Signs of Troubled Support In Winnipeg Already?

I was checking out the roster trim announcement to see if Scheifele was being sent down to St. John's or if he's still in the hunt. He's still in Winnipeg with two games left, along with another up and comer, Postma. But it was the last paragraph that struck me as potentially alarming.

"Jets next pre-season home game is scheduled for Wednesday, September 28th at 7:30 pm against the Carolina Hurricanes. The game will be broadcast on TSN and TSN-Jets. Individual tickets are still available, [sic]"

Individual tickets are still available? Really? Isn't this the coming back of an era? Isn't the city so hungry for hockey that they just can't stand themselves? How can there possibly be individual tickets still avaiable in the smallest NHL arena during the genesis of the Jets triumphant return?

Maybe it was a typo. After all, the sentence did end in a comma, not a period like most do. I should judge that harshly on grammar and spelling. Have you read this blog? I make stupid mistakes all the time,

But there might be a realistic explanation as to why there's some tickets ready to buy. Big sporting events sometimes have an unusual side effect of creating the illusion they are sold out and impossible to get tickets when in fact there are seats available. The Braves played the Red Sox and Yankees at Turner Field a few season ago and there was massive hype for the games. But they didn't sell out because there was no walk up. There was a great amount of presale. In fact, all of the parking lots were sold out before the games. But there were tickets for sale at the box office. It's just that no one showed up at the stadium to get them. The few that did were all shocked. They caught a bus to the stadium in hopes that maybe something was there, but planned on paying lots of money to a scalper.

Maybe that's what happened. Maybe Winnipeggers just assumed that there were no tickets left and just didn't bother looking. Maybe. I can understand that. But, now there's an article talking about the potential new face of the Jets and it mentions that tickets are for sale. Surely they will be jumped on immediately, right?

The article was published at 2:00 pm (est) on Tuesday. Surely SURELY when I check Ticketmaster, there's nothing available anymore. Not in Canada. Not in Winnipeg. That can't be.





Note the time. Almost a day later than the press release. And aisle seats too, down low. I did a little bit of searching and there's nothing in the 300 section, only single(s) in the 200, but the high dollar (excuse me high looney) seats in the 100 section are there.

Before I explain my research, let me say I know that ticket availability is subject to change quickly. Teams will sometimes hold on to tickets for players or emergencies or groups or whatever for a while. Then, as it gets closer to game time, release those seats to the general public when it becomes more apparent they won't be needed for whatever reason they were being held on for. Still doesn't change the fact that seats were available for the MTS Centre at the time the article was written and the time I checked out Ticketmaster myself.

I looked at the other Canadian teams with remaining preseason games too. Montreal doesn't have anything for their game against the Lightning. There are less than 100 seats in all of the others, including the Vancouver games, and the games in Toronto and Calgary. These teams are utilizing the new interactive map with Ticketmaster making it extrodinarily easy to see what's left.

The Jets are not on board yet, so I don't know exact availablity at this time. It may be just those three seats I found. But even if its just those two seats, that's a sign.

I know the markets are different and Winnipeg is much smaller, but this should be alarming. Tickets are available in this solid hockey market that's so awesome. That's a problem to me. Not even the scalpers are snatching them up? I understand there's a law against selling tickets in Manitoba for more than face value, but still.

I understand it's the preseason and it's (for lack of better terms) not really the team and not really games. But see, in every single other NHL city, you are looking at the same thing. Prospects playing the non-game. And they are sold out or close to selling out in established markets for the remaining games in other Canadian cities. I didn't check to see how the attendance was for the other preseason games, just those that haven't happened yet. Some teams have a new look with new uniforms they are wearing (Nashville especially, but not Florida who will not wear red till opening night) or new players (Jagr on the Flyers comes to mind). But the Jets are new new new. And the hype over the tickets is incredible.

They sold out of the alotted 13000 season tickets in a few minutes. Now the remaining 2000 tickets will be sold based on a lottery system. That's how in demand we are suppose to believe they are. Fans at the first preseason game in Winnipeg (which did sell out) were quoted as saying that this was the only chance they could see the team because of the limited ticket availability for the rest of the season. Why are games against the Canes tonight and Nashville on Friday different (besides the obvious not-being-first)?

I would assume that season ticket holders got preseason tickets as well in their package. So that leaves the 2000 tickets remaining. 6000 tickets total over 3 games for a city that's been begging for hockey to return for 15 years. Some might argue that they purchased the season tickets. But that's still only 19000 tickets available for purchase for the new Jets so far (13000 season tickets plus the remaining 6000 single game preseason tickets left). And they haven't met those numbers. Even if season tickets weren't included, that's still just 45,000 tickets.

The lottery system for Winnipeg will limit a person to be considered just once this season to purchase individual game tickets. You have your name drawn before the next month's games and you can purchase up to four tickets for a game of your choice that month based on availability of course with others drawn for that month. The preseason is just first come, first serve. Buy for all three. Buy 10 tickets, a group of 20. Whatever.

Let's put this in comparison. Remember when I talked about the Florida Marlins game where only 347 people showed up? The official attendance was announced as 22,505. That means that 22,505 tickets were sold (maybe some comps too). Winnipeg, with a triumphant return to the NHL has sold less tickets for their first three games than the lowly Florida Marlins did against the Reds for one day game in August. Tickets that popular speculation says will not be able to be made up by fans that miss the opportunity, unlike Marlin fans. If you miss a particular game in Florida, you can find tickets for another game in Florida. But not Winnipeg.

I'd say there are signs of trouble.

And here's something else to consider. We will never know if there is trouble with the team for several years if we use the ticket sales as a messuring rod. Season tickets were sold on a multi-year contract only leaving 2000 single game tickets for years to come. Putting those tickets into a lottery system may have been smart because it will all be done in house. No one can confirm how many tickets are available for a particular game. No one will be able to tell if enough people even entered the lottery to sell out all the games in that allotment. But Winnipeg will sell out every game because any remaining ticket will be compensated towards someone boosting the number and putting butts in the seats, even if those people didn't pay for those seats. I'm sure some of the 22,505 in Florida were in the same category of freebies too. Doesn't change the fact that less than 19,000 or 45,000 tickets have been sold in Manitoba. It actually makes the team look worse if you consider some of those might be complimentary tickets as well, so I'm giving benefit of the doubt in assuming all tickets are tickets sold.

I'm not saying that the ticket number manipulation will certainly happen, but it will be difficult to confirm that it's not (unless attendance really starts to suffer, like in Florida where you can count the number of people in the stands over your lunch break by hand). The citizens of Winnipeg may legit sell out every game, I hope so. I'm just starting to see a small chink in the armor of the Winnipeg Jets' support. It may be more lip service than what a team really needs, people paying money.