Timberwolves Setting the Right Example

by Tom Ziller on Mar 3, 2009 1:50 PM PST in Commentary

Shocking, right?

Minnesota has been one of our peers in the Bad Team, Empty Gym Club. But Wolves owner Glen Taylor is trying to fix part of that.

You can buy a season ticket for as little as $5 a game — $215 for the season — next season. About 4,700 of those tickets will be available for the upper-deck corner sections.

Lower level tickets — corner “Player Section” areas — will be available for as little as $15 a game. Tickets behind the baskets that sold for $25 this season will be $20 under “Early Bird” pricing, which requires purchase by July 1.

The team is also introducing a no-interest nine-month payment plan. For two $5 season tickets, that’s $46 a month. For two $15 lower-level season tickets, that’s $71 a month.

Wholly commendable, and likely smart. By comparison, as of today I believe the cheapest Kings season ticket is something like $42.50 a pop. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

The Maloofs recently said they'd be looking at ways to get more fans in the building. Looking to Minnesota as an example would be a fantastic start.

Via BDL and TrueHoop.

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Comments

Supply and demand, my friend.

The Maloofs are just starting to get that through their heads.

by CloudyEyes on Mar 3, 2009 2:20 PM PST reply actions

Not to mention

Economies of scale.

BOOK IT!

by kingme18 on Mar 3, 2009 2:53 PM PST up reply actions

But they are businessmen!

I thought they’d bring some of that business sense to running the org, like W! Oh wait, they were born wealthy. Like W. I see now……….

by discocricket on Mar 3, 2009 4:35 PM PST up reply actions

I really hope that the Maloofs extend similar discounts throughout Arco. As a long-time season ticket holder, current ticket prices are definitely my biggest complaint (and have been). In the last 10 years, my ticket prices have gone up quicker than the S&P 500 and the local real estate market (200% during that period, easily).

by cabz on Mar 3, 2009 2:23 PM PST reply actions

This is an issue

that they have been VERY, VERY reluctant to entertain. I’ve heard them dismiss it before. I suspect that their attitudes will change next year.

by Kusian on Mar 3, 2009 2:25 PM PST reply actions

One of the dangers

Is losing existing season ticket holders who would rather jump on a cheaper plan for similar seats.

HELP ME TOM CRUISE!

by otis29 on Mar 3, 2009 2:27 PM PST up reply actions

Right

So it becomes a game of chicken with said season ticket holders, who (I imagine) will otherwise be atrophying in record numbers this spring …

… if they didn’t last year.

by Tom Ziller on Mar 3, 2009 2:31 PM PST up reply actions

I dumped mine

two seasons ago. Can’t say I regret it. In fact, the timing couldn’t have been better. If those prices come down again, I might just reconsider that choice.

by Kusian on Mar 3, 2009 2:47 PM PST up reply actions

Exactly.

Better that season tickets holders jump to a cheaper plan than walk away completely. I will drop my tickets with 100% certainty unless there is a decrease in ticket prices. The current prices are completely disconnected from the actual entertainment value.

If I drop my tickets, I will probably still go to a handful of games next year, but the Maloofs will end up with thousands less out of my pockets if they continue to play chicken with me.

by cabz on Mar 3, 2009 2:51 PM PST up reply actions

But

they need to realize that those season ticket holders who pay more now will gladly go back to paying more once the economy gets better and there is a good team on the floor

www.mancancook.net

by vfettke on Mar 3, 2009 2:54 PM PST up reply actions

Those prices are dirt cheap

but it is Minnesota, even with a down economy I don’t think a California team would dare go that low.

by jstnblke41 on Mar 3, 2009 2:42 PM PST reply actions

I suspect that if we looked at the % increase in ticket prices per year (rather than $ amount)...

the Kings would still be far ahead of Minnesota, and most teams, over the past 10 years.

by cabz on Mar 3, 2009 2:53 PM PST up reply actions

And it seems that there has been a strong negative correlation between ticket prices and fan enthusiasm at Arco.

by cabz on Mar 3, 2009 2:54 PM PST up reply actions

Touche on the % increase.

The variable to throw in with fan enthusiasm against ticket prices would be how successful the team is as well. If the team is good, the fans will pay.

by jstnblke41 on Mar 3, 2009 3:00 PM PST up reply actions

While corporate sponsors are nice,

The cost to take my family to a kings game is about the same as spending a weekend in Tahoe if you want even average seats.

Its about time the Kings developed fans outside of the wealthy few.

If they want to sell merchandise and promote the fan base, they need to make sure the seats are full every night.

It would go along way to give schools a set of block seats on occasion. They might just earn a fan for life.

by nothingbutnet on Mar 3, 2009 2:58 PM PST reply actions

When I first opened my Restaurant/Bar,

I provided free drinks and food for the first month of operation to ensure it was always full. The full bar created excitement and a year later I had lines to get in.

by nothingbutnet on Mar 3, 2009 3:02 PM PST up reply actions

The Maloof's are stuck in the ultimate catch 22

Sacramento is not a high money city. It has a strong middle class (when all is well), but it doesn’t have the uber wealthy hanging around. It’s just not that kind of place. Whether the Maloof’s realized it or not, they damn well better learn.

Another problem is they want to always be competitive, and keep butts in the seats, and they don’t want to have to compromise one or the other. However, you can’t keep charging the prices they were charging and expected fans to come back.

The last problem is they look at the Kings as a business. They expect to make money off that. Whatever way they can do that they will. This isn’t an opinion; this is their stated fact. They see the Kings as a business, and I’ve never heard of a business that operated to lose money.

If the Maloof’s are smart (I’m willing to bet they aren’t stupid), they bring their prices down to reasonable standards to fill the arena again, and do the rebuild slowly through the draft where the best long term asset’s for this team exist anyway. For all the squawking about signing Free Agent’s, one of the things that invariably happens (well until now I suppose) is that you sign players to more expensive contracts because that’s what the market would bear. Now, I don’t know if that will change, but to get a real impact Free Agent that will hold true. This team hasn’t got itself in trouble with trades, or even through the draft, but through the money decisions on Free Agents. In a way, it’s a good thing this team doesn’t have any real cap room to make any of those decisions since it’s likely going to take way too much money to get any real kind of impact player here in 09.

For whatever it’s worth, I think Glen Taylor is doing a wise thing.

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....

I am the stone that builder refused..I am the visual...The inspiration..That made lady sing the blues....I'm the spark that makes your idea bright.....The same spark that lights the dark....So that you can know your left from your right...I am the ballot in your box....The bullet in your gun...The inner glow that lets you know...To call your brother son....The story that just begun...The promise of what's to come...And I'm 'a remain a soldier till the war is won....

by pookeyguru on Mar 3, 2009 3:10 PM PST reply actions 1 recs

I never really understood their attitude about that....

Don’t you historically make money on a sports team by the appreciation in asset value, not by operating profits?

by discocricket on Mar 3, 2009 4:37 PM PST up reply actions

Yep pretty much

But, I think they were looking to make money in the meantime too.

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....

by pookeyguru on Mar 3, 2009 4:46 PM PST up reply actions

I recall the Maloofs saying they are in for the appreciation value

back when the team was winning and they were losing money (and over the cap). I think they forgot

by betweentheeyes on Mar 3, 2009 9:00 PM PST up reply actions

I like the idea

but maybe less steep. Or they could drop ticket prices now and then more before 2010.

by mayfieldcol on Mar 3, 2009 3:23 PM PST reply actions

Me likey the $100/mo type payment plan

a lot easier to sell to the wifey

So imitate the action of the tiger!
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage.
- lend the eye a terrible aspect,

Now set the teeth - and teach them how to war!
Henry V iii

by lietothegirls on Mar 3, 2009 4:28 PM PST reply actions

Lower level tickets — corner "Player Section" areas — will be available for as little as $15 a game.

The cheapest lower level tickets at the Kings games are $89.50 per seat.
http://www.arcoarena.com/default.asp?lnopt=2&pnopt=2

I’d consider that quite a problem.

by Carl on Mar 3, 2009 5:49 PM PST reply actions

I'd go if lower level tickets were $15

I think the TWolves might be able to have these ticket prices because they have a bigger arena? The Maloofs might think that since Arco is small, seats are more limited, so they need to jack up the prices on those seats. What they don’t really see is that over half of those seats are empty. I think a reasonable price for cheap lower level tickets would be about $20-$30…absolutely not $89.50.

by CloudyEyes on Mar 3, 2009 6:47 PM PST up reply actions

Also more people in the door means more concessions sales.

I hope they realize that filling up the stadium again with lower ticket prices would be much more beneficial than what their current model is.

by CloudyEyes on Mar 3, 2009 6:49 PM PST up reply actions

Don't forget parking isn't exactly cheap either...

if you have people coming to the cheap seats they still pay for parking.

There now I've met the 75 word count. -pookeyguru

by moproblemz on Mar 3, 2009 10:03 PM PST up reply actions

Also parking prices need to be lowered!

What is it? $10 for parking? Eesh!

by CloudyEyes on Mar 3, 2009 10:44 PM PST up reply actions

Wolves fan here. Glen Taylor isn't doing this out of the kindness of his heart, he's doing it because he must be hemorraghing money at this point

The Wolves are one of the poorest run organizations in all of sports and it’s hard to get behind them. Most would be forgotten if we were any good, but the entertainment value of watching the wolves is somewhere between watching paint dry and watching something in the microwave spin in circles.

And McHale is still in charge, only God knows why

This was a move that had to be made, because unless Lebron is in town to play the wolves, and someone hasn’t offerred to give you tickets for free, lower level tickets can be had from the scalpers outside the Target Center for $10.

by roundhouse on Mar 3, 2009 11:51 PM PST up reply actions