NHL Offers Fan Incentives

Now that the National Hockey League is back in action, how is it going to bring fans back to the game, considering it’s a lot easier to juice a baseball than a puck?

All ribbing aside, the NHL is planning to introduce a flurry of apologies, lower ticket prices and special events to lure back hockey fans after a 10-month labor dispute, according to the Los Angeles Times. And, unlike the bad blood from the 1994-95 baseball strike, hockey fans are not as upset.

“The research I have done, fans have responded positively,” Dean Bonham of sports marketing firm Bonham Group told the Times. “They told us they understood the issues and that it needed to be fixed and if it was fixed, they would come back and support the NHL.”

The recent lockout had been brewing for years, with team owners claiming the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement with its players was untenable, making the league unprofitable. Last fall’s lockout meant this was the first year there wasn’t a Stanley Cup winner since 1919.

“From my perspective, fan loyalty is a lot stronger and a lot deeper than the so-called experts claim,” Mighty Ducks GM Brian Burke told the paper. “They follow the game passionately. … It will rebound stronger and quicker than people expected.”

The Anaheim team has already unveiled price cuts on season tickets, and the Los Angeles Kings plan on some price cuts, too, after it issues an expected apology in a full-page newspaper advertisement.

The New York Rangers scheduled an event July 25th where the first 1,000 fans received a voucher for two tickets to a regular season game, and the city’s Islanders announced 3,000 ducats would be available at $10 for 10 first-half regular season home games, the Times said.

“The three main things fans care about are winning, affordability and access,” Kings President Tim Leiweke told the paper. “That doesn’t come from some crazy guy writing crazy checks. We now have a system that makes that possible. We paid a hell of a price to get to this day, and I hope we can move the game forward.”

Ticket price reduction is not expected in Detroit, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto, where hockey has strong support, according to the Times.