What should change to get people to see the Jets? [ Winnipeg Jets co-owner Mark Chipman looking to drum up business for 2022-23]
September 16, 2022
What should change to get people to see the Jets? [ Winnipeg Jets co-owner Mark Chipman looking to drum up business for 2022-23]
8 comments
Well for starters, I absolutely hate getting change back from my 20$ when I buy a single beer. Who needs all these three or four quarters in their pocket?
What should you change. Idk maybe the fact that a base ticket is now $83 or something. So to go have a few beers maybe some food I’m looking at $120 for 1 night of entertainment on a team that is sub par at best and puts no effort on the ice.
I posted in that threat already, but here’s what I said:
1) Don’t suck 2) Bring re-entry back 3) Not charging 8.50 a beer (general affordability) 4) Seriously, don’t suck.
Gotta say, a little bit hindsight but its crazy how bad TNSE is at running a hockey team. Absolutely cratered fan motivation in a hockey mad market as the only big in town while losing tons of money in the process. The first few years could be explained away as AHL growing pains but a desperate bid to win now on a team with no identity to fill coffers on playoff gate receipts is decimating any goodwill they have left. It’s clear Chipman and co. aren’t keen on down years going forward and will do anything to keep the money train going even if it means selling future for several 1st round exits. For an org that was utterly shocked and baffled they missed last year when all available data supported a team that was bubble at best, we are definitely headed toward an era of Buffalo-West until there is a top-down restructuring of management.
Reposting what I said in the r/Winnipeg thread:
As a (partial) season ticket holder since the Jets came back, I gave up my seats prior to the pandemic because of a number of reasons, mainly cost and the continual degradation of the game day experience.
* The continual annual price increases, to the maximum allowable every year, regardless of improvements to the product or experience. Getting hit for an extra 5%/year when my salary doesn’t go up by that much just makes it more difficult to afford.
* The no-rentry policy makes the concourse and bathrooms far too crowded.
* They took away many of the favourite concessions and filled in the spaces where people would gather with more bars and worse offerings.
* Game-day experience gets boring because it never changes. Used to be able to pop out to the Tavern for a period for VLT’s, drinks, food, friends, etc. during boring games. Now you have to sit there even if the team is shitting the ice.
* I get rebuilding and planning trying to build a competitive team, but we don’t have much for excitement anymore. I miss Laine clapping bombs and making for hilarious interviews. I miss Buff being Buff. Where’s the excitement, beyond the occasional sporadic flashyness of Ehlers or Connor? If you’re not going to compete and make the playoffs every year, at least be more entertaining.
* Water fountains (and drink prices). I bring a water bottle with me as I drink lots. Nobody will ever fill it up for me, and there’s only 1 (one) water fountain in the entire facility for public use. The Bombers by comparison have a fountain and bottle fill station outside every washroom, and bring in the giant refill station for hot games. The cheapest drink at the stadium is shitty Tim’s coffee, in one size only, and bottled water is nearly $5. Fuck off with this shit.
* No bag/no purse policy. I will probably avoid a lot of other events here because of this. It’s anti-customer. We already walk through metal detectors and are subject to a pat down. But not allowing women to bring in purses – what does that actually achieve?
* Ticket re-selling. They make it so fucking difficult to resell tickets. You can only use their official site, and for a long time they dictated the minimum price you could charge, meaning lots of tickets go unsold, and people have to eat the full price instead of selling them for a small loss. Facebook and Kijiji no longer allow ticket sales because of Ticketmaster. I will never commit to buying more than single game day tickets because I cannot easily resell them if needed.
Sure, many of these things are not dictated by the Jets, but I really don’t give a flying fuck whether it’s the Jets, Chipam, NHL, Bettman, or even God himself implementing these policies – the bottom line is *it’s no longer fun for me to attend games or events at the MTS Centre*.
Oh I guess you can only take so much from people before they say it’s enough. But hey instead of listening to them you just kept jacking up prices, doing nothing for your season ticket holders and placating to the single tickets you couldn’t get rid of. Well like I said to my rep when I canceled my tickets, how come I can’t sell mine for a certain price while you undercut me to the university students. Peace out true north.
Look at the Bombers for some success tips.
They have a party atmosphere, allow bags and other reasonable things in, charge $5 a beer before the game starts, $3.50 for hot dogs, $4 for popcorn, most other things are $5-8. Not everything at concessions needs to be a specialty/massive item.
Improve the experience before the game, during intermissions, and breaks. Just plain blasting loud music every single whistle creates a horrible atmosphere.
An item that is more difficult is replacing some character players people absolutely love cheering for. Winning helps attendance, but so does liking the players. When we had Buff, Laine, Tanev, etc there were some real characters. Connor is an amazing player, but he’s dry as bread. Scheif / PLD are hard to cheer given some recent clouds around them in the media.
Having a less toxic culture around the club also seems to help people be interested. Perhaps the Wheeler shake up helps.
Here are some ideas that are maybe repeats.
– Have some diversity in the vendors, or even a lot of diversity. Have some cheap stuff, have some expensive stuff.
– Allow people to order from at least some of the vendors via phone app and have it delivered to their seats. Lets be honest, it sucks getting in and out of the seats sometimes.
– Entertain people during intermissions and breaks. Even if it is blooper reels of dudes getting smoked in the balls by a puck. I can’t leave, I get it, entertain me, or give me somewhere to go to be entertained.
– Stop being cheap about the giveaways, especially to loyal customers. General fan recognition that is something more than a verbal “we appreciate you”…
8 comments
Well for starters, I absolutely hate getting change back from my 20$ when I buy a single beer. Who needs all these three or four quarters in their pocket?
What should you change. Idk maybe the fact that a base ticket is now $83 or something. So to go have a few beers maybe some food I’m looking at $120 for 1 night of entertainment on a team that is sub par at best and puts no effort on the ice.
I posted in that threat already, but here’s what I said:
1) Don’t suck
2) Bring re-entry back
3) Not charging 8.50 a beer (general affordability)
4) Seriously, don’t suck.
Gotta say, a little bit hindsight but its crazy how bad TNSE is at running a hockey team. Absolutely cratered fan motivation in a hockey mad market as the only big in town while losing tons of money in the process. The first few years could be explained away as AHL growing pains but a desperate bid to win now on a team with no identity to fill coffers on playoff gate receipts is decimating any goodwill they have left. It’s clear Chipman and co. aren’t keen on down years going forward and will do anything to keep the money train going even if it means selling future for several 1st round exits. For an org that was utterly shocked and baffled they missed last year when all available data supported a team that was bubble at best, we are definitely headed toward an era of Buffalo-West until there is a top-down restructuring of management.
Reposting what I said in the r/Winnipeg thread:
As a (partial) season ticket holder since the Jets came back, I gave up my seats prior to the pandemic because of a number of reasons, mainly cost and the continual degradation of the game day experience.
* The continual annual price increases, to the maximum allowable every year, regardless of improvements to the product or experience. Getting hit for an extra 5%/year when my salary doesn’t go up by that much just makes it more difficult to afford.
* The no-rentry policy makes the concourse and bathrooms far too crowded.
* They took away many of the favourite concessions and filled in the spaces where people would gather with more bars and worse offerings.
* Game-day experience gets boring because it never changes. Used to be able to pop out to the Tavern for a period for VLT’s, drinks, food, friends, etc. during boring games. Now you have to sit there even if the team is shitting the ice.
* I get rebuilding and planning trying to build a competitive team, but we don’t have much for excitement anymore. I miss Laine clapping bombs and making for hilarious interviews. I miss Buff being Buff. Where’s the excitement, beyond the occasional sporadic flashyness of Ehlers or Connor? If you’re not going to compete and make the playoffs every year, at least be more entertaining.
* Water fountains (and drink prices). I bring a water bottle with me as I drink lots. Nobody will ever fill it up for me, and there’s only 1 (one) water fountain in the entire facility for public use. The Bombers by comparison have a fountain and bottle fill station outside every washroom, and bring in the giant refill station for hot games. The cheapest drink at the stadium is shitty Tim’s coffee, in one size only, and bottled water is nearly $5. Fuck off with this shit.
* No bag/no purse policy. I will probably avoid a lot of other events here because of this. It’s anti-customer. We already walk through metal detectors and are subject to a pat down. But not allowing women to bring in purses – what does that actually achieve?
* Ticket re-selling. They make it so fucking difficult to resell tickets. You can only use their official site, and for a long time they dictated the minimum price you could charge, meaning lots of tickets go unsold, and people have to eat the full price instead of selling them for a small loss. Facebook and Kijiji no longer allow ticket sales because of Ticketmaster. I will never commit to buying more than single game day tickets because I cannot easily resell them if needed.
Sure, many of these things are not dictated by the Jets, but I really don’t give a flying fuck whether it’s the Jets, Chipam, NHL, Bettman, or even God himself implementing these policies – the bottom line is *it’s no longer fun for me to attend games or events at the MTS Centre*.
Oh I guess you can only take so much from people before they say it’s enough. But hey instead of listening to them you just kept jacking up prices, doing nothing for your season ticket holders and placating to the single tickets you couldn’t get rid of. Well like I said to my rep when I canceled my tickets, how come I can’t sell mine for a certain price while you undercut me to the university students. Peace out true north.
Look at the Bombers for some success tips.
They have a party atmosphere, allow bags and other reasonable things in, charge $5 a beer before the game starts, $3.50 for hot dogs, $4 for popcorn, most other things are $5-8. Not everything at concessions needs to be a specialty/massive item.
Improve the experience before the game, during intermissions, and breaks. Just plain blasting loud music every single whistle creates a horrible atmosphere.
An item that is more difficult is replacing some character players people absolutely love cheering for. Winning helps attendance, but so does liking the players. When we had Buff, Laine, Tanev, etc there were some real characters. Connor is an amazing player, but he’s dry as bread. Scheif / PLD are hard to cheer given some recent clouds around them in the media.
Having a less toxic culture around the club also seems to help people be interested. Perhaps the Wheeler shake up helps.
Here are some ideas that are maybe repeats.
– Have some diversity in the vendors, or even a lot of diversity. Have some cheap stuff, have some expensive stuff.
– Allow people to order from at least some of the vendors via phone app and have it delivered to their seats. Lets be honest, it sucks getting in and out of the seats sometimes.
– Entertain people during intermissions and breaks. Even if it is blooper reels of dudes getting smoked in the balls by a puck. I can’t leave, I get it, entertain me, or give me somewhere to go to be entertained.
– Stop being cheap about the giveaways, especially to loyal customers. General fan recognition that is something more than a verbal “we appreciate you”…