At the press conference on Wednesday afternoon about half of the room had their fingers ready and open to Twitter waiting to tweet any big news and the first and possibly the biggest new news item to come out was that every seat (next to the glass or at the top of the Broad St side) in Blue Cross Arena would be available for $10 when purchased as a season ticket. Â This is one of those deals that sounds too good to be true but it’s not. The Buffalo Sabres want to pack the building with a strong initial fan base and this is their way of showing that.
I can’t find the link at this time but I believe it was Kevin Oklobzija that had talked with SMG and it was mentioned that only once or possibly twice has Blue Cross Arena ever been completely sold out for an Amerks hockey game (since the new renovations). Â Could that change under new Sabres ownership? Â Possible and I hope so. Â A packed arena can be annoying but it certainly creates an amazing and fun environment.
When I asked Ted Black about the tarps over the Broad Street 200 end sections of the arena he said that the only way they would stay up is if someone offered him a check for $100,000 in sponsorships. Â I doubt that’ll be happening so the tarps will be coming down. Â This should make some fans happy who lost their seats when the tarps initially went up.
So, how will all of this work? Â If you’re an existing Amerks season ticket holder you’ll be getting a refund if you’ve already paid more than the cost would be at $10 a ticket. Â If you haven’t renewed yet but want to you will be able to and still keep the seat you’ve had, I’d suggest getting in touch with your ticket rep asap.
Right now they are only taking reservations for tickets, seat locations are not being handed out at this time. Â When talking about this deal Ted Black made it clear they want to cater to those who’ve been around for years before opening everything up to newcomers.
The Amerks will continue to have one of the cheapest tickets for American Hockey League games. Â It helps that the Buffalo Sabres have the pockets deep enough to offer such an amazing deal right at the start of things. Â Curt Styres did fluctuate ticket prices but he had to in order to keep revenues coming in.
The news that 100 new season tickets were sold on the first day is a great sign of things to come. Hopefully by the end of the week that’ll be closer to 500!
Free agency starts tomorrow, time to start turning the focus to what the on ice product is going to look like.
