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Wanna see your favorite hockey team on its quest for an eleventh Stanley Cup? Just remortgage your house. As the economy in the state of Michigan drops lower and lower, and unemployment keeps rising, the Detroit Red Wings still want to get paid.
As playoff tickets were released last week, a dumbfounded look came over my face. I said to myself, " the cheapest seat is 63.00 dollars"? I thought that I must have been looking at prices for the Stanley Cup finals. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. I just shook my head. That was the price for round one! Remember, this was for the cheapest, nose bleed seats. Other prices were $68, $81, $99, $126, and $144 per seat.....
How in the world can the Wing justify that kind of pricing? We know its not the demand to see them. All you had to do is look at how many empty seats you seen during the season to know people are not showing up. The only thing I can think of is gouging.
The Wings priced out the average fans years ago. But after the lockout two years ago, things were supposed to change. The Wings could no longer spend 70 million dollars on their payroll. The first year had a cap of 39 million. Us fans could expect ticket prices to go down. We could afford to go to Red Wing games again. But after the NHL resumed play last year, we as Red Wing fans saw no ticket price decrease. We saw "Joe bucks". Basically coupons to get a free slice of pizza. While other hockey teams welcomed their fans back with lower ticket prices, we Red Wing fans just get the shaft.
To show I'm not just whining here lets look at other teams prices. In Nashville you can buy Predator tickets starting at $19 dollars and going up to $150. By the way, they are sold out and the Wings are not. Lets try the Dallas Stars. Well, tickets start at $14 dollars and go up to $154. Just to point this out as well. The Pittsburgh Penguins start their tickets at $55 dollars so the Wings are not the only ones making fans pay a hefty price.
As of right now, you can still buy tickets to every Red Wing playoff game. We here in the Detroit Area are still huge hockey fans. But one thing we are not going to do is run and gobble up these tickets. We will watch at our local watering hole, Our friends house, or our house. We will listen to Kenny Kal and Paul Woods. We can do this for peanuts compared to the Kings ransom the Wings are asking for tickets. I just find it a shame that our loyalties are just taken for granted. But as a Red Wing fan what can you do? Not show up? So? Wings still make their money. I will just go and watch my favorite hockey team and pray that I am rewarded with my team winning Lord Stanley's Cup.
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