Stomping On The Devils Grass Roots Support
I’m now officially worried that the Devils organization is proceeding with complete and total oblivion to the fan base, or at least to how the fan base communicates, collaborates and exchanges ideas in the world of user-generated content and media. We’re not all sitting here waiting for the official line on ticket sales, the new arena, or Colin White’s eye; we’re reading blogs, comparing notes, and generally commenting on the (sad) state of affairs in what I had hoped would be Rock City. I don’t get a daily newspaper, but I do read 2 Man Advantage, In Lou We Trust, and Tom Gulitti’s Fire and Ice (Tom writes for the Bergen Record, covering the Devils) at least daily. I get ESPN Magazine and The Hockey News, but if I want to find out about the Devils, I read grass-roots media. And the grass roots are being stepped on.
Looking for some kind of uplift on a crummy Friday morning, I called the Devils office to see how my Power Player application was received. It was received (or so they say), but according to the woman who organizes game entertainment, the Power Player team was selected already. I can appreciate the Devils not wanting to burn an audition slot on a fat middle-aged guy who was there for humor and publicity purposes, but at least let me know that. No email, no phone call, not even a nicely printed note with a picture of someone scoring a non-existent goal. What I read into this: The Devils will do things their way, and if you have an idea, shut up and sit down in your $200 seat.
Which leads to the subject of seats. I am a member of two groups that share season tickets. My total spend for one group, which had been happily in Section 232 of the swamp for years, went up by about 25% this year. The seats are in the new lower bowl, with probably a better view, so we’re willing to try it for a season. I’m hoping that we’re actually closer to the ice surface in the Rock, and that I’m not flushing money into this bowl, but we’ll see on October 31st when I’m at my first game. The other group hasn’t gelled yet; it involved seats four rows off of the ice. I know that the group decided to cut our ticket plan in half, going for 2 seats instead of 4, mostly due to the fact that the cost per ticket has nearly doubled. Our $72 seats in East Rutherford are now $150, and while they include food — and I am never shy about eating at a game — I can’t see spending about $50 per person on chicken and soda. I know of three other season ticket holders scrambling to unload parts of their plans as well. This does not bode well for the new arena — without a strong season ticket holder base, you have a lot of premium seats without butts in them.
Which leads to the subject of ticket resale. Many teams have developed ticket resales systems where you can put your season tickets up for sale, effectively emailing them to someone else, collecting a fee for the transfer of the seats. The San Francisco Giants DoublePlay system is probably the best I’ve used, allowing me to pick up tickets the day of a game, through the Giants’ web site, through eBay or StubHub (now the same company) or directly from the ticket holder, with a simple email moving the seats to their new covers. More people will make larger commitments, earlier in the year, if they know that travel, vacation, illness, work emergencies, school plays, and unexpected dinners with the in-laws won’t lead to money scraped up by the Zamboni. Furthermore, the data collected by the teams with such a system gives you insights into how tickets move, who buys single games, what kinds of premiums are placed on various days, dates and times, and what the optimum packaging and re-packaging might be. Listening to the fans one email removed, in a way. There’s a reason the San Francisco Giants can sit in the bottom of the NL West, and still sell out nearly every game, and it’s not Barry Bonds. It’s because they truly invest in making sure their fans are loyal and having fun.
So far this season I’ve found out there’s no parking deck (yet) at the Prudential Center, I’m paying a lot more for seats without any assurances that I can easily resell tickets I might not be able to use, I’m implicitly told that my opinions as a long-term fan and strong, vocal, public free-lance writer are not worth a simple acknowledgement, and the team plays defense worse than my son’s bantam team due to lack of a reasonable signing over the summer. Perhaps this customer-last attitude works on Wall Street (I’ve certainly witnessed it, which is why I do my business with on-line brokerages only) but it’s not healthy for a franchise that depends on fans. Unlike Wall Street, there’s no money to be made in losing transactions. I would love a piece of the Rock — but don’t throw it at my head.
Tags: rock