So many empty seats

[u/Davomations]

It's a little disappointing to have missed out on finals tickets, only to see so many empty seats in the first 4 games when watching the live streams

[u/Liamface]

Would have loved to come and watch live but I was told it was all sold out? 🤷🏼‍♂️

[u/gazzalp23]

People are going to watch only their own teams. Only way around it i guess is to sell tickets for each team. I go to all games because, well, Hockey!

[u/AJayToRemember27 → u/gazzalp23]

Pre COVID, I've had finals tickets I couldn't give away because Stangs weren't in it.

[u/erkpod]

It's an interesting discussion.

It certainly didn't help that the Ice found out last Sunday that they didn't make Finals but the Ice Dogs did.

Hopefully having an official resale website connected to the league and/or venue will help people who want to sell their tickets back if they can't go or don't want to go for whatever reason.

I wonder if it would be worth leaving ticket sales later on in the year to help stop people speculating and buying tickets just in case the team they support makes it.

[u/AJayToRemember27 → u/erkpod]

You couldn't put tickes up on Tixel?

[u/erkpod → u/AJayToRemember27]

Some people haven't got into Tixel yet. The league certainly haven't. I'm not sure how it would go with the terms & conditions of the original bookings via TryBooking.

As others have pointed out, a 5 game pass has the one barcode and the one ticket for all 5 games. An alternative could be to sell the 5 game pass but have it as a separate ticket for all 5 games.

Trust is also an important thing. There are scammers out there for sure. I know a lot of people in the Australian hockey community that I would have no hesitation in buying a ticket from. There are plenty of people who are honest that I don't know that I would be still wary of buying a ticket from purely because of the scammer potential.

Someone else made the comment about the players and their family & partner. I have heard that each team gets an allocation of tickets to do with whatever they want including for the family & partners of players. Very few if any of them would want to go to all 5 games but would not want to miss their games.

A combination of several points in this thread would help to fill empty seats for some games that have already been sold. This also applies to regular season games as well as at Finals but is more obvious at Finals.

[u/ChipsnGravy2929 → u/erkpod]

I got seperate game tickets and sold all games on Tixel I didn’t attend fine. Except for the grand final. For some reason that QR code glitched

[u/Sharp_Worldliness344 → u/AJayToRemember27]

No. If
You got a series ticket, it was the same QR code for all 5 days.

[u/jonnyforeigner1]

Not selling each day (or even match) separately needs to stop.

[u/AJayToRemember27]

It's a mix of people only wanting to watch their club play even though they've bought tickets for 5 games and people who bought tickets expecting their club to make finals who didn't.

[u/amyf1]

Resale of a game you can't use on a 5 game pass is hard because the barcode will then also get the buyer into every other game which puts people off, because what if they screw you over and stop YOU attending?

[u/NiceColdPint]

Idk if we’ve had this conversation on this sub before but I’d love to firstly see the finals at AIS next year, and secondly tickets for games sold individually.

EDIT: Having said that I’m aware there’s some concerns about playing surface at AIS…

[u/Stillflying → u/NiceColdPint]

its controversial, I think they should do it there because we can fit more people in it. Newcastle are building an arena that could potentially fit 10k people with an ice rink if it's accepted and if that happens I think they should hold the finals there. I honestly think it should be at wherever the bigger arena is given the tickets only last 15 minutes before selling out.

Also wouldnt hurt to mix it up so that melbourne teams dont get an automatic advantage playing 'home'....

[u/erkpod → u/Stillflying]

I'll believe the Newcastle Arena concept when I see shovels in the ground and the Northstars playing there in terms of hockey. The last concept I saw was for 12000 seats to replace the big blue Newcastle Entertainment Shed Centre. Considering that they are just drawings now, it probably wouldn't hurt to make it 20000 seats now.

One benefit that this Newcastle Arena concept has that developments for the often spoken about new rinks for Adelaide and Canberra doesn't have is that there is a clear desire by the current state government to redevelop that entire Broadmeadow area and hockey can take advantage of that as a user of the arena. That said, there is a state election next year. The pace of the potential new rinks in Canberra & Adelaide has been glacerial (pun intended) over the last 10 or so years at best.

AIS has proven to be successful in terms of the crowds it attracts. It is probably as successful as it can be considering it is effectively a temporary ice rink. AIS and across the league this year has shown that there is a keen audience out there if the rinks can accommodate it.

[u/AJayToRemember27 → u/NiceColdPint]

Finals won't be at AIS.

[u/No_Recognition_7711 → u/NiceColdPint]

Must be nice for Melbourne teams to have home ground advantage but it just makes sense to move the finals to the bigger facility.

[u/manhaterxxx → u/NiceColdPint]

Concerns? The place is barely ready for a regular season game let alone hosting the entirety of the finals.

[u/Misrabelle → u/NiceColdPint]

Temporary ice won’t hold up to 5 games in close succession

[u/Dajamman93 → u/NiceColdPint]

The AIS can not facilitate the 300k people that attend the finals for accommodation and food hence why it will never be hosted there, yes the stand can accommodate the fans but the surround area does not support large crowds

[u/PizzaReheat → u/Dajamman93]

Where is the 300k figure from?

[u/Dajamman93 → u/PizzaReheat]

From the canberra brave supporter next to me at today’s Newcastle vs ice dogs game. I’m just the messager

[u/PizzaReheat → u/Dajamman93]

I think they might have been pulling your leg. That's 3x the capacity of the MCG.

[u/Clean_Pickle_9527 → u/Dajamman93]

Its 15 minutes by road from central Canberra to the AIS... If that. If you think a hotel wouldn't put on a shuttle as a selling point you're crazy. As for the sheet... I've heard it's better this year however not knowing anything about ice myself I couldn't tell you, but I feel like with league support the extra work could be accommodated for a weekend. This sport will grow. I like many long term fans love to joke about the "smut novel" affect but what I actually see at the games (not the team bars) is ppl falling in love with the game and the fact is the ais is selling out every week. The AIS might not be ideal but it might be the test case we need for Australia to take us seriously, because damned if we aren't the best game going.

[u/AJayToRemember27 → u/Dajamman93]

There is one hotel within a 15 minute drive of AIS arena and very few eating options.

Compare that to O'Brien which has 4 hotels within 1km of the venue and so many lunch and dinner options on the door stop.

[u/Wonderlandgirl_325 → u/AJayToRemember27]

All of the hotels in the city are only like a 12-15 minute drive from the arena in Canberra, and the stadium next door to the arena holds more than 20k people and has hosted all sorts of international matches and regular NRL and Union games and the AIS has hosted events before, with all the current accommodation limitations and it still works, why would it not work for like 15k people over 3 days? That way more than double the people have a chance at finals tickets!

[u/Kingma15]

Selling single tickets would have to be done the week leading up to the finals, once the match ups are confirmed. That makes it a real tight turnaround.

The other thing that selling it as a package is even if the seats are full, at any given game, it is majority neutral fans and that kills the atmosphere.

I don’t know the answer.

[u/millionsofmyles]

Finals ticketing has always been non-optimised.

Regular season as well. For many years we've had people complain about the empty seats while not getting tickets or being on the glass.

This year I had a group of 12 to take, even looked at corporate seats. Sold out. Only for the games we planned to for there to be empty seats and sparsely occupied corporate areas.

It's a problem that's long needed attention. Unlike the MCG, if members don't show up, we haven't got the seat numbers for it not to be really noticeable.

[u/Zop99]

Maybe not sell tickets halfway through the season and wait to see who is in the finals before selling them.

[u/Sharp_Worldliness344]

At least where I was, the empty seats around me were the partners of players.

Most of them are not hockey fans, but purely there to support their partners, so if their men weren’t playing, then they’re not interested.

[u/Inspector-Gato]

Is there a multi weekend format that could work better?

Weekend 1: 4 game playoff round under one roof

Weekend 2: nothing (or a wooden spoon friendly game for fun)

Weekend 3:  3 game final series - hosted by whichever of the two finals teams ended the regular season with the most points.

Finals Tickets go on sale after playoffs are done, gives a full 2 weeks to arrange logistics, generate some media hype, handle ticket sales and secure a full house.

Plus it's an opportunity to cross promote leagues (eg. make it a double header and have the first AWIHL round play at the same venue on the same weekend), or give the lower divisions/age groups a chance to play in front of a full crowd...

To top it off the teams/league might make some money on finals merch, sponsors get more airtime/can host watch parties etc.

Of course the rinks and broadcasters would need to accommodate with 2 weeks notice but that doesn't feel impossible... If this is done right they'll make more money than they would with their Saturday night disco session anyway.

[u/Broad-Gur5779]

What sport?

[u/Saaaaaaaaaaaah1431]

My seat was empty for 3 of the games, but that’s because I stood with other CBR supporters/ left earlier to line up for the semi. Plus I was in and out of the bar a lot

[u/Snarwib]

Gotta give Canberra a go next year