Devils Season Ticket discussion thread - Prices being raised for 19-20

[Satans Hockey]

Hey @DevilMinder I've mentioned this before but the rock section of the board is basically a grave yard so maybe it's time to just get rid of it and merge it back here? 

Anyway I'm quite pissed off with this and nobody goes in there to read anything so I'm posting this here but I just got my damn invoice which of course they send out now so you can't talk to anyone to bitch and moan. 

My seats went up $108 total a seat for the entire season. Not fvcking happy about this at all. The worst part to me is we don't even get free printed tickets now. We have to choose it as part of 2 benefits. This team is a fvcking joke sometimes. I see quite a few people canceling over these increases.

We are going to miss the playoffs for the 6th fvcking time in 7 seasons and only have won 1 damn playoff GAME, not even series during this time frame. 

This team gives out countless free tickets to people and has trouble filling the building even when doing that and they think a ticket increase like this is a smart move? 

Having to pick hard tickets as a benefit next year to me when they were free for this current season when they are raising the tickets by this much is almost even more insulting to me.

How did everyone else make out? 

Here are the benefits and full season ticket holders can pick 2 of them. The printed tickets were free for the current season. Most of these are garbage and they labeled this as "the best incentives ever" Also the the windbreaker and nameplate will be 1 per account not per seat which makes no fvcking sense and is cheap as fvck. Even the red bulls don't do that sh!t. 

1Martin Brodeur Personal Photo Opportunity

2Exclusive adidas Devils-branded windbreaker

3Personalized Devils framed nameplate

4Guaranteed promotional giveaway items

5Additional 2019-20 Devils player event

6Six (6) bonus tickets to redeem for select 2019-20 Devils home games

7Participation in the Devils Membership Rewards Program

8Hard-copy tickets for the 2019-20 Devils regular season

Edited January 31, 2019 by Satans Hockey

[trailblazer]

If your complaining about $2.63 increase per ticket across 41 regular season home games, then you shouldn’t have season tickets. 

[titans04]

That's balls raising ticket prices when the team has been junk with the exception of last year.  I can only imagine how many free tickets they give away. All while they're sitting on over 38M in cap space.  I also think it's retarded to not give the STH ALL of the incentives.  They cost pennies on the dollar. SMH.

[jagknife]

I know my sister is cancelling her season tickets for next year because she’s done the flex plan or something for the last few years. This year they’ve really dicked her around, telling her seats she reserved were suddenly not available and she had to pick new ones days later. Seats for certain games weren’t available but were on the main site. All kinds of sketchy sh!t.

i’d be exactly like you if I saw these “perks”: fvcking furious 

EDIT: fvcking iPhone autocorrecting so much sh!t

Edited January 31, 2019 by jagknife

[Satans Hockey]

2 minutes ago, trailblazer said:

If your complaining about $2.63 increase per ticket across 41 regular season home games, then you shouldn’t have season tickets. 

It's not a dealbreaker for me, it's the principle. How can you justify any sort of increase when the team has missed the playoffs 6 out of the past 7 seasons and hasn't won a playoff series since 2012? And hell next year sure as hell isn't looking any better.

Plus they took incentives away, not added them. Also one of my friends in the upper 200s had his seats go up $183 per seat.

Plus people have more than 1 seat. I do and most people that I know do as well. You think a family of 4 should have their seats increased for $183 bucks a seat for the sh!tty upper 200s? It's a joke. 

[Satans Hockey]

8 minutes ago, titans04 said:

That's balls raising ticket prices when the team has been junk with the exception of last year.  I can only imagine how many free tickets they give away. All while they're sitting on over 38M in cap space.  I also think it's retarded to not give the STH ALL of the incentives.  They cost pennies on the dollar. SMH.

If they did that people wouldn't even use them all anyway so I agree, just give em all out. I'm not into autographs or meeting people so I wouldn't even bother with the Marty or player event. The guaranteed giveaways is pointless for me cause I can just get there when doors open and get one anyway.

Here's a kick in the ass for you. I can have 4 seats together on one account and they will only give you one boring bland looking jacket for this current season. If someone had them on 4 separate accounts they could get 4 jackets but if you wanna buy extra they will sell them to you at retail price of like $80 each! Gee thanks! They order those things in bulk and don't even cost that much. Just give it one per seat ffs. 

[titans04]

2 minutes ago, Satans Hockey said:

If they did that people wouldn't even use them all anyway so I agree, just give em all out. I'm not into autographs or meeting people so I wouldn't even bother with the Marty or player event. The guaranteed giveaways is pointless for me cause I can just get there when doors open and get one anyway.

Here's a kick in the ass for you. I can have 4 seats together on one account and they will only give you one boring bland looking jacket for this current season. If someone had them on 4 separate accounts they could get 4 jackets but if you wanna buy extra they will sell them to you at retail price of like $80 each! Gee thanks! They order those things in bulk and don't even cost that much. Just give it one per seat ffs. 

That's fvcking pathetic. 

[Satans Hockey]

One of my friends who sits in section 233, the top upper corners, where people barely sit and are never full went up $183 per seat for the year. How the hell can they justify that? 

[trailblazer]

16 minutes ago, Satans Hockey said:

It's not a dealbreaker for me, it's the principle. How can you justify any sort of increase when the team has missed the playoffs 6 out of the past 7 seasons and hasn't won a playoff series since 2012? And hell next year sure as hell isn't looking any better.

Plus they took incentives away, not added them. Also one of my friends in the upper 200s had his seats go up $183 per seat.

Plus people have more than 1 seat. I do and most people that I know do as well. You think a family of 4 should have their seats increased for $183 bucks a seat for the sh!tty upper 200s? It's a joke. 

Because you looking at it from team performance point of view which you can’t do. Expenses go up year to year. Tying team performance to ticket prices is an easy way to get mad but when your running a business and have to give employee raises, insurance goes up, taxes increase etc. $2.63 a ticket is nothing. Keep in mind win or lose, going to games is supposed to be fun for you. If that fun is not worth $2.63 a ticket more, cancel and watch on tv. 

[trailblazer]

9 minutes ago, Satans Hockey said:

One of my friends who sits in section 233, the top upper corners, where people barely sit and are never full went up $183 per seat for the year. How the hell can they justify that? 

That’s $4.46 per game per seat. If your that mad, cancel your tickets and watch on tv. 

[Satans Hockey]

8 minutes ago, trailblazer said:

Because you looking at it from team performance point of view which you can’t do. Expenses go up year to year. Tying team performance to ticket prices is an easy way to get mad but when your running a business and have to give employee raises, insurance goes up, taxes increase etc. $2.63 a ticket is nothing. Keep in mind win or lose, going to games is supposed to be fun for you. If that fun is not worth $2.63 a ticket more, cancel and watch on tv. 

The team doesn't even spend remotely to the cap and you're still missing the majority of the point. I already said I'm renewing but you're missing the principle that it's ridiculous. The on ice team is the product and it's been a sh!t product for years. This is going to affect a lot of people. 

Have you sat in section 233? Can you say those seats are worth a $183 per seat increase? 

How about instead of handing out countless free tickets maybe you give me the pre-season games for free since it's half the quality of play or hell even give me the tickets at half price. 

Edited January 31, 2019 by Satans Hockey

[Satans Hockey]

10 minutes ago, trailblazer said:

That’s $4.46 per game per seat. If your that mad, cancel your tickets and watch on tv. 

Lol you're ridiculous, it's not that black and white. You do realize the team is selling a product and it's a sh!t one right now. I think tons of people will be opting out and they are cutting off their noses to spite their face with these increases. They are going to lose more money next season in the long run. 

Also season ticket prices going up means that face value for single game tickets is going up as well so these seats will be even more money on ticketmaster. 

Edited January 31, 2019 by Satans Hockey

[Satans Hockey]

37 minutes ago, jagknife said:

I know my sister is cancelling her season tickets for next year because she’s done the flex plan or something for the last few years. This year they’ve really dicked her around, telling her seats she reserved were suddenly not available and she had to pick new ones days later. Seats for certain games weren’t available but were on the main site. All kinds of sketchy sh!t.

i’d be exactly like you if I saw these “perks”: fvcking furious 

EDIT: fvcking iPhone autocorrecting so much sh!t

It's amazing that a team like ours that needs as many fans as it can get can have such terrible customer service as this. 

[trailblazer]

10 minutes ago, Satans Hockey said:

Lol you're ridiculous, it's not that black and white. You do realize the team is selling a product and it's a sh!t one right now. I think tons of people will be opting out and they are cutting off their noses to spite their face with these increases. They are going to lose more money next season in the long run. 

Also season ticket prices going up means that face value for single game tickets is going up as well so these seats will be even more money on ticketmaster. 

So cancel your tickets, deprive yourself of something you like to do and watch on tv. Just stop complaining about it 

[Satans Hockey]

3 minutes ago, trailblazer said:

So cancel your tickets, deprive yourself of something you like to do and watch on tv. Just stop complaining about it 

You can also get the fvck out of my thread and not bother reading about it then if it bothers you that much. 

[mfitz804]

Gotta say, that’s not a lot to complain about. That’s just an inflation adjustment, I get that you aren’t happy with the product, none of us are. If tons of people opt out over a tiny increase, then they weren’t that interested. They are the type of fans that go like it’s a social event and the game is secondary. 

I don’t understand the obsession with hard copy tickets either. 

The complaining over not getting enough free stuff with your season tickets, maybe I can agree. Those items are relatively cheap. And one per seat probably makes more sense with the exception of the bonus tickets. 

 

[Satans Hockey]

25 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

Gotta say, that’s not a lot to complain about. That’s just an inflation adjustment, I get that you aren’t happy with the product, none of us are. If tons of people opt out over a tiny increase, then they weren’t that interested. They are the type of fans that go like it’s a social event and the game is secondary. 

I don’t understand the obsession with hard copy tickets either. 

The complaining over not getting enough free stuff with your season tickets, maybe I can agree. Those items are relatively cheap. And one per seat probably makes more sense with the exception of the bonus tickets. 

 

I don't think my increase is so bad but I'm still paying more money and getting less benefits. 

I think the 200 upper corners increases are putrid. They are sections that are the most empty every game. What sense does it make to drain more money out of those seats when nobody is buying them at the ticketmaster face value? Plus nj taxes keep going up and wages sure as hell aren't. Lots of people are fleeing the state as it is. I don't expect a family of 4 in section 233 to be cool with a $732 ($183 per seat) increase for some of the highest seats in the building. 

From a poster over on hf boards 

"i'm in section 216 upper corner (defend twice) and mine is a $164ish raise for 2 tickets total ...i don't know that i can continue being a sth after this price increase. these seats are a ghost town 90% of the time." 

There are many benefits to hard tickets. The guy next to me gives them out at his office when he can't go instead of having to make people download the app. For some older folks they are easier too. I would be ok with a small credit card to get into games like the red bulls do but I find the mobile tickets are a pain in the ass.

The red bulls and some other stadiums/arenas at least give you a print out when ya go through the gate so you can just show that piece of paper instead of pulling your phone out every time the usher wants to see your ticket. Plus they are just a nice souvenir from the game. I have every Devils ticket from every game I've been to. I plan on framing them by season at some point down the line. Hell I'd rather them give me the option to pay $15 bucks for them and let me choose a different members benefit. 

For a comparison the Red Bulls give me one scarf that the fans vote on out of 3 options plus a new gift every year. One year it was a jersey, one a hoodie, this year its a pair of shoes. For both the scarf and the gift it's one per seat not per account. I've complained numerous times to the Devils about this, they haven't cared so far. 

I think my biggest problem is just with how this team's front office acts like they don't need to work harder to get fans and keep them than they do. Look at @jagknife sister's situation. Most of the time this team acts like there's a waiting list like Toronto or Montreal instead of realizing they need to do way more work than that.

Now I will state I don't have an issue with the owners like some do, especially because it's the people in the front office that ignore a lot of the problems. I've made and know others who have made complaints about the bathrooms this year and in the past, things like the doors not even working and some not even having doors at all and the complaints go ignored. Stuff like that is completely unacceptable to me. 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2019 by Satans Hockey

[Steven M.]

28 minutes ago, trailblazer said:

So cancel your tickets, deprive yourself of something you like to do and watch on tv. Just stop complaining about it 

What the hell kind of response is this? I think it's pretty justifiable to discuss the season ticket program since the team should probably consider pulling out more stops to retain STH's. They're kind of important.

Also it's ludicrous to assume he'd be 'depriving himself of something he likes' because the reality is that season tickets are far more of a labor of love than they are practical. You pretty much bank on them paying off come playoff time or in the previous few years they were nice to have for Marty night and Elias night. Now, there will be no more of those nights coming any time soon, and who the hell knows when we'll see another deep playoff run. So what it boils down to is he could easily hop on StubHub and go to all these games for half price. He could acquire free tickets in any number of different ways. There's so many ways to go that are cheaper than being a STH.

That's why, personally, I'm cancelling. The events are too few and far between. When was the last normal STH event? Winterfest? That wasn't even a player event. That Dine with the Devils stuff last night? I have no idea how people get the invite to that. It feels like we're in the dark on stuff all the time. The holiday gift this year was like a friggin' coupon to a jewelry store or something.

It just really feels like there's no value to having them. It's an unnecessary thing to have. I'll probably end up going to the same amount of games next year and pay half the money I did this year. Tired of trying to sell games back and having them sell for either half price or not at all.

[devils744]

9 minutes ago, Steven M. said:

What the hell kind of response is this? I think it's pretty justifiable to discuss the season ticket program since the team should probably consider pulling out more stops to retain STH's. They're kind of important.

Also it's ludicrous to assume he'd be 'depriving himself of something he likes' because the reality is that season tickets are far more of a labor of love than they are practical. You pretty much bank on them paying off come playoff time or in the previous few years they were nice to have for Marty night and Elias night. Now, there will be no more of those nights coming any time soon, and who the hell knows when we'll see another deep playoff run. So what it boils down to is he could easily hop on StubHub and go to all these games for half price. He could acquire free tickets in any number of different ways. There's so many ways to go that are cheaper than being a STH.

That's why, personally, I'm cancelling. The events are too few and far between. When was the last normal STH event? Winterfest? That wasn't even a player event. That Dine with the Devils stuff last night? I have no idea how people get the invite to that. It feels like we're in the dark on stuff all the time. The holiday gift this year was like a friggin' coupon to a jewelry store or something.

It just really feels like there's no value to having them. It's an unnecessary thing to have. I'll probably end up going to the same amount of games next year and pay half the money I did this year. Tired of trying to sell games back and having them sell for either half price or not at all.

Perfectly said. I'm probably opting out after 8 years and going the stubhub/buying from others route. For many reasons the love you speak of is basically gone for me. So to not have to worry about upcoming games that I have to go to or try to sell, this just sounds much better. I'll pick a few per month at my convenience. I just went on a membership points tear so they won't be wasted.

Edited January 31, 2019 by devils744

[Satans Hockey]

1 minute ago, Steven M. said:

The events are too few and far between. When was the last normal STH event? Winterfest? That wasn't even a player event. That Dine with the Devils stuff last night? I have no idea how people get the invite to that. It feels like we're in the dark on stuff all the time. The holiday gift this year was like a friggin' coupon to a jewelry store or something.

The dine with the Devils stuff was some sort of premium ticket holder event. Like suite holders or something.

That holiday "gift" was insulting. It was $250 bucks off only certain items at some jewelry store but it had to be a minimum purchase of $500. That's not a gift and I would have rather received nothing. Tons of people complained about that one. 

[Steven M.]

1 minute ago, devils744 said:

Perfectly said. I'm probably opting out after 8 years and going the stubhub/buying from others route.

Yep. I'm also getting stationed at the command center in Staten Island (CG) after 6 years down here in Philly. So I'll have even *more* opportunities to make it to games after work, etc, than I did previously where I am now. Regardless... there's endless amounts of ways I can get to the game without paying $33 a seat for section 116. I have heard that they often give free tickets to the base there (much like the Phillies and Flyers do for us here). The Devils ALWAYS spam free tickets on to Vettix.com that any veteran of any of the branches can take advantage of. You can buy like $15/seat tickets to any number of games in like October/November that happen to be food/coat drive games, bring an old coat and some canned food, get vouchers to free games. sh!t, I have an email from the Devils right now that says if I use my mobile tickets for tomorrow's game, I will get a voucher to an upcoming game against either the Flyers, Penguins, or Bruins. Those aren't even sh!tty teams! Those are high profile games! and all I have to do is literally SHOW UP TO THE GAME TOMORROW and use my ticket. It's silly.

The point is... there's like an infinite number of ways to get to the game for free or for extremely cheap. Being a season ticket holder is pretty much never going to be the cheapest / most efficient route.

[mfitz804]

I posted a whole response, but instead I’m tapping out. It’s too frustrating to hear people complain about this stuff. 

Edited January 31, 2019 by mfitz804

[Steven M.]

6 minutes ago, Satans Hockey said:

The dine with the Devils stuff was some sort of premium ticket holder event. Like suite holders or something.

That holiday "gift" was insulting. It was $250 bucks off only certain items at some jewelry store but it had to be a minimum purchase of $500. That's not a gift and I would have rather received nothing. Tons of people complained about that one. 

Yep... this is the first year I was splitting the seats with my buddy too, previous four years I had paid by myself. So what the hell are we supposed to do with that? Can't even attempt to share something like that. It's worthless.

It is basically like when you go do Dunkin for a coffee and pull a sticker off that grants you a 20% off code to Fanatics.com. Then you hop on Fanatics to check out some Devils stuff and the first thing you see at the top of the site is "20% OFF ALL WEEKEND! USE CODE FANATICS20 AT CHECKOUT." I'm sure that store gives similar discounts at different holidays and sh!t throughout the year, that's hardly a gift. Completely worthless.

[Satans Hockey]

1 hour ago, mfitz804 said:

Let me preface this by saying I’m not trying to be a d!ck, I’m really asking these questions to get your insight. I don’t want to come off like I’m being confrontational, just furthering the discussion. 

I have no idea how much people are paying or what section was raised what. The bottom line is, I would expect that prices go up a little annually. Maybe that’s not the case. $2.63 a game is ridiculous to complain about. The section 233 increase you mentioned is $4.46 a game. It’s barely anything. Do you expect them to stay the same year after year? Do you expect the team to say “we sucked this year, we should charge the same? Or less?”

Then, on top of that, you are upset about not getting hard copy tickets, which I only somewhat understand because you collect them (I don’t get why, but I don’t need to, it’s your thing and I can respect that), and not getting enough free stuff. If they cost too much and you don’t like what you get for what you pay, why do you bother??

As a non STH, it looks to me like there’s a lot of stuff, meet and greets, etc. that I’d love to go to, my daughter would go nuts, but STH’s take them for granted. Over the last couple years I’ve had to tell her things are only for STH’s, which is understandable, you guys pay a lot of money that I don’t. But it seems like most STH’s are indifferent about them. 

And, problems in the arena like broken down bathrooms affect everyone, even those of us who struggle to get to a few games a year. They have nothing to do with your season tickets, unless you believe that season ticket sales are keeping the team liquid. I suppose that could be true,  but they could find money to fix the fvcking toilet somewhere if they were interested in doing so. 

 

 

I have no problem answering questions and I don't think you're being a nose. (lol at the board changing d*ck to nose, is that in honor of Marchand? Lol) 

I have to go find the invoices but I'm pretty sure my tickets went up a decent amount last year so yeah for the most part I don't expect an increase no matter what it is after a terrible product was put on the ice this year. Hell Nashville last year only had a 4% increase for 3 year plans which I would gladly lock myself into a 3 year plan if the price froze and full seasons went up 6-8% and they actually have a good team and a waiting list. My tickets went up about 5% and I have less benefits than I had last year and we aren't even gonna sniff the playoffs.

https://www.nashvillepost.com/sports/nashville-predators/blog/20988943/predators-will-offer-a-threeyear-seasonticket-plan

Concerning the 200 upper corner seats they are already overpriced, like legit it's rows of empty seats. On most weekday games I can count how many people are in those sections. They are on the map as being the "worst" seats in the building. If people are already not in those sections how is raising the prices for them the correct call? I just don't see the sense in it. It's not like the seats there are underpriced. Hell the game on a Thursday night against Ottawa that nobody cares about is $37 bucks on ticketmaster and comes out to $49 and change after the fees. That's the cheapest ticket at face value to get in the building they night. Those should be $25/$30 tops after fees and even that's pushing it for some games. 

Next season will be 17 years for me as a season ticket holder. I go for the games and I like my seats and I generally like supporting the team financially and vocally. I look forward to the games even when we suck but at the same time I see a lot of things that the team does wrong off the ice and their rather indifference to changing much. 

The main reason they are trying to limit hard tickets is because they want to control the secondary market as much as possible, that's why pdf tickets are completely gone.

Personally I don't care about meeting players just for a photo or autographs. I never have and never will. That's probably the minority view though. I just don't like waiting in line to meet people for 2 seconds and I don't collect autographs. I did it one year cause a friend wanted to go and it just wasn't for me and the event was also run rather poor especially in comparison to the Red Bulls who run similar events. 

The problem with the bathrooms is that it was months for some of them to even get just doors back on. Sure the season ticket holders aren't the only ones affected by that but if multiple ones are complaining throughout the season about it I don't think it's unreasonable to expect doors and locks on the bathrooms, especially for the women's bathrooms to be fixed when the team and building are under the same ownership.

I posted this way back in Feb 2016 and it was an ongoing issue at the start of the 15-16 season. I haven't been in that section 22 bathroom in awhile so I gotta go see tomorrow if it's fixed or not yet but the women's bathrooms are still having the same issues they had 3 years ago. It's like they don't care even though the complaints have been heard....unless the reps and other front office staff are just ignoring them which is a very real possibility as well. 

 

Edited January 31, 2019 by Satans Hockey

[Satans Hockey]

1 hour ago, mfitz804 said:

I posted a whole response, but instead I’m tapping out. It’s too frustrating to hear people complain about this stuff. 

I didn't think there was anything wrong with your post, it was a good balanced discussion. I don't particularly enjoy bitching and moaning myself.

I just want this team to succeed on and off the ice and it's just frustrating when I think they are making mistakes off the ice. I think my feedback and input is a lot more valuable and knowledge when it comes to that stuff than what draft picks and trades we could possibly do.

I enjoy the arena so much when it's full and the crowd is into the game, it really is a night and day experience to when it's half empty and the crowd is cranky and not having fun. I feel like these steps they took are in a direction of having the building less full instead of more full. 

Hopefully we have a bounce back season next year because if we don't and we end up with another increase after next season and Hall looks like he's gonna walk as well then we are possibly setting up for a horrible situation in terms of crowds for the 20-21 season.