When they re-designed the arena and moved the band to the far corner where the team shoots once, and the student section along with it, they removed a giant home rink advantage. When the team made it to the Garden the year before the remodel, that section behind the visitor's two-time net was absolutely electric. Now, those seats behind the net where Merrimack shoots twice are certainly nice but mostly empty because they don't sell. This current team is possibly the best team they have ever had, (not hyperbole). The ticket prices are more than reasonable, the competition is top notch, the production is great, and the Pep Band is amazing! So what is the problem? The student section has been actually fairly full this year but the rest of the arena is struggling. If you are local to Merrimack, come see this hockey team at home, you will not regret it.
I have to say I'm a little confused about the attendance situation. It used to be someone's job to market and sell these tickets. I know because I worked with him when I was a graduate assistant for the athletic department in 2011-’12. Someone isn't doing their job, I'm sorry, but it needs to be called out. It is also frustrating because they are centering entire weekends around football, and not for anything but the football team is not and will never be a player on the national stage. If the hockey players feel insulted, I certainly wouldn't blame them.
I'm concerned with it as well. Last season Merrimack was north of 90% capacity and averaged 2,266.
This season, that's dipped to 74% with an average of 1,885.
This isn't perfect match, but money is everything in college sports now. You need money to run your program and pay players. Being down 381 tickets per game is about $11,430 per game (based on the $30 reserve ticket price). Again, I realize that's not perfect math because of season tickets, etc. But it's still lost revenue.
I know they hired a company to run all of their ticketing and sponsorship (PlayFly). I'm sure there in a transitional period right now, which would impact promotional efforts.
If you take out Homecoming, which skews the numbers radically, football is up about 200 tickets per game (roughly) compared to last year.
I guess that explains it. We had the most sellouts in a row in the country, I believe, back then. What we didn't admit at the time is that many of those tickets were given away for free 😂. Hopefully nobody cares about me saying that 15 years later 😂. But hey, it creates a better atmosphere, and looks better visually, than a seat that is going to be empty anyway. It also creates a lot of momentum and publicity around the team. I guess you can't play it fast and loose like that anymore. Those were the days. But, I do think that they could stand to use a little creativity and outside the box thinking at this point. Everything is too corporate otherwise.
When they re-designed the arena and moved the band to the far corner where the team shoots once, and the student section along with it, they removed a giant home rink advantage. When the team made it to the Garden the year before the remodel, that section behind the visitor's two-time net was absolutely electric. Now, those seats behind the net where Merrimack shoots twice are certainly nice but mostly empty because they don't sell. This current team is possibly the best team they have ever had, (not hyperbole). The ticket prices are more than reasonable, the competition is top notch, the production is great, and the Pep Band is amazing! So what is the problem? The student section has been actually fairly full this year but the rest of the arena is struggling. If you are local to Merrimack, come see this hockey team at home, you will not regret it.
I have to say I'm a little confused about the attendance situation. It used to be someone's job to market and sell these tickets. I know because I worked with him when I was a graduate assistant for the athletic department in 2011-’12. Someone isn't doing their job, I'm sorry, but it needs to be called out. It is also frustrating because they are centering entire weekends around football, and not for anything but the football team is not and will never be a player on the national stage. If the hockey players feel insulted, I certainly wouldn't blame them.
I'm concerned with it as well. Last season Merrimack was north of 90% capacity and averaged 2,266.
This season, that's dipped to 74% with an average of 1,885.
This isn't perfect match, but money is everything in college sports now. You need money to run your program and pay players. Being down 381 tickets per game is about $11,430 per game (based on the $30 reserve ticket price). Again, I realize that's not perfect math because of season tickets, etc. But it's still lost revenue.
I know they hired a company to run all of their ticketing and sponsorship (PlayFly). I'm sure there in a transitional period right now, which would impact promotional efforts.
If you take out Homecoming, which skews the numbers radically, football is up about 200 tickets per game (roughly) compared to last year.
I guess that explains it. We had the most sellouts in a row in the country, I believe, back then. What we didn't admit at the time is that many of those tickets were given away for free 😂. Hopefully nobody cares about me saying that 15 years later 😂. But hey, it creates a better atmosphere, and looks better visually, than a seat that is going to be empty anyway. It also creates a lot of momentum and publicity around the team. I guess you can't play it fast and loose like that anymore. Those were the days. But, I do think that they could stand to use a little creativity and outside the box thinking at this point. Everything is too corporate otherwise.