Oilers complaint

[TheTed]

The Oilers lost out on my money for the second straight time tonight. I got there and hour and a half before gametime only to find out that the cheapest tickets ($12 and only available in a couple sections) were sold out.

This happened a few weeks ago as well.

I refuse to pay $17 for low level minor league sports, especially when I'll probably end up spending $20 on food beer.

It's $5-$7 to go to a Drillers game or just about any minor league baseball game. There are plenty of $10 tickets to 66ers games, as well.

Why are Oilers tickets three times as much as Drillers tickets?

It seems the Oilers' prices are out of line with prices for minor league sports, and their $12 tickets end up being a tease. Either you have to go to the box office in advance or buy online in advance (and pay $10 in fees, defeating the purpose of buying cheap tickets).

You'd think they'd want to offer more cheap tickets. Filling some of those empty seats with people who'll spend $20 each on concessions seems like a wise business move.

[sgrizzle]

I've gone to a dozen games, never bought a ticket, they give free ones out all the time...

The $12 section is small (orange in the map below) If attendance improves they will start selling upper deck (cheap) tickets but so far attendance (and performance) is down.

The drillers have low upkeep, don't have to freeze and zamboni the film, and play about 4 times the games the oilers do. The 66ers are just trying to get anyone to show up. I believe talons tickets are actually higher than the oilers.

You can't compare sport-to-sport like that, there are a lot of cost differences. Not to mention the concession argument doesn't work since while you spend $20 on concessions, they get something like $6.

[MDepr2007]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I've gone to a dozen games, never bought a ticket, they give free ones out all the time...

The $12 section is small (orange in the map below) If attendance improves they will start selling upper deck (cheap) tickets but so far attendance (and performance) is down.

The drillers have low upkeep, don't have to freeze and zamboni the film, and play about 4 times the games the oilers do. The 66ers are just trying to get anyone to show up. I believe talons tickets are actually higher than the oilers.

You can't compare sport-to-sport like that, there are a lot of cost differences. Not to mention the concession argument doesn't work since while you spend $20 on concessions, they get something like $6.

Didn't Lund and Henry throw a fit a few years ago and got a bigger share of concessions than that?

[Hoss]

quote:Originally posted by TheTed

The Oilers lost out on my money for the second straight time tonight. I got there and hour and a half before gametime only to find out that the cheapest tickets ($12 and only available in a couple sections) were sold out.

This happened a few weeks ago as well.

I refuse to pay $17 for low level minor league sports, especially when I'll probably end up spending $20 on food beer.

It's $5-$7 to go to a Drillers game or just about any minor league baseball game. There are plenty of $10 tickets to 66ers games, as well.

Why are Oilers tickets three times as much as Drillers tickets?

It seems the Oilers' prices are out of line with prices for minor league sports, and their $12 tickets end up being a tease. Either you have to go to the box office in advance or buy online in advance (and pay $10 in fees, defeating the purpose of buying cheap tickets).

You'd think they'd want to offer more cheap tickets. Filling some of those empty seats with people who'll spend $20 each on concessions seems like a wise business move.

Because the Oilers play 32 home games compared to the Drillers 75?

And if you wanted the cheap tickets, tonight wasn't for it since they were retiring Doug Lawrence's jersey.

[TheTed]

I just perused some other teams in Tulsa's league and the other teams' prices seem similar to ours.

But just as far as entertainment value, it seems a stretch for folks who aren't huge hockey fans to pay $17 to watch low level hockey that isn't likely to produce an NHL star and isn't remotely prominent nationally.

I'd be happy if they'd just add a few sections to those $12 tickets. This is the second time this year I've tried to attend a game but balked at paying $17. Just about every other local sports and nightlife option is cheaper.

I guess this is the price we pay for the BOK Center, as I see the Talons cheap seats are the same price in the same couple sections. It's a shame. Call me crazy, but to me there's not much difference in terms of the average fan experience from the old dumpy convention center to the bok center.

[deinstein]

Buy tickets earlier.

[TheTed]

Meh, I'll probably just choose other options.

It's now $5 to go to an ORU basketball game.

$10 for a TU basketball game.

$10 for 66ers.

$8 for a movie.

No charge to get in the door at McNellie's.

Even OKC Thunder tickets are ridiculously cheap on the secondary market for most games.

None of that stuff requires as much advance plannning.

[deinstein]

Too bad none of that is ice hockey.

[Wilbur]

quote:Originally posted by TheTed

The Oilers lost out on my money for the second straight time tonight. I got there and hour and a half before gametime only to find out that the cheapest tickets ($12 and only available in a couple sections) were sold out.

This happened a few weeks ago as well.

I refuse to pay $17 for low level minor league sports, especially when I'll probably end up spending $20 on food beer.

It's $5-$7 to go to a Drillers game or just about any minor league baseball game. There are plenty of $10 tickets to 66ers games, as well.

Why are Oilers tickets three times as much as Drillers tickets?

It seems the Oilers' prices are out of line with prices for minor league sports, and their $12 tickets end up being a tease. Either you have to go to the box office in advance or buy online in advance (and pay $10 in fees, defeating the purpose of buying cheap tickets).

You'd think they'd want to offer more cheap tickets. Filling some of those empty seats with people who'll spend $20 each on concessions seems like a wise business move.

Eat at home, then take the $20 you were going to spend on food and spend it on higher priced tickets!

[TheTed]

The point is, I don't take kindly to being ripped off. This isn't the NHL and Tulsa isn't Moosejaw.

The Tulsa Oilers are never gonna be on ESPN. Nationally speaking they're irrelevant.

I could go to a scalper outside an NHL game in just about any sunbelt city and get tickets for less than $17 each. If Tulsa ever got an NHL team, I'm fairly confident I'd be able to get in the door for less than $17 a ticket.

If a CHL team is charging anywhere similar to NHL prices, especially in a city where hockey is irrelevant, they're nuts.

[RecycleMichael]

I agree with the Ted...$17 is too high to attend a minor league sporting event unless you want really good seats. The Oilers would do better offering more of the $12 seats rather than turn people away.

[Noodlez]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I've gone to a dozen games, never bought a ticket, they give free ones out all the time...

Where are the free ones? I know nothing of hockey but for free I would check it out lol

[Hoss]

quote:Originally posted by TheTed

The point is, I don't take kindly to being ripped off. This isn't the NHL and Tulsa isn't Moosejaw.

The Tulsa Oilers are never gonna be on ESPN. Nationally speaking they're irrelevant.

I could go to a scalper outside an NHL game in just about any sunbelt city and get tickets for less than $17 each. If Tulsa ever got an NHL team, I'm fairly confident I'd be able to get in the door for less than $17 a ticket.

If a CHL team is charging anywhere similar to NHL prices, especially in a city where hockey is irrelevant, they're nuts.

HOw is that being ripped off?  You should look at the other teams in the league and see how they compare.  OKC's team is right about the same price points, as are a lot of the others.

But your choice, I guess.  Hockey isn't that popular in the south.  I happen to like hockey and have held season tickets almost every season since 1998.

And evidently, you've never been to an NHL hockey game.  Where I sit now the seats in the CHL are $30.  I spent $115 on the same seats in the same general location for a seat in St. Louis.  You might want to look on NHL websites before taking a jab at our 'irrelevent' team, that has been around in some form or another for the better part of 80 years.

[TheTed]

quote:Originally posted by Hoss

quote:Originally posted by TheTed

The point is, I don't take kindly to being ripped off. This isn't the NHL and Tulsa isn't Moosejaw.

The Tulsa Oilers are never gonna be on ESPN. Nationally speaking they're irrelevant.

I could go to a scalper outside an NHL game in just about any sunbelt city and get tickets for less than $17 each. If Tulsa ever got an NHL team, I'm fairly confident I'd be able to get in the door for less than $17 a ticket.

If a CHL team is charging anywhere similar to NHL prices, especially in a city where hockey is irrelevant, they're nuts.

HOw is that being ripped off?  You should look at the other teams in the league and see how they compare.  OKC's team is right about the same price points, as are a lot of the others.

But your choice, I guess.  Hockey isn't that popular in the south.  I happen to like hockey and have held season tickets almost every season since 1998.

And evidently, you've never been to an NHL hockey game.  Where I sit now the seats in the CHL are $30.  I spent $115 on the same seats in the same general location for a seat in St. Louis.  You might want to look on NHL websites before taking a jab at our 'irrelevent' team, that has been around in some form or another for the better part of 80 years.

I did look at every other team in Tulsa's division, and our prices are in line with everybody else's. That doesn't make it right. That doesn't make it a decent value.

It is a ripoff in comparison to every other option, as I outlined in a previous post.

No disrespect to you, but hockey is irrelevant in Tulsa. You know that and everybody else knows that. There's nothing wrong with being a hockey fan, but you have to know there aren't too many of them in Tulsa.

The Tulsa Oilers are never gonna be on ESPN, except maybe a two second clip if there's some massive brawl or a once in a lifetime fluke play.

The ticket prices are fine if you're a hockey fan, but if the Oilers are marketing solely to hockey fans in Tulsa, they're missing 99.9% of their potential audience.

I, and the vast majority of Tulsans, don't care too much about hockey. All I want to do is have a good time without spending too much money. That's pretty much the definition of minor league sports. Nobody cares much if they win or lose.

I could get a ticket for less than $17 to an NHL game in Nashville, Dallas, Atlanta and probably lots of other places where people's interest level in hockey is similar to Tulsa's.

$17 for any minor league sporting event, especially a very low leve minor league, is ludicrous unless you're getting front row VIP treatment.

[Wilbur]

I didn't think our prices were too bad.  My wife and I go fairly regular and sit in the $20 seat.  We've sat in more expensive seats, but they were actually too close to the ice and it was too hard to see the other end of the ice.

I've been to some NHL games and never spent less the $100 per ticket.  Was at a Washington Caps game in December in Wash DC and spent well over $100.  Hockey games aren't cheap, but they are fun.

I find Tulsa's prices fair for three hours of entertainment.

Baseball prices are cheaper because you get to sleep through a lot of the game before someone actually does something.