Winnipeg Jets see modest rise in sales of season tickets over previous year

October 15, 2024 Canuck

The Winnipeg Jets are reporting a modest increase in season-ticket sales, marking the end of a five-year slide that sparked concerns about the long-term viability of the smallest market in the National Hockey League.

The Jets’ season-ticket base in 2024-25 is approximately 10,000 season-ticket equivalents, which comprise both full-season, half-season, quarter-season and smaller multi-game packages, says Norva Riddell, the vice president in charge of sales and revenue for True North Sports and Entertainment.

That represents an increase from a base of approximately 9,500 in 2023-24, a level True North chair Mark Chipman described in February as unsustainable in terms of generating enough revenue to ice a competitive team.

The increase of about 500 season tickets represents about $2.6 million in additional ticket revenue, according to a CBC News analysis of the team’s listed ticket packages.

Riddell says the Jets also held on to about 95 per cent of its season ticket holders from 2023-24, the best retention rate True North has experienced since before the pandemic.

“We’re excited to see the positive momentum that we’re getting. But make no mistake, we understand that we’re not done,” Riddell said on Friday at Canada Life Centre prior to the Jets’ home opener against the Chicago Blackhawks.

“It’s nice to see that we’ve calmed the decline and that we’re seeing the upswing now, but it’s not done by any means. There’s just still so much work left that we have to do.”

True North remains about 3,000 season tickets away from its goal of restoring its subscription sales base to 13,000 season-ticket equivalents, a level equal to what the club enjoyed for the first eight seasons after the NHL returned to Winnipeg in 2011.

A variety of factors contributed to the bleeding of season-ticket subscribers between 2018 and 2023.

The average consumer in the Winnipeg market has less purchasing power than they did prior to the pandemic, simply by virtue of wage growth not keeping up with inflation. The pandemic itself also deprived some paying fans of income and allowed others to learn they could live without watching hockey in person.

A series of customer-experience surveys conducted by True North revealed some some fans had safety concerns about downtown Winnipeg, while others had complaints about their experience inside Canada Life Centre, including the quality of the concessions in the arena and the length of time it takes to enter the building in the dead of winter, Riddell says.

Some fans also complained the club’s season-ticket offerings were too inflexible in that they required fans to purchase more games than they could afford, she said.

Assumptions verified

Riddell calls the feedback beneficial because it verified assumptions the organization already had about the quality of the customer experience at Jets games.

She says True North has made a concerted effort over the past two years to rectify that problem by offering more flexible ticket packages, taking over management of its concessions and instituting new security measures that speed the flow of entry into games, among other changes.

“We can’t control the product on the ice,” Riddell said, referring to her sales team. “What we can control is pretty much everything else. We can control how we make you feel. We can control how we service you. We can control your experience when you come into the venue.”

A puck-carrier in blue skates away from a player in white, who stretches his stick out while on his knees. — Winnipeg Jets forward Morgan Barron skates away from Chicago Blackhawks Wyatt Kaiser during Friday’s NHL game in Winnipeg. The Jets are reporting more season-ticket subscribers, though it’s too soon to say what effect that will have on overall attendance. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press)

At the Jets’ home opener, season-ticket holder Lonn Vokey said he appreciated the effort, citing discounts on beer for season-ticket holders as an example.

“I just like the changes that they made. They made it more comfortable. They brought in a little more concessions,” said Vokey, a season-ticket holder since 2011.

Corporate sales tough to quantify

What’s less clear is how much progress True North has made in selling season tickets to businesses.

In 2023, Chipman said corporate buyers make up a smaller proportion of the season-ticket base in Winnipeg than they do in other Canadian NHL markets.

Riddell says any growth in corporate sales over the past year is tough to quantify, partly because her organization has more work to do in classifying what actually constitutes a business subscriber vs. an individual customer.

“That’s a complicated question as it relates specifically to how people choose to designate their seats. You may have a business, but you use the tickets personally,” she said.

It’s also too early in the 2024-25 NHL season to determine what effect 500 more season-ticket equivalents will have on overall attendance to Jets games.

During the 2023-24 season, the Jets sold an average of 13,490 tickets per game, according to hockeyDB.com. That worked out to 1,831 empty seats at Canada Life Centre, the second-smallest arena in the NHL.

Through two home games this season, the Jets are averaging 13,740 paying fans. Canada Life Centre remains the second-smallest venue, as the Delta Centre in Salt Lake City, home of the Utah Hockey Club, seats 11,131 for NHL games.

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