborate on what happened today to start making conclusions on what that policy is. 

 

The letter is unacceptable though.

[Mike Brown]

So your "guarantee" (your word) that just about every sports franchise that has a rule similar to what the Devils are doing consists of a "list" of one team that neb00rs posted a link for.  Not sure how your overall point still stands under those circumstances.

   

No need to just blurt things out for the sake of blurting.  If you want to present a point and you don't really know if it's based on facts, do some on-line research and find some info to back up your point, complete with links.  neb00rs at least did that. 

 

There's also no need for you to overreact like you always do.  Sending nasty messages and calling me an a$$hole isn't needed either.

 

My point still stands because several other teams have policies in place to prevent secondary selling.  It should be common knowledge that any promotion whether it be a hockey game or a concert doesn't like scalpers or brokers.  I didn't feel the need to post any links since it is such common knowledge.

 

And if you truly see how I do post, you will notice I post lots of links whenever I have a debate.  For example when I was debating about Gelinas needing to be on the team, I posted stats and links to prove why he belonged on this team.  And in the quest for 91 thread, I posted a site that shows 91 points gives us around a 75% chance at getting in.

 

Just because I don't post the way you want me to doesn't mean you have the right to abuse me like you do.  I've adjusted my posting style without fully changing it.  I've paid attention to the number of posts to not clog up the threads.  I won't change who I am just to appease you.  I will however make an attempt to adjust to make sure we can all fully adapt to each other.

[ThreeCups]

ehh i dont like the sound of all these changes.. how can they just do away with the all you can eat and fancy food of the clubs i mean i completely understand why they would want to do so for filling the seats and from a business stand but from a fans stand that kinda blows those club seats i dont think will be that special anymore .. im content with spending a lot less money to sit right next to the clubs on the side.

 

THIS

 

The seats are great, but the food is what made those tickets NEXT LEVEL

[Neb00rs]

Devils shot themselves in their foot from day 1 by having 6 sections of club seats when the arena was built.  Devils have historically had trouble selling out non-premium seats forever and for whatever reason they decided to have the largest number of club seats in the league (from what I remember hearing we do have the most club seats of any team).  I know these seats have the potential to make a ton of revenue but whats the point when they are mostly empty?  They should have had just the 3 fire lounge sections as club seating with all you can eat food so you wouldn't see empty seats on TV.

 

Now the way the club seats will be next year, they will just be slightly more expensive versions of the goal bar which basically has the same thing but from a different angle.

 

True the Club seats set-up was a terrible decision (loss-of-job worthy) from day one. However, that doesn't mean they shouldn't try to solve the problem the only real way they can. This is the right move. I don't blame the Devils for not wanting to offer the same amenities for lower price seats - that makes sense and I want the Devils to make smart business decisions.

Also, let's not forget, the Club seats will still be what they are: the best located seats in the lower section.

 

They could still come down a bit on the Club seats that are off center though. Those seats cannot be only accessible to corporations wealthy businessmen - not because that's wrong but because those seats will still be empty. The Club has been more filled the last 2 years though - and that's not just because of the Cup run, the Devils have been doing a better job of getting people into those seats.

 

CAA by the way, never felt that empty in the lower tiers (outside of snowstorm nights) - not in the hundreds of games I went to at least.

[sundstrom]

Yeah apparently they are getting rid of the all you can eat food in the club seats.  In exchange the seats are now going to be listed at $150-180 instead of $250-280.

 

The other rumors I hear is that there will be 2 tiers:

1) $150 ticket gets you into the club and that's it.  You must pay for everything else

2) $180 ticket gets you into the club and a $30 food and beverage card.

 

Not only that, but from what I hear the Devils are getting rid of the fancy food options at the clubs and are instead only going to serve "stadium" food.  Apparently the new owners were horrified to see how much of the food was thrown away after each game.  So basically they had to do this instead of just, you know, making less of the fancy food lol.

 

Edit: Also apparently they are doing this for 2 reasons.

1) To get more bodies into the clubs and to not have people spend the entire game floating around the buffets.  The thought is that if they have to pay for the food people will go up, get the food and come down back to the seats.  From what I heard the new owners have also been very embarassed by how the club seats look on TV.

2) They want to direct people to the restaurant which most nights is a ghost town.  There the all you can eat buffet will still be there this coming season.  They want to make those seats to have more "value" to the ticket buyers.

 

This is not entirely true. This is as much as they know as of right now re CLUB SEATS:

 

 Existing STH that have club seats have two options for next year:

 A - Pay exact same price as this year. You will have $30 loaded onto each ticket that can be used for ANYTHING anywhere in the stadium (food, booze, merchandise). This does not roll over. Use it or lose it each game.

 B - Pay $30 less, per ticket, and pay for everything that you eat

   - To be clear, they aren't charging anymore. They felt that they could not get enough people in those seats because they had to build in all you can eat food. So if the ticket cost $100 this year (it doesn't obviously), they were saying that $70 was the ticket and $30 was the food.

   - They expect to increase quality of food in the Clubs without raising prices. Basically they're looking for better vendors than Aramark.

   - They are rearranging the club setup to alleviate additional lines that people would create waiting to pay as opposed to now where you just take and go

   - Light snacks, Coffee, water and Chips will still be free and available in Club Lounges. They are contemplating keeping soda's free but I doubt that goes through

 

 You are correct that they want to push the restaurant more for the buffet style stuff but the Club will still have a carving station (as of now).

 And as I've stated in this thread and others, what is of utmost importance to this ownership group (as should be to any owner that isn't JVB or Pegula or one of us if we won Powerball) is maximum average ticket value. they would rather get 12,000 averaging $75/ticket ($900k) than 16500 at $50/ticket ($825k).

[StarDew]

And to think I thought it was bad business when they started pricing games by who the opponent was. Now this.   

[JWomp]

This is not entirely true. This is as much as they know as of right now re CLUB SEATS:

 

 Existing STH that have club seats have two options for next year:

 A - Pay exact same price as this year. You will have $30 loaded onto each ticket that can be used for ANYTHING anywhere in the stadium (food, booze, merchandise). This does not roll over. Use it or lose it each game.

 B - Pay $30 less, per ticket, and pay for everything that you eat

   - To be clear, they aren't charging anymore. They felt that they could not get enough people in those seats because they had to build in all you can eat food. So if the ticket cost $100 this year (it doesn't obviously), they were saying that $70 was the ticket and $30 was the food.

   - They expect to increase quality of food in the Clubs without raising prices. Basically they're looking for better vendors than Aramark.

   - They are rearranging the club setup to alleviate additional lines that people would create waiting to pay as opposed to now where you just take and go

   - Light snacks, Coffee, water and Chips will still be free and available in Club Lounges. They are contemplating keeping soda's free but I doubt that goes through

 

 You are correct that they want to push the restaurant more for the buffet style stuff but the Club will still have a carving station (as of now).

 And as I've stated in this thread and others, what is of utmost importance to this ownership group (as should be to any owner that isn't JVB or Pegula or one of us if we won Powerball) is maximum average ticket value. they would rather get 12,000 averaging $75/ticket ($900k) than 16500 at $50/ticket ($825k).

 

They expect to increase the quality of the club food? Whoo-hoo. Who cares? Only offering a $30 credit on each ticket is ludicrous, club seat holders won't be able to buy anywhere near the amount of food they used to be able to enjoy in the lounges in all-you-can-eat format. $30!?!? That should be able to buy...a burger and a soda, if that. I used to do club seats for a game or two every season and I loved it. This is very disappointing news. 

[Devlin]

They expect to increase the quality of the club food? Whoo-hoo. Who cares? Only offering a $30 credit on each ticket is ludicrous, club seat holders won't be able to buy anywhere near the amount of food they used to be able to enjoy in the lounges in all-you-can-eat format. $30!?!? That should be able to buy...a burger and a soda, if that. I used to do club seats for a game or two every season and I loved it. This is very disappointing news.

$30 will get you 4 chocolate chip cookies and 3 brownies from the Mrs Fields stand.

I get club seats a few times a year for the family (4 of us) because of the food/drink package.

Sent from my SCH-I800 using Tapatalk 2

[JWomp]

$30 will get you 4 chocolate chip cookies and 3 brownies from the Mrs Fields stand.

I get club seats a few times a year for the family (4 of us) because of the food/drink package.

 

Exactly. The club seat setup as it is now is AWESOME. That same setup with a $30 food credit instead of all-you-can-eat is laughable. 

[devlman]

I'm not hating on all the change just because its change, but rather because its so much change after we've seen so much fan base/attendance/atmosphere growth the past few years. Why muck around with all this just to squeeze a few more bucks. We all know the almighty dollar runs things but don't fvck over your fanbase in the process. This club seat change sounds so unnecessary, and devaluing the benefits of those seats.

[CHIP72]

And as I've stated in this thread and others, what is of utmost importance to this ownership group (as should be to any owner that isn't JVB or Pegula or one of us if we won Powerball) is maximum average ticket value. they would rather get 12,000 averaging $75/ticket ($900k) than 16500 at $50/ticket ($825k).

 

Most fans who attend hockey games or sports events in general spend money on food and drinks, and some of them (more likely the hardcore fans who are in non-premium seats) spend money on apparel too.  That revenue from the extra 4500 fans in your example above probably more than offsets the $75K shortfall that occurs from selling cheaper tickets.

Edited March 15, 2014 by CHIP72

[sundstrom]

Most fans who attend hockey games or sports events in general spend money on food and drinks, and some of them (more likely the hardcore fans who are in non-premium seats) spend money on apparel too.  That revenue from the extra 4500 fans in your example above probably more than offsets the $75K shortfall that occurs from selling cheaper tickets.

 

maybe - but the devils do not get nearly as high a percentage of concession dollars as they do ticket price.

[ThreeCups]

Exactly. The club seat setup as it is now is AWESOME. That same setup with a $30 food credit instead of all-you-can-eat is laughable. 

 

+1

 

Cannot wait to see what the reaction of the people with seasons in there is...

[Matteau#32]

I reeived a call this past August from someone in the Devils ticket office trying to sell me a package.  I immediately told him I was a Rangers fan and season ticket holder so he was wasting his time trying to sell to me.  He insisted he wasn't saying they have fans of different teams buying Devils ticket packages regularly.  He went through his pitch, trying to sell me full-seasons, half-seasons and a bunch of different packages.  I finally told him the only way I would be interested is if he could put together a package where I get all the Rangers games (for me), all the Flyers games (for my best friend who is a Flyers fan), all the Penguins games (for my penguin fan brother) and then maybe 3 additional games for a friend who is a casual devils fan.  He goes to 2-3 games a year, but usually because someone has an extra ticket. Told him I would have to check with all these people to see if they were interested.  He said he couldn't do this, but then he had an idea.  Suggested I buy 1/2 seasons.  Said, I could use the Rangers games, give the Flyers, and Pens games to my friend and brother, then the 2-3 games to my other friend.  

 

When I asked about the rest, HE SUGGESTED SELLING THEM ON THE SECONDARY MARKET!   Pointed out the scalping laws have been repealed and even said, "what A LOT of our full-season ticket holders do is sell a few of the premium games for a nice profit to off-set their costs."  That turned into a debate about the value of devils tickets on the secondary market.  Let's just say I pointed out that I would want to USE the premium games as I had said (rangers, pen, flyers), and a few other things about Devils tickets that didnt make him too happy.  Finally, I told him I needed to go.  Told him I would talk to my brother, friends and he was free to call me in a few weeks to see if there was any interest.  He did, and I declined.  Even asked a friend who is an Islanders fan, but will go to any game and/or use them for his business and he wasn't interested.  

 

Point?  On one hand their reps are using the secondary market as a selling point to potential customers, and now using it as a threat to their actual customers.

[Matteau#32]

Most fans who attend hockey games or sports events in general spend money on food and drinks, and some of them (more likely the hardcore fans who are in non-premium seats) spend money on apparel too.  That revenue from the extra 4500 fans in your example above probably more than offsets the $75K shortfall that occurs from selling cheaper tickets.

Not always.  I go to A LOT of games in all sports.  Hardly spend any money inside.  95% of the time I have lunch or dinner tailgating or at a nearby restaurant and generally do not drink during games.  As far as apparel, I never buy any at the arenas/stadium.  Most people I know who go to games are more like me than the guy who goes in spends money.

[Neb00rs]

When I asked about the rest, HE SUGGESTED SELLING THEM ON THE SECONDARY MARKET!   Pointed out the scalping laws have been repealed and even said, "what A LOT of our full-season ticket holders do is sell a few of the premium games for a nice profit to off-set their costs."  That turned into a debate about the value of devils tickets on the secondary market.  Let's just say I pointed out that I would want to USE the premium games as I had said (rangers, pen, flyers), and a few other things about Devils tickets that didnt make him too happy.  Finally, I told him I needed to go.  Told him I would talk to my brother, friends and he was free to call me in a few weeks to see if there was any interest.  He did, and I declined.  Even asked a friend who is an Islanders fan, but will go to any game and/or use them for his business and he wasn't interested.  

 

Point?  On one hand their reps are using the secondary market as a selling point to potential customers, and now using it as a threat to their actual customers.

 

If this is true, the Devils might be in legal trouble if they start to rescind season tickets. If agents of the team/company  are telling people to do it, and then they do it, and then the team takes their tickets away, that's a big No-No in the legal realm.

 

CHIP72, on 14 Mar 2014 - 9:51 PM, said:

Most fans who attend hockey games or sports events in general spend money on food and drinks, and some of them (more likely the hardcore fans who are in non-premium seats) spend money on apparel too.  That revenue from the extra 4500 fans in your example above probably more than offsets the $75K shortfall that occurs from selling cheaper tickets.

 

 

Yeah. Completely untrue.

Edited March 15, 2014 by Neb00rs