No increase in ticket prices without a series: the CH should be inspired by the Rangers

Dose
Crédit: Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

It’s been a few years since the Canadian team hasn’t played playoff hockey. In fact, they did it in 2020 and 2021, but those two participations came in a particular context.

We have to go back to 2017 to find the last year the club qualified outright.

That being said, you know as well as I do that it always costs a lot to go to the Centre Bell. Ray Lalonde just talked about it on the 5 to 7 on Monday (exaggerating a bit): it’s not because the CH is not performing that the club gives discounts to fans.

And what’s really interesting is that today, the Rangers made an interesting announcement related to all this: if the club doesn’t make the playoffs this season, the price of season tickets won’t increase.

It’s not a “discount” as Lalonde mentioned, but in a world where ticket prices constantly increase, the principle is essentially the same.

In fact, the club’s performance will dictate whether there’s a price increase, because if the Rangers make the playoffs, there will be a “moderate” increase.

I wonder if some season ticket holders hope the Rangers don’t make the playoffs to avoid this “moderate” increase… but that’s another story.

And that’s a really interesting principle. We agree that the Rangers wouldn’t have a problem selling all their season tickets even if the club doesn’t make the playoffs, but the club still doesn’t want to raise its prices after a season that didn’t meet expectations.

In Montreal, where the team has been at the bottom of the standings for three years (it’s different this year, of course, but it was the case for three consecutive seasons), the price increases every year. And playoffs or not, next year, prices will increase again.

And like in New York, it’s not an increase that will prevent the CH from selling its tickets… but it seems to me that an increase, even a “moderate” one, is better accepted when the team the customer is paying for performs well on the ice, right?

In rapid fire

– Let’s hope he avoided the worst.

– Quinn Hughes could return to play tonight.

– Yesterday’s refereeing is still being talked about.

– We can understand that.

– Indeed.