Fan In Van

200 Sellouts Hardly Impressing

Everyone seems to make a big huff about how the Vancouver Canucks have sold out their games for two hundred straight contests. And, while it is a large number of consecutive sellouts and quite an accomplishment, selling out isn’t exactly a hard task.

Let me remind you that there are over 17,000 season ticket holders in Vancouver. And, more often than not, a majority of those ticket holders are rich businessmen who take clients to games to impress them. Beyond that, there are also a handful of ticket holders who sell their tickets on Craigslist or eBay for more than what they paid for them.

“We Are All Canucks” continues to be the catch phrase for the Vancouver Canucks organization, but I want to know how many of those in attendance are actually Canucks.

An old article in The Province published in 2005 reported the numbers on season ticket holders:

The renewal rate of season-ticket holders from 2003-04 is 93 per cent. The Canucks have reached their ceiling of 17,000 season tickets sold (the club keeps 1,630 seats free for individual ticket sales) and still have a waiting list for 1,500 season tickets.

About 60 per cent of those sales are for full-year seats, the other 40 per cent sold in “ice-pak” allotments, where people can buy 11-game, 15-game or 21-game packages. Most full-year seat buyers have partners, dividing a pair of seats among two to four people. The cheapest season-ticket seats are $27.50 per seat per game. Highest are the lower bowl seats, which go for $100.

And if memory serves me correctly, the Canucks automatically count those 17,000 tickets as “sold-out” seats, leaving only 1,630 individual seats required to sell; not exactly a difficult task in Vancouver.

I had a friend who two years ago put down a large sum of money as a deposit for season tickets just to get on the waiting list. He started at #1302 and in the two years he’s waited has only moved up 23 spots to #1279. At this rate, he’ll be able to get those season tickets by the year 2063. He can’t hardly wait, believe me.

It’s time for the Canucks to put a lower ceiling on the amount of season ticket holders; 17,000 is just far too much. And in a market where the Canuck fans are plentiful and endless, it seems only fair that the Canucks allow these fans to get a better grip on tickets. While they’re at it, they could stand to lower the ticket prices (The Canucks currently have the 2nd-highest ticket prices in the NHL).

So while the Canucks will hold a pre-game ceremony acknowledging 200 straight sellouts, it seems exaggerated when there are only 1,630 individual tickets available.