June 7, 2011
Here at TicketIQ we use our proprietary data to come up with interesting trends and predictions within the secondary ticket market. With the news recently that the Atlanta Thrashers would be moving to Winnipeg, we thought it would be interesting to try and predict the impact on the secondary that another team would have on Canada. We were able to determine an estimate for the average ticket price on the secondary market for the Winnipeg hockey team during the 2011-12 regular season. Click here to see the breakdown of the numbers and how we came up with the figures.
This move of hockey back to Winnipeg has sparked great interest in tickets. Ed Tait of the Winnipeg Free Press describes how the season ticket process worked:
“Tickets are available exclusively on the website www.driveto13.com and fans were being asked to make three, four or five-year commitments by putting down deposits of $500 to $1,000. True North implemented the drive to provide the organization with a degree of financial certainty and as evidence of the market strength when the NHL's board of governors gather to approve the sale of the team from the Atlanta Spirit group to True North later this month.”
If you were one of the fans in Winnipeg that was unable to secure season tickets, you will still have a chance to scoop them up on the secondary market, but it will cost you. In an article in the Winnipeg Sun, author Ross Romaniuk writes that there is a perception that some people might buy Winnipeg tickets to try and turn a profit. The author quotes Jim Ludlow, President of True North (the group who owns the franchise) as saying:
“We don’t condone unsanctioned secondary markets…We are uncomfortable with a secondary market out there, because it’s not regulated. We don’t sanction it. People do that at their own risk.”
From any angle you look at it, Winnipeg hockey tickets will be very in demand next season. Although some are skeptical of the secondary ticket market up north, it the end it might be the only avenue fans in Winnipeg have to see professional hockey that has been absent for 15 years.
